News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
White County Schools in talks with TCAT Upper Cumberland on a possible partnership that would bring TCAT services to White County.
Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said TCAT Upper Cumberland is looking to move into a vacant portion of the school system’s Career Academy building. Dronebarger said the conversations started when the school system originally tried to implement an expanded culinary arts program in the career academy. But bids came in $200,000 over budget.
“Their leadership found out about that space that they had some conversations and they were interested in expanding in this area,” Dronebarger said. “And so they came down and looked at that and they have some ideas about how we might be able to utilize that space and maybe go back to our original thought of doing a culinary project in that area.”
Dronebarger said in the conversations with TCAT Upper Cumberland there have also been some ideas for implementing a tourism industry program. Dronebarger said architectural drawings have been shared with TCAT Upper Cumberland but the partnership discussions are still in the early stages.
“Now they are talking money,” Dronebarger said. “They’ve talked with some legislators and some buckets of money and some pools of money that are out there accessible to them, so we are talking about how we can braid those funs together and see what we can make happen.”
Dronebarger said when the school system was looking to add a culinary program it was going to cost around $600,000. Dronebarger said he imagines what TCAT Upper Cumberland wants to do would be drastically more expensive as they are looking to add more programs.
“We also talked about some different computer industry classes that could be in there as well,” Dronebarger said. “So I’m not sure what the total ticket would be but they are excited. they didn’t seem to shy =away from the big numbers that we were talking about.”
Dronebarger said he is excited and hopes the partnership could work out as it would not only provide TCAT programs for students in the White County School System but also provide beneficial opportunities for adults in the community. Dronebarger said when White County Schools first created the career academy the goal was to eventually have night classes for adults so they could further their education.
