Appealing to students

This addition to Portage Lakes will help the vo-ed school meet the needs of those training for tomorrow’s careers

BY CINDY GRAHL

“Career centers are different from the public schools. They are almost like private schools,” says Jim Brown, the superintendent of schools of Portage Lakes Joint Vocational Schools. And like private schools, adds the man whose facility serves Green, Manchester, Coventry and Springfield school districts, they have to excel and give students what they want in order to attract them. “Our school exists because of our enrollment numbers,” he says.
This recent expansion of Portage Lakes Career Center was needed because of its successful programs, with enrollment reaching a record of 375 students in 2009-2010, and a projected increase next year to 476. Soon the career center will start offering programs in conjunction with Stark State Community College. Students achieve in the upper 10% of state test scores, Brown says, adding that new facilities and new programs drive this increasing enrollment.
For high school students, the new addition houses the Health Care Academy. For adults, it's the practical nursing and medical assistant programs. Some 80% of the students enrolled are in high school, with the remainder adults. The new 11,541-sf addition includes lab space needed for the diverse adult medical program, and adult students have their own separate entrance to the new facility.
A large central courtyard patio space is used by both adults and high school students. There is also a 1,500-sf, 10-bed adult pre-nursing lab that can be divided in half; a 1,200-sf, a three-bed high school medical assistant lab, and a 68-person lecture lab with curved tables and a video projector in the ceiling; for a total of three labs, one classroom, one tiered lecture room, an office and a lounge.
The project totals $2.4 million including furnishings, a number that is under budget. “Everyone thinks this new addition is very nice, but not too opulent. It's a cost-effective project. We didn't overspend,” Brown says. The building was paid for out-of-pocket. No bonds were issued.
The addition features a new wireless IT system complete with four laptop computer carts holding 20 laptops on each cart. Carts can be moved from room to room. Space, and therefore money, was saved–Brown estimates
over $170,000–by using this technology instead of necessitating a large computer room. “Two things we know for sure, that computers are going wireless and components are getting smaller,” he says.
Says URS’s Erin Foster, project manager for the CM, the set up is primed for wireless communications, but the technology doesn’t stop there. The training rooms are designed as actual hospital rooms with up-to-date technology.
“We needed to embrace cutting edge technology in the addition,” says Brown. “When we first designed the technology systems, there was no such thing as an i-Pad. Look how fast the technology is changing.”
Rodwell King of GPD, the architectural firm, adds preliminary discussions about building design began in June 2008 between GPD and the Portage Lakes Joint Vocational School District. The school wanted to allow for increased enrollment and provide better service. In late September 2009, ground was broken, with the new Health Technology addition completed in May 2010. “It was a fast-paced project, a challenging project,” says Ben Starcher, project manager for Knoch Corp., the general trades contractor. “But we met the timetable.”
King says one of the challenges in construction was tying into the existing 1977-built structure. Another was caused by the scheduling, which meant construction had to be done during the winter, while keeping students and construction workers separate. “The new addition gives the school district a more technologically advanced building,” King says.
The building was built off the end of the existing structure, with the curved theater making the addition “like an exclamation point
at the end of a sentence,” King says. The addition is brick and steel frame, with steel cladding, and
tile walls and carpeted floors.
According to URS’s Foster, this was a straightforward building to construct, with a seamless tie in between the old and the new building. “I am proud of that,” she says. “In a year, this will look like it has always been
there. It is what you strive for.”
The success of the building, she concludes, was due to the positive relationships among the core team. “We made very good progress, and had really good contractors,” she says. BXM

Owner: Portage Lakes Joint Vocational Schools
Architect: GPD
CM: URS
Cost: $2.4 million
Size: 11,500-sf
Vendors:
n TEK Systems Design, technology consultant
n The Knoch Corporation, general trades
n SM Electric, electrical
n Guenther Mechanical, mechanical/plumbing
n Southeast Security, IT
n Rice's Nursery & Landscaping, landscaping
n KI, My Office Products, Martin Public
Seating, furniture
n InterfaceFlor, carpeting