TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Public Schools said Wednesday it will break ground on a $5.7 million Electric Vehicle Center on the Toledo Technology Academy (TTA) campus.
TPS Superintendent Romules Durant said the project is a team approach and was spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, who secured $1.25 million in federal funding for the new center.
"For America to remain a leader and for Toledo to be at the center in the new propulsion age and the new age of clean energy and power, we have to educate to the future," Kaptur said.
Durant said the Electric Vehicle Center will offer classes on design, maintenance and innovation.
Students will have opportunities to intern at companies like Tesla while accumulating college credit and avoiding costly student loans, something he called a financial advantage.
"Don't settle for just a diploma," Durant said. "Settle for certification as well as college credit at no cost to you."
TTA senior Aaron Stanford plans to pursue engineering at the Ohio State University and said he will have about 30 credits by the time he graduates from TTA. Although he will be graduating by the time the Electric Vehicle Center opens, he's excited about what this means for students.
"I personally haven't seen it anywhere," Stanford said. "It's a really unique program. It's unique, yeah, and it's really exciting to see it happen."
UAW Local 14 in Toledo also supports the project. Local 14 President Tony Totty said displaced autoworkers can be trained or retrained at the Electric Vehicle Center. Local car dealers can also send mechanics to the center to train on repairing and maintaining electric vehicles.
Totty also told WTOL 11 that he was recently talking to a local car dealer who was short on mechanics with current vehicles. He said he hopes the Electric Vehicle Center will educate and train future mechanics right here to prevent Toledo from experiencing a shortage of capable workers.
"If you're short mechanics as it is, what happens when EV comes here, and we don't have anybody trained?" Totty said. "So, our students will be in the pipeline to meet the needs of business."