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Grant funding will help pay for CDL program for Minot High, area students

The Minot Public School District will use $6.7 million in grant funding from the North Dakota State Board for Career and Technical Education on remodeling the former Voya building on the campus of former Cognizant building that will be turned into a 9-12 high school.

Superintendent Mark Vollmer said the proposal is to turn it into a program to train students interested in receiving a commercial driver’s license. There is high interest among students in a CDL program and a simulator and other classroom space would also be available for community education programs outside school hours. Vollmer said the grant funding will enhance programming that will be available for community programs as well as for students at area schools. The project will be called the Minot Area Workforce Academy.

Voters approved a bond issue that will pay to remodel the Cognizant building into a 9-12 high school, to remodel Magic City Campus into a 9-12 high school, and to remodel Central Campus into a third in-town middle school. Planning is currently underway and some of the renovation projects are slated to begin this summer.

“We’ll hit the ground running,” said Vollmer.

The projects are scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2024.

Watford City received $6.7 million for the Bakken Skills Center and Dickinson received $6.7 million for the Southwest Area Career and Technical Education Academy.

“This is a great opportunity to continue to expand access to quality Career and Technical Education across the state of North Dakota,” said Wayde Sick, state director of the North Dakota Department of Career and Technical Education, in information provided to The Minot Daily News. “The grant required a dollar-for-dollar local match, demonstrating local support.”

The Career and Technical Education Capital Projects Fund is a grant opportunity, provided by the 67th Legislative Assembly, to increase access to Career and Technical Education by building new or expanding existing Career and Technical Education Centers. The source of the funds is a combination of $20 million of America Recovery Plan Act (ARPA) funds and $68,276,228 of the Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund.

The Board initially approved projects utilizing the ARPA funds and is now in the process of reviewing applications to allocate the $68,276,228 of Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund dollars. The three projects currently awarded funding were not 100% funded and are eligible for full funding through continued review.

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