Tooele County School District broke ground on a $21 million community learning center on Tooele’s west side yesterday.

The project will be built for $4 million less than the district’s estimate announced in 2008. However, that is still considerably more than the $10 million price tag the district put on the project when it was first proposed in 2007.

“Bids for the construction of the building came in lower than expected,” said Steve West, Tooele County School District construction coordinator.

The building, located near the Utah State University campus on 1000 West, will have 96,000 square feet. It is scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.

The school district is financing the center through a $21 bond that will be paid back by capital outlay money the district receives from the state, so the project will not require an increase in local taxes, according to Richard Reese, Tooele County School District business administrator.

The building was designed by MHTN architects and is being built by Hughes General Contractors — the same team that worked together on Stansbury High School and many of the new elementary schools in the district.

The community learning center will house career and technical education programs such as culinary arts, cosmetology, child development, graphic design, science and bio-technology, computer software and hardware, engineering, as well as medical, dental, and nursing programs, according to Marianne Oborn, director of Career and Technical Education for Tooele County School District.

The school will also house the district’s adult education program and Tooele South High School. Tooele South High currently meets in an old wooden World II-era army barracks on the Tooele Army Depot. The South High School facility is scheduled for demolition so the district has been looking for a new location for the school.

The learning center will serve students from Tooele, Stansbury, and Grantsville High School. Students from Dugway may also be bused to the center, and the facility will include technology to broadcast courses to both Dugway and Wendover high schools.

The facility is also designed for cooperative use by the Tooele Applied Technology College, Salt Lake Community College, and Utah State University, said Terry Linares, Tooele County School District superintendent.

“There will be many cooperative programs offered to our community through partnerships,” Oborn said. “One new program will be an electrical engineering program offered in conjunction with USU.”

While the new center is being built, the community will benefit economically from local contractors that have been awarded bids to work on the project, according to West.

Superior Excavating, Turner Concrete, All-Tech Electric & Telecommunications, Carlisle Syntech/Hunter Panels, and Staker & Parson Companies are among the local companies that will be working on the project.

When the learning center opens, local students will no longer need to travel into Jordan School District for career and technical education programs. Currently a bus of 30 students leaves Tooele at 6 a.m. and returns at 11 a.m. from the Jordan facility, according to Oborn.

“We used to have three students enrolled in the medical technician program at Jordan,” Oborn said. “This year we have made arrangements to offer the medical technician program here in Tooele and enrollment jumped to 40 students.”

The school district anticipates similar growth in other programs leading to technical certificates as they become available to students through the learning center in Tooele, according to Oborn.

“The learning center is about opportunity and choice,” said Tauyna Jones, secretary at Tooele South High School during yesterday’s groundbreaking. “Opportunity provides hope. Students will be able to enter the career path of their choice and have a secure future.”

Tim Gillie: tgillie@tooeletranscript.com