$74M construction at Carroll County Career and Technology Center nears completion

More than four years of construction work at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center is nearing completion. The project, expected to be done before the start of the school year next week, has cost about $74 million.

About $34 million of the project’s cost was paid for by Carroll County, while the state contributed nearly $40 million, according to the system’s capital budget for fiscal 2024. The project was not included in the capital budget for fiscal 2025.

The project adds 108,205 square feet of space to the facility, which opened in 1971. The center was designed for 380 students in 19 programs and currently educates about 800 students in 24 programs per semester.

Instruction at the center was maintained throughout construction, according to a report presented to the county school board earlier this month.

Board of Education member Donna Sivigny said a four-year phased project is especially challenging.

“Career and tech being a four-year project, phase-occupied, has been one of the hardest projects we have ever done as a group,” the system’s construction supervisor Jim Marks said, “and we’ve done a great job.”

Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said in February that the renovation will improve the quality of existing programs but will do little to raise the school’s capacity.

“With this renovation, this big addition that we’ve undergone, we haven’t been able to really take any more students into the program,” McCabe said in February. “What we’ve done is we’ve been able to bring our programs up to specifications.”

Finishing construction at the career and technology center is worthy of celebration, Sivigny said.

“We’re really coming down to the historic moment in terms of the career and tech,” Sivigny said, “where it’s going to be finished after four long years.”