Aiken Technical College and Aiken County Public School District are expanding their partnership.
On Friday, June 2, the two schools signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the Aiken County Career and Technology Center to relocate to the Aiken Tech campus, which is across the street from the current campus. Dr. Forest Mahan, president of Aiken Tech, told attendees the partnership will benefit students and families of Aiken County for decades.
“We are delighted the college and school district have agreed to a memorandum of understanding in this signing ceremony,” Mahan said. “This will formalize the expansion of our long-standing partnership.”
ACPSD Superintendent King Laurence spoke to attendees about how the signing is the culmination of an investment in the future of Aiken County and couldn’t have been possible without the support of the community.
“I think that’s what we do with Aiken County, we simply get things done,” Laurence said. “We pull ourselves together and work very hard to make that happen. The funds have been made possible through the good work of our legislators in the general assembly and also the trust that was placed in us by the citizens in Aiken County through the approval of the penny sales tax.”
Sen. Tom Young said when the legislators first found out they were getting money from the plutonium settlement, people in Aiken immediately started reaching out about getting some of the funds to help with different needs.
“I will tell you our legislative delegation…the eight of us worked hand in hand tirelessly for the 20 months between the end of August 2020 to mid-June of last year when we finally learned that we would be able to get the $30 million for the Aiken County Public School District to build a new facility here on this campus at Aiken Technical College and replace the building across the street, or the complex across the street, along with the other almost (other) $140 million we’ve been able to get for our county in this transformative investments,” Young said. “We’re just very proud of that and very excited that we’re here today as we continue the vision to move forward for this facility and what it will mean.”
Young went on to add that now is the time to invest in Aiken County, and by having the career and technology center on Aiken Tech’s campus, it’s a win for both entities and will benefit the students and the community for years to come.
Aiken Tech is unique because its service area is just Aiken County and that underscores the importance of the relationship with not only the school district, but the county, Mahan said.
“Not only do you have the one technical college that has the one county service area, but you have one school district,” Mahan said. “So, that partnership between the school district and the technical college is just a synergy that is unique to this region. So as equally important…is that we have a very strong county partnership.”
Aiken County Council chairman Gary Bunker spoke about the county partnership, stating the idea moving the career and technology center to Aiken Tech is long overdue. He added the timing is perfect because Aiken Tech just celebrated its 50th anniversary and the old career and technology center is close to 60 years old.
“As both ATC and the school district seek to revitalize themselves to create a workforce pipeline for the future, the relocation of the CTC to this campus is a wise move,” Bunker said.
Joe Lewis, chairman of the Aiken County Commission for Technical and Comprehensive Education, said they are witnessing the start of the transformation for the next 50 years of the Aiken Tech campus.
“As chairman of the Aiken County Commission for Technical and Comprehensive Education and on behalf of my fellow commissioner, we are honored today to be part of the historic partnership with the school district,” Lewis said. “Academic excellence and community service are shared goals of Aiken Tech and Aiken County Public School District. We look forward to seeing the physical reminder of this goal manifested when the career and technology center is built on our campus.”
Aiken County Board of Education Chairman Cameron Nuessle reiterated what the others said about the partnership bringing great success to the students of Aiken County.
“I am excited to begin the process of expanding our capacity to do that and our offerings to do that with state of the art facilities and equipment for many of the trades that are in demand for our county and in demand for our students,” Nuessle said.
The new center will be between 90,000 and 100,000 square feet, which is more than double the old one, Laurence said.
“It’s going to allow more students,” Laurence said. “That’s something that we’re constantly trying to do, find more opportunities for our students and this is going to create that opportunity for more career preparation, more certificate opportunities.”
The schedule for the project is for the groundbreaking to take place in January 2024 and the grand opening in July 2025, Mahan said.
Stephanie Hill is a staff writer covering Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com.
