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| Messenger photos by Joe Wyse The new entrance to Tolles Career and Technical Center glows at dusk following an Oct. 14 ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the completion of renovation and additions to the Plain City area facility. |
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| Tolles’ board of education cuts the ribbon: (from left) Doug Maggied, Hilliard City School District; Star Simpson, Fairbanks Local School District; Dr. John Adams II, Jonathan Alder Local School District; Stu Harris, Dublin City School District; Don Swonger, Madison-Plains Local School District; and Curtis Brooks Jr., Tolles board president, London City School District. |
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| Visitors stroll through the new library during the tour after the ribbon-cutting. The library is part of the new addition to the Tolles campus. |
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| Criminal Justice students hold the U.S., Ohio and Tolles flags while local pre-school students say the “Pledge of Allegiance” during ribbon-cutting ceremonies held Oct. 14 to commemorate the completion of Tolles’ expansion and renovation. |
Tolles Career and Technical Center celebrated the completion of a year’s worth of construction and renovation on Oct. 14 with a ribbon cutting ceremony at their Plain City area campus.
The ceremony was attended by students, faculty, staff, and members of the community, and was followed by a tour of new and renovated areas.
Construction began in the fall of 2007 and was completed last month. The project cost $9.4 million and included 33,000 square feet of additions and 33,000 square feet of renovations. The Tolles facility was previously 190,994 square feet. SHP Leading Design managed the architecture for the additions; The Quandel Group Inc. managed the construction.
The new features include a medical lab, nursing academy, sports medicine program, pre-vet tech program, bio-science facilities, media center and welding room. Renovations included remodeling and improvements to the following areas: early childhood education, science labs, cosmetology, culinary arts, food service, and administration.
According to Tolles Superintendent Carl Berg, the changes are part of an expansion into health and science education.
“We look to add, next year, a program tied to bio-science,” he said. “We have a large area that we recently designed for dental, but we’re not sure that’s where [the program] is going to go…it could be a dental program, but it could also be something that goes into biofuels, which steps out of the realm of health but ties closely into the science aspect that we’re promoting.”
Tolles is located at 7877 U.S. Route 42 S., south of Plain City. The school provides career and technical instruction to juniors and seniors from seven feeder school districts, including the four public school districts in Madison County. Tolles also offers continuing education courses for adults. For details, call 614-873-4666.
