The opening time for the highly anticipated career and technical education (CTE) building for the Newburgh Enlarged City School District remains to be September 2026. The Newburgh Board of Education welcomed CSArch engineers and district consultants to speak on the latest updates to the anticipated site on Tuesday, October 24.

During the presentation on Tuesday night, the CTE building was originally planned to house Newburgh Free Academy students for only a half day period. Now, the building is being designed for students to be fully programmed in one building. This means students will be getting instruction the entire school day rather than going back and forth between the campus and Newburgh Free Academy Main Campus.

In order to make that possible for the building, science labs, art classrooms, resource rooms and general classrooms would need to be added in addition to the specialized lab spaces for CTE programs.

With a full day operation now planned, food service options and seating will need to be looked at while a gymnasium, resource rooms for students and staff office spaces have been added to the building designs. Additionally, area for academic programs sees an increase from 76,510 square feet to 81,997 square feet while building volume decreases and revised structural designs helped reduce construction costs.

The first floor of the CTE building includes barbering, cosmetology and grooming which can be accessed by the public. Vet Tech lab spaces have now been moved to the first floor so owners with dogs and other animals can access the classroom space with the health services program moved upstairs. General classrooms and the food service area are also located on the first floor.

In another section of the building also on the first floor this area includes the traditional auto tech and auto body shops, plumbing, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), electrical and construction shop areas. The classroom areas would have elevated ceilings for training purposes.

The new first floor gymnasium now features a seating area for more than 500 people, a full-size basketball court for competition, parking lot access, faculty offices and boys and girls locker rooms accessible to students from the main building corridor.

The second floor plan now features science labs, general CTE classrooms, health sciences and culinary labs with other classrooms and various food storages. The additional part of the second floor includes an art classroom, a fashion lab, computer classrooms and classrooms for special education purposes.

In one section of the overall building, the height goes to a third floor. The third floor features a video production program space (control room, green room, production lab), a photography room (dark room, developing room, photo lab) and computer classrooms.

The project schedule for the CTE building will include revisions to the construction documents from September to October 2023 with a submission to the State Education Department in January 2024. The district and its consultants anticipate a response of review/approval by the end of February 2024. During March/April 2024, the project will go out to bid and be awarded and construction is anticipated to begin in June 2024 and go through July 2026. The building is expected to have occupancy by September 2026.

The current location for the CTE building has been planned for the wooded area behind the high school which was cleared out but has remained undeveloped. Vegetation has now made its way back on the site.