The new home of Summit Technology Academy will open by fall 2017 in Lee’s Summit.
This spring, the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District started work on a brand new building for its Summit Technology Academy, a program that prepares high school students for careers in IT, engineering and other STEM fields.
The 140,000-square-foot structure should be ready by the time students return to school in August 2017.
The building will be three and a half times larger than Summit Technology’s current home—which is good because enrollment has grown by 40 percent in the past decade, director Elaine Metcalf said.
Civic leaders say the building isn’t just an investment in the school district. It’s also going to enhance the community’s workforce. Having a supply of highly trained people will make it easier to recruit and retain innovative companies in Lee’s Summit and the surrounding area.
“Actually, right now it is the No. 1 issue for companies,” said Rick McDowell, president and CEO of the Lee’s Summit Economic Development Council. “That includes the people that are expanding locally, that are trying to retain or recruit.”
How It Works
About 550 junior and seniors will attend Summit Technology Academy this fall. They’ll spend half their day taking courses in aerospace engineering, cybersecurity, bioscience, nursing, digital media and other in-demand skills. Students also visit local businesses and shadow professionals in their chosen field.
About 90 teens from Summit Technology are also part of the Missouri Innovation Campus (MIC) initiative. It’s a four-year program that Lee’s Summit R-7 operates with the University of Central Missouri and Metropolitan Community College.
Students begin MIC courses in their junior year. At the end of that school year, they work a summer job with a partner company. Then, throughout their senior year, those students typically take college- credit classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they intern at the company where they worked in the summer.
MIC students are able to graduate high school with a two-year degree. They can then take classes from the University of Central Missouri while working for those companies.
By the time most college students are finishing their sophomore year, a MIC graduate will have earned a four-year degree in system engineering technology, drafting and design, computer science or cybersecurity.
(While Summit Technology offers classes in several STEM fields, the MIC program is focused on engineering and IT.)
In Demand
Students do all this with little or no college debt. Graduates’ job searches are easier, too: Companies like Cerner and DST actively recruit MIC grads. “They will snatch up our kids as soon as we get them out of here,” Metcalf said.
McDowell of the Lee’s Summit EDC echoed that.
“It really hasn’t been difficult to get their interest, because this is the workforce of the future,” he said.
