SWITCH's Story

The Southwest Iowa Technical Career Hub (SWITCH) is the initial vision of the East Mills Community School District (CSD), which found a repurpose for the elementary school near Hastings, Iowa, that would become temporarily vacant after voters passed a $22 million bond to establish a K-12 school in Malvern, Iowa. Stakeholders found educational partners to govern and guide the concept of transitioning the Hastings facility into a vocational trade school.

A group of invested citizens, along with the East Mills CSD, the East Mills School Board, Iowa Western Community College (IWCC), iJAG (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates), and a philanthropic group toured the Hastings campus and agreed that the facility would be able to serve the southwest Iowa region as a vocational or Career and Technical Education (CTE) school. The group began working toward establishing a non-profit organization, hiring a director, and developing the CTE center in Hastings. East Mills CSD currently owns the building and intends to sell or lease the campus to SWITCH once they have vacated it completely, which may occur as early as July 2024 or as late as September 2024.

SWITCH’s scope of work proposes one task and four activities focused on providing application-based, proactive technical skills for growth and development in an area with decreasing availability of qualified workers to support specific regional sectors of business and industry.