Goose Creek CISD—Stuart Career Tech High School
Architect: Pfluger Architects, Inc.
Once a series of disparate buildings that included a career center, this 4-year comprehensive high school empowers students to take their future into their own hands by learning skills for career readiness or post-secondary education. The 6 career academies, Advanced Automotive, Agriculture Sciences, Information Technology, Digital Communications, Culinary Arts, and Manufacturing and Industrial Maintenance, accept applicants from across the district to learn skills needed by local industries.
Design
The design consolidated three separate buildings—an old elementary school, a career center, and the district’s transportation building—into an innovative career tech high school that trains students with employable skills. We were able to maximize a limited budget by sharing resources between programs and augmenting the existing buildings with materials and program-specific spaces. The complex was transformed over 4 phases and was occupied throughout.
Value
Three underused facilities were transformed over four phases to create a career tech high school with a local community college partner where students can earn college credits and industry certifications. Students receive real-world experience to prepare them for the job market or education at the collegiate level. All of the new construction on site was designed with structural bays so program spaces could be easily transformed by moving walls and bringing in new specialty equipment.
Innovation
Each academy provides real-world, hands-on experience to teach students more than a trade. With many external-facing programs, students also learn and practice soft skills like money management, interpersonal communication, collaboration, and leadership. The collaborative areas provide connectivity between program areas—like IT, communications, and AV combining skills to distribute internal materials and messages to all program areas.
Community
In 2012, the CTE Programmatic Visioning Committee designed CTE curricula to meet community and student needs through research, evaluation, and collaboration. After meeting with local industry partners and instructors to ensure classrooms reflect current industry practices, six programs of study emerged. Students can participate in events and activities like SkillsUSA, FFA, and FCCLA and have many opportunities to serve the local community.
Planning
In 2012, the district convened a panel of 70 subject-matter experts, including regional business, industry, and post-secondary education representatives, to build a 10-year plan for career training and certifications based on the Texas Workforce Commission’s list of high-growth gulf coast occupations. It began as the area career center and some neighboring buildings, but through four phases was transformed into a comprehensive four-year high school that prepares students for their future.
School Transformation
Previously, students were shipped here from every district high school to receive career training. Now, they apply to attend a stand-alone comprehensive high school with forward-focused curricula that challenge them to be more than they may have previously believed possible. They learn here to use their minds and their hands, and are taught by teachers who have the tools and the facilities they need to effectively teach their program and make a real difference in the lives of their students.
Star of Distinction Category Winner