The Middleton School District celebrated the completion of a new facility — Middleton Career Campus: Construction — with a ribbon cutting and open house on Monday.
Around 100 people gathered at the event, including Middleton mayor Jackie Hutchison and Rep. Mike Moyle.
Food trucks and refreshments marked the occasion while attendees toured the new facility, which started construction in February 2025.
Middleton high school students will learn technical construction skills as well as construction-oriented math and English in the new facility, Middleton superintendent Marc Gee explained to the crowd.
In the new facility, students will switch between a lab, where they practice handiwork and technical skills, and classrooms, where they’ll be instructed in math and English as they apply to the trade.
The facility cost around $2 million, which came from an Idaho Career Ready Students Grant, and Idaho House Bill 521, a bill passed in 2024 that issued public school districts funds to modernize their facilities. Steel for the building was donated by Rob and Nancy Roberts of R&M Steel, a Caldwell-based metal building manufacturer.
In the ribbon cutting ceremony, Gee was most excited about what the facility offers students for generations to come. He asked a group of students to cut the ribbon.
“It’s not about me,” Gee said. “And it’s not about us. It’ll outlive a lot of us, you know, as long as there’s no crazy disaster that comes through … it’ll still be here.”
Students started classes in the building on Tuesday.
“You have companies coming in, putting up 400 or 500 homes a year,” said Mark Enger, a teacher of 41 years who instructs the construction classes. “They’re always looking for workers.”
Enger finds untapped talent in his Middleton students, who placed 15th nationally in a SkillsUSA construction competition.
His customized construction curriculum teaches them complicated concepts with tricks like turning Pythagorean Theorem into Tic-Tac-Toe:
“Tic, it’s always a fraction of an inch– it’s just a tick. Tac: big, bold numbers– it always deals with feet. Toe: did you know the ancient Egyptians used thumbs to measure one inch? And did you know your thumb is as long as your toe? Toe always deals with inches,” Enger said.
In a speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Middleton student Gabriella Hollinger said she “had given up hope for all future goals, and was beginning to lose sight of the person I wanted to become.”
At the Middleton Academy, her teachers and peers set her in a better direction, Hollinger said. Then Enger introduced her to SkillsUSA.
“I was able to step out of my comfort zone, and it has done nothing but change me for the better,” she said.
Her team from Middleton Academy became the first alternative school in Idaho to compete at SkillsUSA Nationals.
“The impact this building, and the programs alongside it, will have is immense,” Hollinger said. “And believe me when I say Middleton CTE programs have changed my life for the better.”
