Welding equipment sits in Central Nine’s new facility.
Jayden Kennett | Daily Journal
A multi-million dollar project to expand Central Nine Career Center is complete three years after breaking ground.
Central Nine Career Center has grown “exponentially” since it began in 1972. Following a facilities study in 2020, the center’s board of trustees decided to expand the welding program to accommodate student demand and add a common area for students.
The new welding facility doubled the program’s capacity by adding 40 welding booths, a second classroom and a second instructor. Because of the size of the old facility, Central Nine had to turn away more students who want to learn welding than they accept, said William Kovach, executive director.
Other programs around the state are already interested in what Central Nine has done with its welding program to model their own programs after it, Kovach said.
“It’s always been a strong welding program, but now that we’ve really enlarged the facility, all the equipment inside is updated as well, it becomes a model facility ..,” Kovach said. “We’ve got a great example that I would say is easily one of the best in the state.”
The center’s board of trustees picked Indianapolis-based firm Lancer + Beebe as its architect in Feb. 2021 for a $4.6 million project to double its welding space and add a multipurpose room. After the board approved the project architect, school boards for each of the nine high schools that send students to Central Nine voted to approve the plan.
“I feel relieved, excited, just really happy that we’re finally here,” Kovach said.
Greg Waltz, board president, played a “huge role” in the project’s success, Kovach said. Waltz helped them stay on budget and on track, he said. Waltz attended meeting after meeting to make sure the building was what they wanted it to be.
The new building is a “big boost” for the welding building and time will tell how successful it may be, he said.
“I really like it, there’s ample room, there’s going to be a lot of students who are going to have a lot of advantages,” Waltz said.
In the new welding area, there are two classrooms and 40 welding booths for students, including several handicapped-accessible booths. The new building also features higher ceilings and more floor space.
There aren’t many facilities like Central Nine’s new welding building, said Garret Hodson, Central Nine’s new welding instructor. The facility is complete with air conditioning and ventilation to accommodate all 4o booths, he said.
The project also included a new multi-functional room, known as The Commons. The room is a collaboration area for programs and allows space for students to gather to hear guest speakers. Central Nine plans to use the space for its annual Career and College Fairs and its award ceremony at the end of the year. Eventually, officials would like to open up The Commons for people in the community to utilize as well. For now, they are working on the facility’s usage and the best way to implement that, Kovach said.
Mary Benkert, a Central Nine ambassador and student, attended the event to celebrate the opening of the building.
“They’ve been working on this for years, ever since I started coming here. It’s a really big thing,” Benkert said.
Benkert got to see the building before it officially opened, she said. Benkert likes the new amount of open space in the building and thinks it will be beneficial for the school.
“We needed a new welding building considering how popular the program is,” Benkert said. “If you’re really just looking for a good place for programs or career exploration, I think Central Nine is really the place to do it. They’ve given me a lot of opportunity … I wouldn’t be where I am right now without C9.”
Richard Foster was the teacher who started the welding program in 1972. Foster attended the open house and was amazed by the growth of the welding program. After seeing the facility, he was “blown away,” Foster said.
There are a lot of jobs in welding beyond just being a welder, Foster said. He has watched former students start businesses with their welding experience, become engineers, teach robots how to weld and much more, he said.
Robert Briones, a digital design teacher, has been sneaking into the common area to watch the progress, he joked. Watching the building being constructed from the ground up has been fun, he said. He is already imagining the endless ways he can utilize the new space for his students, he said.
“My mind has been spinning every time I walk in there and my mind goes crazy about what kind of graphics can we put where, whether it’s on the floors or the walls and kind of personalize it,” Briones said.
