Good Partners

  • By Deborah P. Moore
  • 03/01/15

Build it and they will come. That is the story of the recently opened Western Maricopa Education Center (West-MEC) Northeast Campus. The Northeast Campus is built on an 11-acre site adjacent to the Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix. The design-build project by DLR Group/Architechnology and McCarthy Building Companies included the transformation of existing office, warehouse, hangar and vehicle maintenance shop spaces into a first-class educational environment. Touring the campus and meeting with staff members and their superintendent, Greg Donovan, gave me a renewed appreciation for the value of partnerships — and the value that a career and technical education can provide.

More than 21,000 students from 46 high schools across almost 3,685 square miles are currently enrolled in West-MEC Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses. In addition to satellite programs for students at their high school campus, West-MEC currently operates a Central Campus, a Freightliner Campus, Start@West-MEC and the Northeast Campus, and has educational partner campuses at Cortez High School, Glendale Community College and Glendale Community College North, Southwest Skill Center/Estrella Mountain Community College and Maricopa Skill Center/Cutting Edge Style Academy and Northwest Campus.

Other partnerships and alliances include Arizona DES Rehabilitation services, Southwest Skills Center, Sonoran UCEDD and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Association. In addition to equipment and support, Snap-On Corporation has named West-MEC as a certification center for the state and the train-the-trainer conduit for a four-state area. Trane Corporation teamed to establish an HVACR training program and the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station has partnered to establish an Energy Technician training center.

This is a school that offers students a college and career pathway. The proof is in the numbers. The retention rate at the school is between 96-100 percent. The graduation rate for CTE students is 99 percent, compared to a 76 percent graduation rate for all other students in Arizona. On the state standardized math test, 92 percent of CTE students passed as compared to a passing rate of 70 percent for all other students.

In a time when we must focus our energies on partnerships, workforce development, a bridge between high school and college, jobs and student success — West-MEC has done it right. It is a program and campus worth seeing!

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Greenheck Debuts New Energy Recovery Ventilator

    Greenheck recently released a new energy recovery ventilator, the ERVi, designed for small indoor spaces like basements and mechanical rooms, according to a news release. The hardware can fit through a 30-inch door and be mounted on the ceiling for retrofit and decarbonization projects.

  • Nureva Pro audio solution

    Nureva HDL Pro Audio Systems Earn HETMA Approved Status

    The Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance (HETMA) has added two solutions from audio conferencing provider Nureva to its HETMA Approved Products list.

  • Zurn Elkay Announces Updated Line of Filtered Bottle Filling Stations

    Zurn Elkay Water Solutions recently released an updated line of its Elkay Filtered Bottle Filling Stations, according to a news release. The new line features a sleeker design and functional upgrades to help simplify filter maintenance and reduce long-term labor costs.

  • Florida District Selects Designer for K–8 Prototype Campus

    St. Lucie Public Schools in St. Lucie, Fla., recently announced that it has selected Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc., to design its new Western Grove K–8 prototype campus, according to a news release. Construction on the 217,500-square-foot facility will begin in February 2025 and is scheduled for completion in August 2026.