TWC NEWS VIDEO: DUNKIRK, NY -- Dunkirk City School District residents passed a referendum Tuesday that authorized the vacant School 6 building on Benton Avenue to be turned into the new P-TECH Academy.
The Pathways to Technology Early College Highschool began this year with 31 students at the BOCES LoGuidice Center in Fredonia. The plan to renovate Dunkirk's 100 year-old former elementary school into a state of the art vocational school will cost more than 8 million dollars, but it will be entirely paid for with state building aid and lease payments from BOCES.
"So inside will be completely gutted and redone, we're also going to be adding 9,000 sq.ft. onto it, of which 5,100 sq.ft. will be a high-tech lab for the kids to learn welding and machining and those types of skills," said Gary Cerne, Dunkirk City Schools Superintendent.
With the State Department of Education's approval, construction could start this winter and be completed by the fall of 2017.