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A workforce development center being renovated behind Jackson Central-Merry Early College High will have seven programs available for all Jackson-Madison County School System high schools, house the renowned Local Options and Opportunities Program (LOOP) and offer more than one path to students goals, according to career and technical education director and JCM-ECH principal Nathan Lewis.
Each umbrella area – health sciences, welding and advanced manufacturing – will have a classroom with a lab adjacent to it for students to immediately transition to hands-on activities to apply what they’ve learned in the classroom.
Under health science, there are four programs: Diagnostic Services, Nursing Services, Sport and Human Performance and Therapeutic Services. Advanced manufacturing includes mechatronics and machining, and welding is its own program.
A year ago, workers started the long-anticipated construction of the new Madison Academic High and renovated Jackson Central-Merry High with plans for an August 2021 opening, which is now less than four months away.
Registration has filled around 700 seats at the 6-12 grade JCM that’s been closed since May 2016 just as Madison Academic accepts hundreds of students from its randomized lottery. Last school year, Madison had more than 400 students, but the new school’s capacity is for 600 students.
The agreed-upon completion date, which hasn’t changed despite the pandemic, is July 31 – two days before school starts.
As Crocker Construction works overtime to get the projects done, Jackson-Madison County School System leadership prepares for the schools’ opening, and board members – who were a part of approving the public-private partnership to construct the schools – express their excitement and eagerness, even more so after the March 30 tour of the facilities.
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