WALLENPAUPACK AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT, PA — The Wallenpaupack school system is pushing ahead with its plans for a career technical center (CTC), and plans to have a feasibility study ready to present in April or May. 

CTCs offer hands-on experience in crucial skills that prepare students for the workforce. While Wallenpaupack has classes in the realm of Career and Technical Education (CTE), Wayne and Pike counties currently do not have a dedicated CTC, the only two counties in Pennsylvania to lack that resource. 

Four local school districts—Wallenpaupack, Wayne Highlands, Western Wayne and Delaware Valley—are planning to create a Wayne/Pike CTC. 

Wallenpaupack Area School District Superintendent Keith Gunuskey updated the board of education on the timeline for a CTC feasibility study on February 10. 

The school district had previously picked GKO Architects, an Ambler-based firm, to conduct the feasibility study. The firm has extensive experience with CTC, and the firm’s principal architect, Kevin Godshall, has a personal connection with the Wayne/Pike area, said Gunuskey—Godshall has a second home in Pleasant Mount. 

“We had asked Kevin, ‘Why do you want to do this?’” Gunuskey said. “He had explained [that] for his entire career, he’s been building addition after addition on career and tech centers, and this is the last opportunity in Pennsylvania to be able to build a CTC from the ground up and the right way.”

Over the next few months, GKO will be conducting the feasibility study on the plan for the CTC, taking a significant amount of information from the community in so doing. 

The study will assess: the new construction that will be required; the school’s existing offerings and whether they could be merged, expanded or added to; how the CTC could supply high-demand industries in the region with employees; and estimated costs from creating the CTC, among other aspects. 

The study will provide the school with a projection of revenues and expenses for the CTC, helping the school plan for its future. 

The school plans to have the feasibility study ready to present at an April or May meeting of the Wallenpaupack Board of Education. It’s an “aggressive” timeline, said Gunuskey—most CTC plans take five to six months to complete. 

“I told Kevin [to] prepare to move into his house full time in Pleasant Mount, because we need this done in three months,” Gunuskey joked.