Many teens are rethinking college. This 87-acre campus near Colorado Springs wants to help them find careers without it.
EL PASO COUNTY — Across 87 acres of sprawling fields near Colorado Springs, a group of Colorado superintendents is setting out to revive schooling in the trades and expand students’ options beyond college — preparing them for jobs in industries battling steep workforce shortages and even training kids interested in construction to one day build affordable teacher housing close by. It’s all part of a plan that education leaders who belong to the Pikes Peak Board of Cooperative Educational Services have been dreaming up for the past four years, motivated by a resurgence in career and technical education, or CTE, and a growing need for skilled employees among local companies. The Pikes Peak BOCES — which provides support, staffing and resources to nine rural districts and 12 bigger districts and other school agencies — is in the early stages of creating what it calls the Pikes Peak BOCES Education Park. It will be a kind of CTE campus where regional students will have new o...