News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Livingston Academy has officially opened its new $1.8 million LEAD Career Center.
LEAD stands for leadership, exploration, and discovery. Overton County Schools CTE Director Lesley Riddle said the 80-foot by 60-foot career center is a multifunctional facility that will house four CTE labs. Riddle said the career center will provide an exciting career exploration opportunity to students.
“During the school day, the teachers will be able to bring their students out and do their lab work in these labs,” Riddle said. “Hands-on activities with all of the equipment they have. For instance, the health science has a couple of hospital beds setup where they can almost have clinicals in high school and in a high school setting.”
Riddle said in the past CTE teachers had no place to store equipment and it caused classrooms to be crammed. Riddle said the new career center will address the lack of space the school’s CTE programs have battled over the past several years.
“It was such a struggle to get those things out during class make use of them and then put them away and get ready for the next class,” Riddle said. “So we really needed the space. I imagine in the main building now we will be having lectures and powerpoints and that type of presentations and then when it’s time for the hands-on they will come out.”
Riddle said the school system had to pay a portion out of pocket to complete the building as the Innovative School Models grant only covered about $1 million of the project. Riddle said Overton County Schools picked up the remaining balance and she believes the career center was well worth the investment.
“They were very gracious and worked with us to say you know what, we are going to use some local funds,” Riddle said. “And if we can get a $2 million building and only have to pay less than half of that then that’s what we need to do for our district.”
Riddle said the ultimate goal of the career center is for every student to be prepared for what they want to do next after high school. Riddle said sometimes a student has to figure out what they do not want to do before they find what they do want to do.
