Todd County Fiscal Court heard an update from the school system on the tech center Friday morning and moved forward with a natural gas pipeline partnership.
Todd County School System Superintendent Mark Thomas says the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center on the campus of the high school had approximately 100 students learning in various disciplines last year and he expects more in the coming school year.
A focus is on the enhanced operator certification program that gives students up to 14 hours of college credit and prepares them for jobs at places such as Novelis, which continues to work with the district and Hopkinsville Community College.
Chris Skipworth is a technical education teacher and says they’re teaching computer automated drafting programs that are used by Novelis and other area industries.
A daycare was also created in the building during the last school year, as some teachers and staff were ready to quit for lack of childcare options. Thomas says students interested in a pathway toward early childhood education can work with those children to gain experience and to meet requirements toward becoming certified.
He also noted the high school’s JROTC program that was reborn and had 10 students during the last school year.
Meanwhile, magistrates approved a resolution authorizing Jude-Executive Todd Mansfield to execute any documents deemed necessary by the Department of Local Government to go forward with receiving and utilizing a $30 million grant that will be received over the next two years to construct a natural gas pipeline.
The judge says it will begin in Trigg County north of Cadiz and make its way along I-24 to Oak Grove before making a turn to the east toward Guthrie, with communities along the Pennyrile Regional Energy Agency pipeline to have access.
The natural gas agency began as an inter-local agreement between the cities of Trenton and Guthrie.
Sheriff Tracy White says his office continues to accept applications for two open school resource officer positions and they hope to conduct interviews later this month and have an officer in each school by the beginning of the school year.
Hear the entire presentation from the school system below: