Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

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

  • Wold Architects & Engineers Acquires VPS Architecture

    Full-service planning, architecture, and engineering firm Wold Architects & Engineers recently announced that it has acquired VPS Architecture, according to a news release. The move will help strengthen Wold’s education and public-sector design expertise, industries in which both companies have strong pre-existing ties and relationships.

  • Indiana Wesleyan University Schedules Grand Opening for New Welcome Center

    Indiana Wesleyan University recently announced that it will soon open a new Welcome Center on its campus in Marion, Ind., according to a news release. The facility will serve as the home base for prospective students and their families to learn more about the university and student life there. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for February 19.

  • University of Oklahoma Announces New Campus Master Plan

    The University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla., recently announced that it will soon launch a new, comprehensive Campus Master Plan to guide the campus’ physical development during the next decade, according to a news release.

  • Construction Begins on New University Research Vessel

    Boat-building company All American Marine recently announced that it has begun construction on a new catamaran research vessel for the University of Texas Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) in Port Aransas, Texas, according to a news release.