Future Ready Institutes see more opportunities after move

Two local Future Ready Institutes will soon have enough room to reach their full potential.

This fall, the industry-themed learning communities at Ooltewah High School and Central High School will move into the Harrison Bay campus currently home to Hamilton County High School, whose program is being reworked.

The larger facility will expand the amount of physical space available, creating more learning opportunities for both groups of students.

For those enrolled in Ooltewah High’s Future Ready Institute, which focuses on architecture and engineering design, the extra space will allow for less-restricted experimentation.

While OHS’ current accommodations are sufficient for computer-centric design activities, its classrooms are often limiting when instructors seek to undertake more ambitious projects, such as designing, building and flying drones.

“If you go in those rooms, they’re just packed with stuff,” said John Maynard, director of career and technical education for the school district. “They were busting out at the seams to try to offer an engineering and design class in a classroom.”

As a former vocational center, Hamilton County High School has many large, two-story rooms with bay doors, providing an ample amount of open space for any high-flying projects students may choose to pursue.

For Central High’s institute, which focuses on advanced manufacturing and mechatronics, the larger rooms will allow for the addition of a welding program. Since setting up shop requires enough studio space for booth stations, heavy equipment and metal storage, hosting the welding program at Central High would not have been possible.

“That’s what’ll be a great advantage to these students: getting to have a welding program now that we wouldn’t have,” Maynard said.

Students will also have some of the necessary equipment to start welding thanks to the Tennessee College of Applied Technology at Chattanooga State Community College, whose welding program has temporarily relocated to unused space at Hamilton County High while the college undergoes renovations. Once those renovations are complete, some of the materials from the program will be left behind for the high schoolers.

Instructors from the institute will also be partnering with TCAT to offer welding classes, Maynard added.

As for the soon-to-be-revamped Hamilton County High, which has existed to provide an alternative for students throughout the entire county who have been unable to fit into a traditional high school setting, education officials said being situated on the far east corner of the county has made the school “inaccessible” for those living outside the immediate area. They hope to spread the school’s support programs and seven staff members to multiple locations throughout the district, enabling them to help struggling students countywide.

Once housed on the new campus, students from both Future Ready Institutes will spend half of their day at the Harrison Bay location learning career and technical skills, and the other half in academic classes at their designated high school.