The Lee County School Board approved the next steps for the Cape Coral Technical College expansion last week and got an update on other projects, including the recommended site of choice for the Fort Myers Technical College East Annex.

“I am really excited to be here to talk about the progress toward the expansion of the college,” CCTC Director Charlie Pease said. “We have grown to 200,000 residents in the city of Cape Coral. We are the only college in the City of Cape Coral. There are no small vocation schools, private, or public. It is really important that we continue to expand and offer additional workforce opportunities in the area of blue collar programs.”

An update was provided to the school board regarding the expansion of CCTC, Fort Myers Technical College, relocating the Public Service Academy, as well as FMTC East Annex.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the school board approved the ranking for the construction management services for the expansion of CCTC. The ranking includes O-A-K/Florida, Inc. d/b/a Owen-Ames-Kimball Company, Kaufman Lynn Construction, Inc, Chris-Tel Company of Southwest Florida, Inc., d/b/a Chris-Tel Construction, Gulfpoint Construction Company, Inc.; Suffolk Construction Company, Inc. and Charles Perry Partners, Inc.

The board also approved the ranking of the building official services to GFA International, Inc. d/b/a Universal Engineering Services and NV5, Inc. for the expansion of CCTC.

The ranking of architectural services for the expansion include ADG Architecture, LLC; RG Architects, P.A. and ACAI Associates, Inc.

With the approval, the district can now enter into the negotiation process for construction management services, building official and architectural services.

A vision for the future of CCTC began about 10 months ago. That vision includes having an auto and marine service program and additional skilled-trades, increased health science and other program capacity, Pease said.

The goal is to have architectural services provide a master campus plan/design completed by December 2022. The auto and marine services building is anticipated to break ground in the spring of 2023 with the goal to complete the project by spring 2024.

The expansion is broken down into three phases. Phase one is the campus master plan for $1.5 million to be completed in fiscal year 2022. The second phase, with has a price tag of $4.8 million, is for the auto and marine building that will take place during fiscal year 2023. The final phase, which will take place in fiscal year 2026, has a price tag of $8.3 million for an additional building, which will allow for six to eight new programs.

Pease said they are currently working on a grant, Florida Job Growth, to offset some of the cost for infrastructure, personnel and furniture and equipment. They also are anticipating partnerships to offset other costs.

Discussion was also had about the new recommended location for FMTC East Annex on a parcel on State Road 82.

“The board approved in September 2021 to include $40 million for this project. In March 2022, we are excited to announce the 82 parcel is recommended for the location of the Annex. The location will better service students in the East Zone,” FMTC Director John Roszell said.

The recommended site will include 210,526 square feet for a total cost of $80 million.

Board member Cathleen O’Daniel Morgan said they are being asked to carry a very heavy lift as a school district. She said they have the budget for kindergarten through 12th grade to pay off.

The community will also benefit from early childhood programs, as well as career programs, Morgan said.

“They have to be community-driven projects. I think what we really need is some sort of a project team to pull together the county, cities, and businesses to focus on an MOU (memorandum of understanding.) If we are going to do it ourselves we are not going to get it done when it needs to be done,” she said.

The current CIP five-year budget includes $5 million for fiscal year 2024, $17.5 million for fiscal year 2025, $17.5 million fiscal year 2026.

Planned programs to be moved to Annex include mechatronics technology; welding; net application development and programming; automotive service technology; electronic technology; HVAC; marine service technologies; cosmetology; automotive collision technology technician; plumbing; electricity; web application development and programming; carpentry; major appliance and refrigeration repair; biomedical equipment repair technology and turbine generator maintenance, inspection and repair.

The new programs slated for East Annex include avionics systems tech; LPN-RN bridge; commercial driver’s license; diesel maintenance tech; solar photovoltaic system design, installation, and maintenance and CNC production specialist.

“The exact programs that will be at Annex may change based on analysis,” Roszell said. “Some of the programs will be duplicated at FTMC campus and the new Annex. We will double the capacity for these programs. All of these programs are in high demand.”

The duplicated programs for FTMC and Annex will include early childhood education; LPN-RN bridge; medical assisting; professional culinary arts and hospitality; medical coder/biller; practical nursing full-time and part-time and nursing assistant articulated.

FMTC is undergoing a remodel project, which has an anticipated completion of the fall of 2023. Roszell said the remodel will now allow for high school bus visits and stakeholders the ability to look into labs without disrupting the learning environment.

“All of the remodeled labs are designed to be flexible spaces and easily adaptable,” he said.

One of the labs includes an automotive storefront which will allow for real work experience. Roszell said it will also feature hybrid technology, providing students with the ability to work on hybrid and electric cars.

The last portion of the presentation included a proposed PSA remodel.

Technical Colleges Senior Director Todd Everly said the first phase would be to build an indoor gun range and a certified driving track to the FMTC campus.

The second phase would be to move the PSA to the current FMTC campus after opening the East Annex location. Everly said the cost is projected around $18.4 million for two buildings.

“This has never been budgeted and has not gone through the capital committee,” he said of the proposal.