Pickaway-Ross CTC Breaks Ground for $7.6-million Expansion

Article presented by Pickaway-Ross CTC Adult Education …

When Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted visited the campus of Pickaway-Ross Career & Technology Center in the spring of 2023, he addressed the need for workers to fill the job demands. He noted the importance of providing a younger workforce with training for those jobs. At the time, Husted was pushing for state funding to help technology centers to prepare their students.

Monday, Husted returned to PRCTC for the groundbreaking of the first expansion of the school since its opening in 1974. It’s a $7.6-million expansion, announced last December. Superintendent Jonathan Davis says the 16,000 square foot expansion is a welcome addition to the school.

“It’s a BIG day. In my eight years as superintendent, I’ve had some really good days, but this is right up there.”” Davis told Litter Media. “Two new high-bay labs, renovation of interior spaces to grow two other labs for veterinarian assisting as well as robotics manufacturing.” The high-bay labs will be for commercial carpentry and construction technology.  

“We have more jobs than we have workers” Husted told the PRCTC faculty following their classes. “Check the JobsOhio website today and you’ll find 180,000 job openings across the state.”  

The enrollment tide has certainly shifted in recent years for PRCTC. They’ve gone from graduating about 200 students each year to a class of 350 receiving their career passports next week. Meanwhile, Davis says there are about 400 spots for incoming students next fall, with a waiting list of about 700.

Davis says when the expansion is completed in Fall of 2025, PRCTC will welcome 100 additional students. “It also allows us to work with our partner schools” said Davis. “The Lieutenant Governor and I were chatting as he was departing about how we could serve even more (students) with our partners. So, there’s a lot of work to be done, but this will be substantial for us.”  

“Many of these students are being hired before they leave high school” said Husted. “We talked to the career centers around the state of Ohio, five years ago, they had space, now they don’t. Literally the world has changed. Employers are pulling their hair out trying to find people with technical job skills. Career centers have been great at delivering them and you’re seeing enrollment increase. What I hope to see in the future is to get more of our traditional high schools to start offering some career tech there. I think that will help satisfy this supply and demand problem we have where we have more demand than we have slots to put these students.”

Pickaway-Ross CTC currently boasts 226 students on full-time job placement with area employers.

The PRCTC career passport ceremony will take place Thursday, May 16^th at 7pm at VA Memorial Stadium.