Classes in the trades, veterinary care, and business opportunities will be available in a new facility being built at North Scott High School.
The North Scott Regional Innovation Center is being designed for students throughout the region to provide hands-on experience to different career paths.
“This is really going to be a crown jewel, not only for Scott County, but eastern Iowa,” said Superintendent Joe Stutting.
The center will offer a hands-on, collaborative educational experience that will offer education for many career opportunities from trades to business, agriculture and even science.
“It’s really exciting that this new facility is going to allow us to create opportunities for those kids that are wired to work with their hands, to build things to make things,” said instructor James Simmons. “We’re going to give those kids the opportunity to be really successful in the things that they are wired to do.”
“This is the only place in the state of Iowa you will find it for high school students,” Stutting said.
The project was possible because of North Scott’s partnerships with nearly every eastern Iowa school district in the region.
“We’re excited about the fact that students who go to schools that don’t offer these particular programs can send their students here, knowing that once they go through the program they can then transition into an internship or a pre-apprenticeship,” Stutting said.
The new center will offer programs for jobs in high demand.
“This is exciting because the wages and the benefits that can be earned in the skills trade today are just absolutely mind-boggling,” Simmons said.
“This is something that is going to outlive us here in our community,” instructor Jacob Hunter said. “This is something that is going to help generations of students in Scott County access high-quality education.”
“When we offer more opportunities that we don’t currently have, the more students we will reach, and the better benefit we will have right here in the Quad Cities because of that,” Stutting said.
