Horn Lake vo-tech to open in August
New school to be partially finished
A career technology center being built by DeSoto County Schools in Horn Lake will open for the school year in August, though it will be only partially finished.
The shop and administration areas should be finished by the time classes begin on Aug. 5, and five classrooms will be ready.
“That should be enough, based on expected enrollment, to start with,” Mike Moore of C&M Builders Inc. of Southaven told school board members Wednesday.
He said other classrooms and the kitchen/ culinary area might not be finished until the second week of August.
The $12 million vo-tech facility is being built on 70 acres purchased by the school system at U.S. 51 and Nail Road. It replaces a vo-tech center at Southaven High School serving students on the western side of the county.
The district opened a similar but smaller votech operation in existing industrial space in Olive Branch a couple of years ago for students in eastern DeSoto County who want to pursue a technical career path as opposed to college.
DeSoto Schools Supt. Milton Kuykendall said the emphasis on vo-tech is a reflection of the fact that 80 percent of jobs don’t require a college degree.
School system officials had hoped to have the Horn Lake center fully operational by the start of classes, but they’ll likely fall just short of the goal in some parts of the facility because of winter weather delays.
Kuykendall said workers missed about 40 days because of weather in February and March.
“That’s just something we have to deal with,” he said. “Obviously, I’d like to have it all done, but we’ve built 17 schools since I’ve been superintendent, and I’ve gotten used to construction a little bit.”
Moore said the shop area is essentially complete now except that the air conditioning isn’t working yet.
“We’ll turn the AC on in a couple of weeks, and it’ll take about a week to charge up,” Moore said. “Some equipment was moved into the shop area beginning this week.
“We anticipate everything being done in the shop area by July 15, and the administration area is right in line with that.”
The career center offers programs in areas such as automotive, metal and welding, carpentry and culinary skills. It partners with Northwest Mississippi Community College to continue instruction there.
The western tech center in Horn Lake will have more than double the enrollment of the Olive Branch center, Kuykendall said. Olive Branch started with fewer than 100 students and is expected to have about 200 next year. The western center is expected to have an enrollment of more than 400.