The Career Technical Education Building, American River College’s newest building under construction, has had its opening pushed back to the 2025 spring semester.
The CTE Building is the facility under construction behind the Portable Village and the Student Center. The new building will house certificate and degree programs that include automotive, electronics, electrician trainee, solar energy, design and engineering technology, funeral services and welding. It will also offer a large state of the art space with all the bells and whistles that would be expected.
“The automotive area features 14 vehicle lifts,18 service bays with integrated computer service information, an engine lab, transmission lab, emissions training lab, machine shop, all-wheel drive chassis dyno and high-performance engine dyno,” said Benjamin French, ARC’s automotive department co-chair.
The 61,000 square-foot-facility was made with the goal of preparing students for what the future landscape of these mechanical industries will be in the coming decades, with machinery and spaces that allow training with energy sources such as solar, electric cars, and alternative fuel combustion engines.
“[It is] set to train both [for] the vehicles of today and tomorrow,” French said.
French added that the building will allow for students of all majors mentioned, to take most of their classes in one building since many of the departments work off of each other. Such as automotive students needing to take classes in electronics and being able to have it all in one space creates a more efficient experience for the students.
In an email to the Current, Taylor Toledo, ARC’s public information officer, said the CTE building was previously expected to open during the summer. This would have allowed for classes to be held in the building during the fall semester.
Complications now mean estimations have moved to spring 2025. Departments such as automotive and welding however are expected to move late in the fall, near the winter break, due to the inflexible nature of the departments.
“The primary factors for the delay are related to scheduling, especially with specialized equipment and furniture installations. The installation schedule has required additional time to ensure that every classroom and lab is fully equipped and operational before use,” Taylor said. “Despite these challenges, we are optimistic that the phased approach will allow us to make the best use of the new facility while maintaining high standards for our programs.”
However, this delay has caused some issues with class scheduling made with the previous estimations.
“You see there are no classes going on right now? The reason is because we were supposed to be moving right now [October]. I wrote the schedule so that we had a lot of classes during the day the first five weeks. We will have a lot of classes in the third five weeks,” said French, adding that the confusion with estimations meant many classes stacked on certain sides of the fall calendar, since classes were concentrated in the first and last weeks of the semester.
This meant that in October there would be dead space when it came to classes and schoolwork, this was purposely done to provide breathing room for the move into the CTE building.
“[It] got pushed back to … October, and that got pushed back to—we’re moving during winter break. We’ll see what happens then,” French said.
French explained that these changes could have caused awkward schedules for students and that it would have been better for scheduling if the estimation were originally stated to be around winter break.
Despite these unexpected changes, the school is currently not worried about cost, Toledo said, adding that everything is where it should be and is under control.
“While there have been adjustments to the project timeline, the overall cost remains aligned with our budget expectations,” Toledo said. “The college and our construction partners are actively working together to ensure efficient project management and minimize any additional costs.”
Currently, faculty is eagerly awaiting the green light to settle into the CTE building.
“We’re pretty excited, we’re definitely ready to move,” said French, with a broad smile.
View an animation that shows a peak at the CTE building in its fully complete state provided by Daniel Spotswood-Moberly.
