By CASSIE SLANA
Reporter
(LEE’S SUMMIT, Mo., digitalBURG) — Construction began March 10 on the new facility that will house the Summit Technology Academy / Missouri Innovation Campus.

With an estimated cost of approximately $40 million, the facility will take advantage of a recent no-tax-increase bond issue passed with the help of the Lee’s Summit R-VII School District, according to a university news release.

UCM will pay 60 percent of the new facility’s cost, with the school district covering the remaining 40 percent.

David McGehee, superintendent of the Lee’s Summit R-VII School District, said opportunities like the partnership between UCM and the school district are rare.

“The meaningful partnerships involving higher education and secondary schools are extremely rare,” McGehee said. “Thanks to the leadership from UCM as well as our district’s board of education and staff members, this unique partnership developed, flourished (and) has now resulted in the facility we are celebrating today.”

McGehee said the efforts made in getting the innovation campus started have been nationally recognized as an example for the country, citing President Barack Obama’s visit to UCM in the summer of 2013.

“Together, along with many other members of each organization’s staff, we have done the impossible,” he said. “And this program, just as the school soon will, stands as an example of innovation for our entire country.”

UCM President Chuck Ambrose said the new facility is an answer to a challenge made by Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, President Obama and the Lee’s Summit community.

“We are actually lowering the cost of college, cutting the time to a degree in half, eliminating the skills gap and taking student loan debt out of the equation, and that is happening right here,” Ambrose said. “(We’ve) created a teaching and learning space that does not exist anywhere else in the nation, (and it will) inspire students for generations. Together, we can effect change that will affect the future.”

Students on the Warrensburg campus will also be able to take advantage of the Summit Tech / MIC offerings. Those involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs can enroll to have access to the facility. UCM – Lee’s Summit will move its programs to Summit Tech / MIC, offering the same classes currently available.

Ambrose said the new Summit Tech / MIC facility wouldn’t be as far along in its process if it weren’t for Nixon’s involvement.

“(Nixon) has been an ardent supporter for the Missouri Innovation Campus all the way throughout its development,” Ambrose said. “He has encouraged the support and active engagement in his office, the Missouri Department of Education and Economic Development, he’s established the Missouri Innovation Campus Grant Fund and, more importantly, he signed the statutory identity of this concept requiring two-year/four-year public education along with the private sector engagement in the Missouri state law.”

Nixon said his support was about overcoming two of the greatest challenges facing higher education today.

“It was a simple yet powerful idea,” he said. “Give students more skills in less time with lower costs. This pioneering concept has helped make Missouri a national leader in higher education affordability and innovation.”

Nixon said the number of people graduating with four-year degrees in Missouri has increased by 36 percent since he became governor in 2009.

“(This) groundbreaking is another great milestone for higher education in our state,” Nixon said. “We stand here ready to turn these shovels to begin something that has never been done in the United States of America – and it’s going to work.”

Construction on the Summit Tech / MIC facility is expected to be completed by August 2017.