$42M technical school construction starts in Lee County

Construction has started on a new career and technical education post-secondary school in Lee County. 

The $42 million school, the Heights CareerTech Institute, is being built in Lee’s Harlem Heights community and is at the corner of Gladiolus Drive and Pine Ridge Road.

According to the Heights Foundation, which has raised $27.5 million for the project, the site has been cleared and grubbed, and workers are currently raising the elevation by trucking in about 150,000 yards of fill. 

Construction on the two-story school is expected to take about 16 months. 

When complete, the institute will offer career and technical education to about 500 students from across the region using curriculum being developed by an advisory group that includes local business owners and professionals. 

The goal, the foundation says on its website, is for HCTI’s industry-credentialed courses to “provide pathways to high-paying, sustainable careers, directly supporting the economic growth and vitality” in the region."

Harlem Heights, between U.S Highway 41 and San Carlos Boulevard near the barrier islands, was originally settled as a rural agricultural community. 

Today, the foundation says, the poverty rate for children in is more than twice the county average, with family incomes 40% below the county average.