AUGUSTA — New Capital Area Technical Center Director James Holland will discuss the regional center’s programs, including the possibility of bringing back a drafting class dropped two years ago, with the Board of Education on Wednesday.

Holland, an assistant principal at Cony High School for many years, was hired as the new CATC director this year, taking over for former Director Peter Gagnon, who resigned last school year.

Holland is scheduled to make a presentation to the school board Wednesday, “What’s happening now at CATC, and where we want to go.”

Holland said the presentation will include both a look at the regional technical center’s existing programs and the professional certificates in career fields they can lead to. He’ll also talk about the potential to create new programs and, in at least one case, bring a previous program back.

Holland said among the ideas for the future he plans to discuss is a return of CATC’s computer-aided drafting program, which was dropped two years ago after the instructor left and a new instructor couldn’t immediately be found.

“My hope is to get that up and running for next year,” Holland said.

Advertisement

Restoring the computer-aided drafting program would require funding in next year’s budget to hire a new instructor, though technical centers do eventually receive reimbursement for program costs by the state.

Holland said CATC needs to survey students to gauge their interest in that and other potential programs, and look at the job market, to help determine what programs to add in the future.

He said he’d also like look into using the technical center’s greenhouse for more programming.

Holland started working at Cony High School in 1986 as a science teacher, and became an assistant principal there in 2004. The Farmington resident left Augusta schools in 2010 to become principal of Livermore Falls High School, and has since also worked for two years as principal of South Portland High School before agreeing to become director of CATC this year.

“I’m thrilled to be back in Augusta, I always loved working here,” Holland said. “This is my 25th year in Augusta.”

Board members are scheduled to meet with Holland Wednesday at their meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Augusta City Center.

Keith Edwards can be contacted at 621-5647 or at:

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.