Note: Schweitzers are Pullman residents. Corporate headquarters and main campus of SEL/Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories is Pullman.
The Schweitzer center begins
LCSC’s
regional facility projected to benefit local industry and allow more people to
stay in the valley
By Justyna
Tomtas, Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune, April 12, 2019
Photo cutlines:
--Former
LCSC President Tony Fernandez leads the ceremonial on-site dig at the
groundbreaking for the school’s new technical education center.
--Among
many gathered at the groundbreaking for the Schweitzer Career and Technical
Education Center in the Lewiston Orchards Friday were (from left) former
Lewis-Clark State College President Tony Fernandez, Beatriz and Edmund O.
Schweitzer III, LCSC President Cynthia Pemberton and Idaho Gov. Brad Little.
-- Idaho
Gov. Brad Little toured the new Lewiston High School building site with Jake
Hinson, project engineer for Beniton Construction Co.
Story
text:
A
project more than 100 years in the making reached a significant milestone
Friday as supporters and officials of Lewis-Clark State College broke ground on
the college’s new Schweitzer Career and Technical Education Center in the
Lewiston Orchards.
In a
brief ceremony, LCSC President Cynthia Pemberton said the roots of career and
technical education in Lewiston can be traced back to April 1901, when a women’s
services organization discussed “manual training” in public schools.
From
that time on, career and technical education remained a focal point in the
Lewiston-Clarkston Valley, culminating in a partnership that will provide more
educational access and opportunities for students in the region.
“This
is an important education project,” Pemberton said. “It’s a project that will
not only serve, facilitate and support career technical education, pathways and
opportunities, but it will also serve to meet broader educational industry
needs in the region to the benefit of our students and the community.”
The
75,000-square-foot facility will be situated north of the the Lewiston School
District’s new high school and the district’s A. Neil DeAtley Career Technical
Education Center.
Once
the three facilities open in fall of 2020, the new campus will provide students
with a central location to pursue career technical jobs in what Pemberton said
is an effort that “paves the way for even better tomorrows.”
Edmund
O. Schweitzer III, and his wife, Beatriz, received praise for their
contributions that helped streamline the project. The Schweitzers donated $1
million, while their company, Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, gave $2
million toward the project.
Since
that time, LCSC raised an additional $5.2 million in grants and support for the
$24.5 million project, which also will get $10 million from the Idaho
Legislature.
“We are
very happy to be a little part of this very important project,” Beatriz
Schweitzer said. “We very much believe in education and opportunity. I think
this project is precisely that.”
The
facility will produce more skilled workers to benefit SEL — and other
industries in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and the local economy as a whole —
while providing people with an opportunity to work where they want to live, the
Schweitzers said.
“Family
is so important to us, and as parents what is more important than seeing our
kids grow up and live happy and productive lives?” she said. “It allows people
to stay local so we can enjoy our children and hopefully some grandchildren,
building a stronger and happier community.”
Giving
students a place to hone their skills in their hometown, or within their
region, will have significant benefits for them and their families, Edmund
Schweitzer said.
“With
internships, summer employment, studying while living at home, I bet more folks
can graduate from LCSC without any student debt,” he said, a remark that was
met with applause. “This project brings education closer to home and
accessibility to many more families and students.”
Idaho
Gov. Brad Little said the project and partnership is “the crown jewel in the
state of Idaho.”
“This
facility was, A, a logical move and, B, it was a bold move,” Little said.
Little
called the marriage between LCSC and the Lewiston School District to provide
seamless educational opportunities a “big, hairy, audacious goal,” that “was
the right thing” to do.
It’ll
help the state of Idaho fill the estimated 105,000 new jobs expected to open by
2026 that will require a higher skill level than ever before, Little said.
It’ll
also help continue the history of production and manufacturing businesses in
the valley, he said.
Former
LCSC President Tony Fernandez, who served as master of ceremonies, and Lewiston
School District Superintendent Bob Donaldson were credited for their vision to
bring the project to fruition.
As the
walls of the new Lewiston High School loomed within eyesight of the
groundbreaking ceremony, those who contributed to LCSC’s new center donned hard
hats and wielded gold shovels for the ceremonial overturning of dirt, marking
the start of the college’s construction project.
Donaldson
said the projects were always seen as a “package deal,” something both he and
Fernandez considered important.
“Our
kids can go to school in this high school, be in our career technical programs
and come over and take classes at LC to end up with an associate’s or even a
baccalaureate degree and never leave this campus,” Donaldson said.
The
center will house many of LCSC’s technical and industrial division programs
like information technology, industrial electronics and auto mechanics.
The new
space will shorten waitlists for programs at LCSC and eliminate some of the
constraints imposed by the programs’ current location on the main LC campus,
Sen. Dan Johnson said, to provide a highly skilled trained labor source.
Other
speakers at the ceremony included Idaho State Board of Education member Linda
Clark, and Kyle Neal, who represented Rogers Motors, a company that donated
$150,000 for the naming rights of the auto shop at the new center.
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