Northern Ignite Academy campus opens

Sep. 4—Blake Vickers

The Northern Ignite Academy Campus is finally here.

The campus opened its doors last month at the beginning of the Madison County School System's fall 2022 semester.

Excited students and staff are still acclimating to the new facility.

"It's been a whirlwind. It was a lot. We started school on Aug. 17, and we were still getting situated. It's been an ongoing transition for the teachers on a nightly basis, basically. Even though we're two weeks into school; we're still situating and still settling. If it wasn't for the teachers and their hard work, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off," Ignite North Director Chris Clark said this week.

Given the quick turnover time between the finish of the facility's construction and the start of the semester — teachers had to hit the ground running.

The campus is a hub for a wide variety of classes such as carpentry, welding, automotive tech, health sciences, machine tool, marketing, business, electrical tech, and computer design.

As of Thursday, equipment is still being moved into the building.

Clark said he has seen a sense of "self-satisfaction" in the students as they have also transitioned to classes at the Ignite Academy.

"There's also some validity for the kids if they get to come in and help set it up. This way, they have their hand in it. It's something they've left their mark on — coming in and helping set up labs and shops up," Clark said. "They're super excited. Hopefully, they'll have a level of pride in this place for years to come."

Each career pathway at the Ignite Academy has a classroom, instructors' office, and lab, which are all interconnected. Clark said the set up gives the teachers the space to collaborate and even share classrooms if needed.

"That's part of my desire and vision. We cross-collaborate. Engineering works with welding or machine tool or auto. Health science can use some of these classes to do health assessments. We try to create a cosmos of businesses within the building so students see how they interconnect and relate," Clark said.

By design, the classes resemble an environment closer to that of a university or workplace, than they do a normal classroom.

Administrators at Ignite North are currently planning on creating small businesses which would utilize every course at the school.

"We'll be printing banners or burning bourbon barrels heads, making wooden door monograms, making notepads, etc. We're also looking at ways we can sustain our programs outside of just depending on funding through the state. That increases and decreases with different economies or different administration," Clark said. "Plus, it gives students hands-on, real-life application. That's why most of them are here. They like a little bit of theory, but they don't want to just read everything out of a book. They want to be hands-on."

The process will see students run a business "from A to Z," as they participate in everything from manufacturing the products to marketing them.

Ignite North is partnering with the Richmond Police Department and Eastern Kentucky University to offer some criminal justice courses (Ignite South will partner with the Berea Police Department and EKU). The three-way partnership will see the RPD provide an instructor for one section a day while EKU provides the curriculum and credit opportunity.

Clark would like to add a fire safety course in the same vein as the criminal justice course to the academy in collaboration with the local government and fire departments.

The students said they are also enjoying the new facilities.

"It's going. I like it a lot better than the old one," Miles Bayes said.

"The equipment is better than what it was before and there is a lot more room to move around and get yourself where you're working," Levi French added.

The classes taught at that Ignite Academy continue from their time at the original Madison County Area Technology Center located beside of Madison Central High School. The courses offered at the academy offer pathways to potentially lucrative careers.

"I want to go into a welding factory and see where it goes from there. I always wanted to do it since I was in middle school, but once I started taking these classes, I realized I'm really good at it and then it turned into a career," welding student Hannah Moore said in a previous interview with the Register.

The Ignite South campus is lagging slightly behind on completion.

As discussed in the July school board meeting, there were parts supply issues for the HVAC system for the facility. While controlled air is in the building now, it will take some time to climatize the building before construction can be finished.