Evansville’s New Tech Institute High School makes mid-year move
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After nearly 14 years inside the Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center in Evansville, New Tech Institute High School started the new year and a new semester in a different building.
The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. moved New Tech from its Lynch Road facility to the former Harwood Career Preparatory High School on First Avenue over the holiday break. The school corporation closed the prep school last year.
New Tech’s new location gives students access to basic high school amenities they’ve never had before, such as a gym and cafeteria. It also allows for the expansion of extracurricular activities such as archery and robotics.
‘An innovative, project-based learning high school’
New Tech began in 2010 as a public high school with open enrollment.
“It’s just more of an innovative take on high school,” said Chris Gibson, who has been the school’s principal since 2013. “Students can choose to come to New Tech for STEM [science, technology, engineering and math], for project-based learning, for a small environment.”
Before moving to the former Harwood location, New Tech took up two classroom hallways at the career and technical center.
“[The career center wasn’t] really built to be a high school, though. [The building] didn’t have lockers or a gym or a cafeteria or an auditorium,” said Gibson. “We were a STEM-certified school back in 2016 and then again in 2021. We got STEM certification from the [Indiana Department of Education], and yet we didn’t have science labs.”
New Tech has 280 students and 15 faculty members. Each year’s enrollment goal is 75 students per class. If more than 100 students apply, a lottery is held.
Emily Rudolph, a senior whose brother also attended New Tech, said she was always interested in STEM because she grew up in a family immersed in aviation.
“I only have two classes that are not STEM-related in my curriculum. That’s a blessing from New Tech, that my education is focused on a career I want to go into,” she said.
Tim Weisling, a teacher who helped start New Tech, said the high school helps students with social interactions and gives them a sense of family.
“We have kids from five or six different counties, from all different types of schools. So it’s a good experience for them to come here and meet other people,” he said.
Mid-year move
Last year, the Evansville school system bought land next to Harwood to expand the campus, adding a new gym, cafeteria, auditorium and extra parking.
“The district did a great job facilitating renovations,” said Gibson. “It’s a seasoned building, but it has updates that make it look like it’s just about brand new.”
New Tech made the move in two days over the holiday break. When the new semester started on Jan. 3, Gibson said the transition was smooth.
“I was concerned about dismissal and drop off and logistics, but it was a lot of planning on the part of the district and our staff. We’ve been planning for it since the summer,” he said.
Weisling said the students had a much easier time adjusting than the teachers.
“I’m still trying to find stuff,” he said. “It seems like [the students] really enjoy this location. We’ve got a woods out back … they keep bugging me, ‘When can we go explore the woods?’”
Weisling said the institute’s new location gives students a sense of ownership of their school.
“We have an archery team that goes to nationals every year, and every time we host an archery tournament, we have to borrow somebody else’s gym. The move is good for us,” he said. “We’re not competing for space all the time.”
Gibson said the robotics team will also enjoy having a more suitable home base.
“[When] the president and vice president of FIRST Indiana Robotics visited … they looked at the space, and they said this would be perfect to host some robotics,” he said.
Career center options
Since the move, Rudolph spends half of her day as a student at New Tech and the other half at the career and technical center. She said New Tech’s new digs feel like home.
“This building, even the carpet is gray and orange, like our school colors. We have orange everywhere, aligning the walls. It looks like New Tech,” Rudolph said.
Gibson said the building offers students and staff functionality, extra space and other accommodations they were missing at the old location.
“It still is a small school feel, even though we do have larger facilities. And the district is using some of the classrooms as offices, and so there is room to expand,” he said.
With the move happening mid-year, the career center has some extra time to decide what to do with New Tech’s former space.
“With the career and technical center possibly expanding, this gives them a semester to plan out what their vision looks like for that space so that they can have it ready for August,” Gibson said.
David St. Clair, director of career, technical and adult education at the career center, told Inside INdiana Business that the staff is excited about the possibilities the extra space will provide.
“We are looking at expanding some programs possibly or creating new pathways to allow students a broader range of opportunities,” he said.
St. Clair said the next steps include surveying students to gauge interest in possible new pathways and talking to industry partners.