The academy is located in a former Cognizant building that came with property provided to Minot Public Schools for its new high school, which remains under construction. 

Pam Stroklund, Career and Technical Education director, said the school district is restructuring to create a Center for Career and Technical Education, opening avenues for potential additional funding opportunities. Minot Area Workforce Academy will be the hub for the center, which will encompass all the CTE offerings of Minot Public Schools.

It includes the educational agreements MPS has with Sawyer Public School and the Minot Air Force Base school district for their high school students enrolled in Minot’s CTE programs. Students from MPS’ Souris River Campus and from parochial schools will be able to participate. As a center, a fee structure would be set up to replace the existing tuition system for students from area schools.

Stroklund said conversations are in an early stage with Minot State University and Dakota College at Bottineau about getting students into introductory courses at a new CTE program to be established in downtown Minot. That program is launching with dental hygienist and assistant training.

A 5,000-square-foot addition to a former Cognizant building on the Minot North High School campus created space for a skills training center, available for school and community use. An overhead door allows for bringing in large vehicles for training use.

But the first goal is to get MPS’s center up and running with the high school programs.

“From there, we can roll with what’s next,” Stroklund said. 

Grant funding of $10.3 million through the state is supporting the school’s CTE enhancements. A grant obtained by the Minot Area Chamber EDC for CTE has helped with equipment expenses.

Minot Area Workforce Academy includes space for a Head Start classroom. 

The early childhood education classes at MPS will be working with Head Start. Students will be able to observe activities through observation windows or work directly with the children, do lesson planning and practice teaching, Stroklund said. Head Start is open Mondays through Thursdays, leaving Fridays open for students to operate a nursery school. 

Two simulator units will be used in bus driver training in the new Minot Area Workforce Academy. One simulator also includes levers for teaching snowplow operation.

Grant funding was obtained for a playground outside the classroom. The playground includes a train feature, built by special needs students at Magic City Campus.

Minot’s Head Start program has been seeking children to fill the 16 new enrollment slots available at the academy.

Minot Area Workforce Academy will be the location from which the school district offers its commercial driver’s license (CDL) training program for high school students.

“We do have a semi-tractor and trailer that we’ve purchased for that,” Stroklund said. Simulation for backing up will be provided with a golf cart and smaller trailer. The one thing the program lacks is a range for running the semi-tractor and trailer.

“We are on the lookout to see if there’s any land around that we could possibly use for that range,” Stroklund said.

Class size will be limited to eight students each semester.

“We will take them from theory to the simulation to their permit, and from the permit to the range and on the road and then to the license. We’re hoping to get them through that in a semester,” Stroklund said. 

Once the program is operating smoothly at the high school level, it will be expanded to adults in the community, she said.

“We’re looking at going through our Community Education Program through Minot Public Schools and working with Adult Learning to get that up and running,” she said. The academy is equipped to also offer bus driver training in the community.

The new CDL instructor, Leverrett “Oley” Larsen, a previous auto instructor at the school, has CDL experience and also recently attended training in California. The academy program will be working with federal and state agencies to stay in compliance with licensing rules, Stroklund said.

MPS received a grant for a part-time, work-based learning coordinator to be headquartered at the academy. Current MPS instructor Lisa Wolf will take on that position in addition to continuing to teach part-time at Magic City Campus. As coordinator, Wolf will be working with job shadowing, internships and career and job fairs.

Along with offering space for new student training programs, Minot Area Workforce Academy includes a 5,000-square-foot expansion to the 7,500-foot existing structure that accommodates a skills training area. The skills training area is available both to MPS and to the community for event use and won’t be used for regular classroom space, Stroklund said.

For instance, an implement business can bring in equipment for an employee training or the space could be used as a classroom for bus driver training. A portion of the space could be used as indoor recreation space for the Head Start children on inclement weather days.

Stroklund said the skills training area also could be available for other types of functions, such as activities of student organizations or community groups. The area includes an adjacent kitchen.

As a condition of grant funding, MPS is required to offer public internet and to make space available for public health services, such as blood drives or vaccination clinics, Stroklund said. Other options for the skills training area include microchipping clinics with vet tech classes.

“So a lot of opportunity. We made it as flexible as possible and we just want the community to embrace it,” Stroklund said.

Minot Area Workforce Academy will complement the existing career and technical programs that will be continuing at Magic City Campus. A number of those programs will be replicated at the Minot North Campus. Stroklund said certain programs could be offered on an introductory basis at both campuses, with more in-depth classes provided at Magic City. The auto-related programs will remain strictly with Magic City Campus.

Stroklund said the district has future needs to increase the welding area at Magic City and to expand the popular medical career training programs. There also is interest in possible new programs in the future, such as heavy equipment training and entrepreneurship, and partnering with trades organizations for trainings, she said.

The decisions for any future programs will be guided by a committee set up to assist in decision-making for the CTE program. In addition, Minot Public’s CTE program has 13 advisory boards for each course study and will be adding another for CDL.

For now, Stroklund said the district is pleased to be able to offer the expansion of its career and technical education this fall and to have a new facility providing more space.

“There’s unlimited possibilities,” Stroklund said. “We’re just excited that we have a facility that we can share with the community and outlying areas.”

“It’s a beautiful facility,” MPS Superintendent Mark Vollmer added. “We  can continue to grow this into community outreach and support, right down to parents taking training in the evening, and maybe even – where I want to be -  get to the point where we can offer childcare for them as well. Our goal would be to help reduce the roadblocks that prevent people from being able to get additional training or anything they might need to seek better employment or to be able to stay in the community.”