Fresno Unified unveils new Career Technical Education building

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Fresno Unified unveiled the district's new Career Technical Education building on Thursday.

The multi-million dollar facility will bring all CTE classes together on the campus of Fresno High with the goal of preparing students to be successful in good-paying jobs.

The school district held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday for the grand opening of the state of the art facility

"It provides our businesses directly with high-quality employees and better yet, it gives our kids a reason to understand why they're learning what they're learning," said FUSD Superintendent Bob Nelson.

The two-story building will provide kids access to a wide variety of CTE programs -- including construction, video and entertainment production as well as a career pathway into heating and air conditioning maintenance.

"The success of our city is largely dependent on our education institutions, and I'm proud to say that Fresno Unified School District is meeting that need," Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.

"We'll provide Mayor Dyer a workforce where people can immediately leave and make $80,000 a year. For some of them, they'll do engineering work while doing their collegiate studies and not accrue collegiate debt," said Nelson.

The 18,000 square foot building is located near the back of Fresno High's campus adjacent to the baseball diamond.

The project was funded by Measure X -- the $225 million bond passed by voters in 2016 -- along with state grant money.

"This is a beautiful $7.8 million building totally made possible by the community sitting here. This is totally funded by two funds: Measure X -- thank you for passing two bonds in succession and our good CTE people who pressed to get additional funding from the state for CTE projects."

The new building will serve Fresno High students in particular but students district-wide can apply to transfer.

Students will begin attending classes in the new building next month.