Area leaders congratulated the Lauderdale County School District on its new Career and Technical Education Center on Thursday as the district held a Business Before Hours open house to allow the public to see the facility.
Set to welcome students in Fall 2026, the CTE center is a centralized hub of career and technical courses including law and public safety, business and marketing, educator prep and agriculture power and machinery.
Also built into the center’s design is more than 40,000 square feet of unfinished space, which the district plans to later fill with programs needed by local industries.
LCSD Superintendent John-Mark Cain said Thursday’s ribbon cutting came after several years of construction, which was preceded by even longer periods of discussion. The event is both a celebration of the CTE Center and a statement about the district’s commitment to prepare future generations.
“Today we’re not just cutting a ribbon; we’re making a statement. We’re saying that Lauderdale County believes in preparing out students, not just for graduation, but for life,” he said. “We’re saying that education must evolve with the demands of the world our students are entering.”
John Farrell, chief deputy for the Mississippi Department of Education’s office of school and district transformation, said Lauderdale County residents should be proud of their new CTE facility. From the four programs available at launch to the unfinished spaces, the district has created a place to both give students opportunities and train the next generation’s workforce.
“This is a building that this community should be very, very proud of because I’ve seen many buildings across the state, and this one is bare non one of the top ones in the state,” he said.
CTE Director Rob Smith said many of the programs that will be available at the center are programs the district already had in some capacity. The difference, he said, is that instead of being limited to students at one of the school district’s four campuses, these programs will be available to all students.