The Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township is pouring $150 million into a multi-year overhaul of the McKenzie Center for Innovation and Technology, a 30-year-old career center that district leaders say will become the largest stand-alone secondary career and technical education facility in the entire country. Superintendent Shawn Smith announced the renovation as the district welcomed roughly 16,000 students back to classrooms last Monday, framing the investment as part of a broader statewide push to build up Indiana's skilled workforce.
According to WISH-TV, the renovation is designed to expand vocational and high-end workforce development opportunities and is meant to prepare students for Indiana's workforce needs over the next 30 years. District officials have said the project follows a state push to increase the number of skilled workers in Indiana, and that Lawrence Township's workforce development program will become the largest of its kind in the state. The McKenzie Center is already recognized as Indiana's largest secondary stand-alone CTE center, according to the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, which says construction is scheduled to begin this fall and reach completion by July 2030.
No Tax Increase, District Says
The district has categorized the McKenzie Center project under Priority II of its Blue Ribbon Facilities Part 2 plan, a capital initiative approved by the school board in spring 2024 to address facility and capacity needs through 2032, per the district. Officials have explicitly pledged that the $150 million project will be completed with no property tax rate increase for district residents. That plan builds on Lawrence Township's decade-long Blue Ribbon Facilities effort, which previously funneled more than $300 million into district capital projects alongside a $220 million capital referendum that 68% of voters approved in 2019; the earlier 10-year facilities plan ran from 2014 to 2024 and focused heavily on high school and elementary upgrades.
Smith has served as superintendent of Lawrence Township schools since January 2014. In comments reported by the Indianapolis Business Journal, he said Indiana public schools are shifting away from a traditional model toward a talent development model meant to give every student multiple pathways to graduation, including industry credentials and direct entry into the workforce.
Employers and Colleges Already Moving In
Corporate and workforce partners are already lining up ahead of the renovation's groundbreaking. On July 30, real estate developer The Annex Group announced a partnership with the McKenzie Center to launch an applied learning program that places students into real-world construction and field operations internships, operating through what the company calls Annex University to connect students to post-secondary career pathways, according to The Annex Group.
That same month, workforce organizations TechIndiana and InnoPower Indy partnered with the center to launch a pre-apprenticeship technology pipeline, letting high schoolers complete dual-credit entrepreneurship courses and access tech career tracks during the school day, the Indianapolis Recorder reported. TechIndiana data cited in that report found only 3.7% to 4.0% of Indiana's workforce is employed in tech, compared with 5.8% nationally, underscoring the gap these new pipelines are meant to close. The McKenzie Center already maintains academic partnerships with Ivy Tech Community College, Vincennes University and Indiana University, allowing students from Lawrence Central and Lawrence North to earn dual college credit and industry certifications at little to no cost, according to Indy's Child Magazine, which notes the facility partners with more than 100 area businesses, including Roche Diagnostics and Community Health Network.
Apprenticeships Already Underway in Early Childhood Education
The center's career pipeline isn't limited to construction and tech. Back in October 2024, high schoolers in McKenzie Center's early childhood education program joined Indiana's first cohort of state-recognized teacher apprentices, combining classroom instruction with paid work experience at Lawrence Township early learning centers — a program supported by a federal Preschool Development Grant, as reported by Chalkbeat Indiana.
A District in Transition
The McKenzie Center expansion arrives alongside other major shifts across the district. Demographic data from the 2023–24 school year showed the roughly 16,500-student district was 45% Black, 31% Hispanic and 73% low-income, according to Mirror Indy. The district is also planning to open Craig Academy in 2027, a new school with an Afrocentric educational focus, at the former Sunnyside Road administration building site — a move that became possible after administrative operations relocated to a new $20 million facility at Fort Benjamin Harrison in early 2025, a transition Hoodline covered in its report on the center's ribbon-cutting.
Back-to-school season also brought updates on Lawrence Township's dual language program, which the district says is the longest-standing of its kind in Indiana. The program has expanded from a single elementary school to seven of the district's 11 elementary schools and now serves students from preschool through 12th grade, including early learning centers, middle schools and high schools, per WISH-TV. Younger students receive roughly 80% of instruction in Spanish, a split that shifts to a 50-50 balance between Spanish and English by fourth grade, covering math, science and social studies along the way. Applications for the program remain open throughout the school year, with the next primary application window opening in November.
District data shows students who begin their education in Lawrence Township's dual language track demonstrate higher performance in later grades, per the district. Stephanie LaPlante said early childhood education is a primary focus for building student confidence and curiosity, while Adyza Deynes said Lawrence Township students in the dual language program graduate prepared for both the workforce and college. Smith, addressing families as the school year began, said parents should give students love and a few rules, and advised prioritizing student rest and early bedtimes — framing the new school year, as WISH-TV reported, as a collaborative effort between the Lawrence Township community and its educators to ensure student success.
