Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center takes summer off
Published 10:53 pm Sunday, March 15, 2009
MUKILTEO — Construction and financial uncertainty will close a popular summer program for high school students looking for technical training.
For the first time in 20 years, the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center will not offer summer school.
The south Everett campus, off Airport Road, typically attracts 500 summer students and in the past has enrolled as many as 700.
“It’s the right decision to make based on the circumstances,” said Steve Burch, executive director of the skills center. “It was a hard decision, but it really was a no-brainer because there will be no place here on campus.”
Construction on an $8.8 million project to expand and remodel Sno-Isle classrooms will be in full swing by summer. The Mukilteo School Board approved the contract with JTM Construction on Monday.
The Seattle-based contractor was one of eight companies to submit a bid, which came in about $4 million below the budget estimate. Burch said the sputtering economy probably contributed to such low and competitive bids.
Money for the project comes from the state, not from Mukilteo’s capital projects budget.
Sno-Isle, which is run by the Mukilteo School District, offers a spectrum of courses to students from more than a dozen school districts. It’s one of 10 centers around the state with job training programs that would be too expensive to offer at every high school.
The construction work is not the only reason Sno-Isle pulled the plug on a summer school program this year.
State lawmakers face an $8.5 billion shortfall over the next biennium, and money traditionally earmarked for summer school at skills centers could face cuts.
Other forms of summer school in the Mukilteo School District are not expected to be affected this year because the money has already been budgeted, said Andy Muntz, a school district spokesman.
That means Sno-Isle will not mail the 32,000 summer school brochures to potential students as it has in the past. Last summer, the Sno-Isle campus offered several classes, including floral design, sports medicine and Web design.
Burch said he hopes summer classes can resume in 2010, but much will depend on the construction schedule and state funding.
Construction will significantly change the face of the campus, with 23,000 square feet of new construction and 26,000 feet of remodelled classroom space.
Seven new programs are being added, including classes for aircraft service technician training, auto body collision repair, low-voltage electrical work, DigiPen game programming and courses that will explore solar and environmental energy. A cosmetology program will be moved the campus from another site.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.
