Hanover County schools spent $145,351 during the past school year transporting eight students to the Richmond Technical Center every day.

They spent an additional $28,000 for their tuition.

With those per-pupil costs -- nearly $22,000 per student -- school officials are looking forward to the opening of the Hanover Center for Trades and Technology this fall.

The $8.2 million facility is one of the school-related projects approved in the 2005 bond referendum.

The center will offer twoand three-year courses for students in grades 10, 11 and 12 in areas such as automotive technology, building management, cosmetology and culinary arts. Students will be bused to the trades center for one 90-minute period each day. More than 250 students already are enrolled.

Hanover has wanted its own vocational education facility for a long time. According to School Board Chairman Bob Hundley, "it's been a 40-year discussion."

Hanover high schools do offer some career and technical education.

All four high schools offer classes in early-childhood education, emergency medical technology, and turf management and horticulture sciences.

Additionally, Hanover High School offers courses in electronics and engineering, and medical, optical and dental laboratory technology, which is available to all county students.

But for everything else, students had to go to Richmond.

In 2005-06, the county spent $355,205 in combined transportation and tuition costs for 69 students. In 2006-07, they spent $275,057 for 43 students.

School officials say the drop this past school year to eight students happened because many students didn't want to start a multiyear course in Richmond and then not be able to finish it, and some wanted to start a program at the new trades center. School officials said three seniors will go to Richmond in the fall to finish courses.

Trade center Principal Charles C. Hurd said he made presentations at each high school last year to recruit students.

"A lot of kids took a chance," he said, because they signed up for classes without even seeing the building.

"I couldn't take them into the labs, show them the equipment, show them the classrooms," Hurd said.

But this fall's high enrollment shows the interest from the community, he said.

"The demand is definitely out there for skilled-trades folks. It's a win-win situation."

Matt Anderson is the general sales manager for the Richmond office in the Virginia district of Trane Co., a heating, air-conditioning and ventilating systems company. He serves on Hanover Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson's business advisory council.

"The challenge that we face . . . is an aging trades work force," Anderson said. Companies like his haven't properly marketed industries like heating and air conditioning as true professions, he said, and many people don't realize that even entry-level jobs require skilled workers.

He hopes the new trades center will help change that.

"This is really a significant effort . . . to bridge that gap and get kids thinking of technical trades as a profession and an opportunity," he said.
Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com.