The Starke County Initiative for Lifelong Learning is gearing up for the start of the school year. As of last Tuesday, 127 students were signed up for SCILL’s three vocational training programs.
SCILL Center Director Ron Gifford says the automation, robotics, and equipment maintenance program is starting its second year. “That started with five students, all from Knox, last year,” he told the Knox City Council last week. “This year, we are looking to go to about 17 students in one class, so we’ve tripled our enrollment in one year. Right now, Knox has 12 of those 17 and North Judson has two, but we have two other schools in Marshall County that are sending at least one student here, as well.”
Gifford also said SCILL’s automotive program remains popular, with 71 students set to take part, with 29 of those coming from Knox. Meanwhile, he said the welding program is once again at full capacity. “This year, we had 63 applications for the welding program,” Gifford said. “We can only handle 40 in the space that we’re in, and that’s assuming we get 20 in the morning and 20 in the afternoon, which is very unlikely. So we’re out of space. This is the second year in a row we’ve had to tell kids they can’t take the course.”
The welding program is currently housed at Knox Middle School, but Gifford said plans are in the works for a larger space. “It would be just north of the existing auto facility in the industrial park, not connected to it, other than a breezeway to connect the buildings,” he explained. “Because of fire codes and the like, we can’t add onto the auto facility or do anything like that.”
SCILL Center classes for the 2017-2018 school year start this Thursday.
