Press Release from GRTS

GRTS Enrollment Up 11 Percent
Technical School has 789 Students Enrolled
By Laura Schuler, Constitution-Tribune
August 25, 2010

Now that the Grand River Technical School agriculture department has moved to the Litton Educational Center, the staff and students at the Grand River Technical School are enjoying a little more elbow room this year. And they're going to need every bit of it.

Enrollment at the technical school has skyrocketed 11 percent this year with a student roster numbering 789 students enrolled in adult classes, coming from Chillicothe High School and area sending schools, and taking classes by satellite.

Ron Wolf, co-director, says the spike in student numbers is likely due to a variety of factors, including the school's established reputation of providing quality technical education that leads to employment - a hot commodity in today's recession. Last year (2009-10), all but 5 percent of students earning certificates from the school were hired after graduation, Wolf said.

C-T Photo/Laura Schuler

CAPTION: Grand River Technical School’s welding instructor Lee Caughron teaches a full classroom of students this (Tuesday) morning in the school’s new welding classroom, which was formerly the space provided for an agriculture class. The relocation of the school’s agriculture department to the newly-built Litton Educational Center at the Litton Agri-Science Learning Center has allowed the other programs offered at the GRTS additional and much needed space as the technical school deals with an 11% increase in enrollment this year.

Funding constraints have likely caused other area high schools to offer fewer classes, Wolf said, which may have also helped attract more students to GRTS.

Continuing a 3-year trend, there are also more adults at GRTS this year. Specifically, there are 91 adults learning at GRTS, up 11 from last year and 31 from two years ago. "The recession has caused more adults to go back and brush up on their skills to make them more hirable in today's job market," Wolf explained. Enrollment for an adult's full-day tuition is $5,300 per student.

There is also a huge percentage of Chillicothe High School students enrolled in at least one technical school class. In fact, of the 624 students enrolled at CHS, 450 of them are taking one or more courses at GRTS.