From Wright County Communications
For more than 50 years, the Wright Technical Center in Buffalo has been a cooperative vocational training school currently comprised of eight school districts (Annandale, Big Lake, Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose, Delano, Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted, Maple Lake, Monticello and St. Michael-Albertville) that teaches trades to high school juniors and seniors. These students get a career start in fields including early childhood and elementary studies, construction, health science, auto repair, welding, horticulture, law enforcement/emergency medical responders, cosmetology, and graphic communications.
On Jan. 19, a delegation of Minnesota State Senators from the Capital Investment Committee, including the committee chair Sandra Pappas and vice-chair Susan Pha were joined by Wright County legislators – Representatives Joe McDonald and Marion Rarick and Senator Bruce Anderson – to tour WTC in what may be the last hope to keep the school operational.
WTC opened in 1972 and has housed more than 30,000 students over the last half-century. But, with the school falling into disrepair with structural and safety concerns, WTC is asking the State Legislature for $9.5 million in state bonding money for maintenance and modernization because, if it can’t get the funding, it will be the end of an era not just for WTC, but the State of Minnesota.
“If we don’t get the bonding bill through, I don’t believe that this school can continue,” Rarick said. “This is the last school in the entire state of Minnesota that is a high school alternative technical school. We used to have 65 of them and now Wright Tech Center is the only one left. If this fails, then there will be a lot of students in Wright County that won’t get this education. Not only does industry need it, but the kids need it. They need the hands-on experience that is very difficult to get in high schools. This school is a model for Minnesota and if the bill fails, it’s really a tragedy for the whole state.”
A critical issue facing WTC and its 725 students is the same problem that has seen the other 64 vocational cooperatives in the state close their doors – the inability to levy or bond. School districts have levy authority and can bond for improvements or repairs, but because the students are part-time at WTC in a cooperative, they don’t have that ability.