Steel Center for Career and Technical Education has grand reopening following $36 million investment

A grand reopening was held Thursday following the $36 million project.

Lt. Gov Austin Davis joined state and local leaders Thursday to celebrate the grand reopening of a Jefferson Hills career and technical school after three years of renovations and millions of dollars in investment.

As students return to Steel Center for Career and Technical Education, they will be greeted extensive upgrades throughout the building.

“The new Steel Center in Jefferson Hills is a beautiful new career and tech ed school that will help students across 11 different school districts grow their talents and learn essential skills that will help them find job opportunities throughout Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania,” Davis said. “This project reflects the commitment of our administration to invest in apprenticeships, CTE and vo-tech education to strengthen our workforce and give students pathways to lifelong success.”

The $36 million renovation and modernization project transformed instructional spaces throughout the school while increasing capacity to meet rapidly growing demand for career and technical education.

State and local leaders joined the staff at the Steel Center for Career and Technical Education on Thursday to celebrate its grand reopening. Commonwealth Media Services

The state’s 2026-27 budget includes an additional $10 million for career and technical education, bringing total spending on workforce development initiatives to $193 million.

“An unfortunate reality that we exist in today is that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not,” said Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato. “In places like the Steel Center and other CTE programs, they’re closing that opportunity gap. For more than 60 years, Steel Center has been preparing young people for careers that keep our region moving forward.”

The project was accomplished without increasing the size of the building and was supported primarily through a $29 million bond undertaken collectively by Steel Center’s 11 member school districts: Baldwin-Whitehall, Bethel Park, Brentwood, Clairton, Duquesne, Elizabeth Forward, South Allegheny, South Park, Steel Valley, West Jefferson Hills and West Mifflin Area.

Along with the state’s $4 million Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program investment and other project resources, the project was able to be completed.

School leaders thanked Davis and state Sen. Nick Pisciottano, D-West Mifflin, for their assistance in securing state funding.

“We make big investments, and we have great, hardworking people that make things like this happen, and it’s unique, and it’s something we don’t talk about enough, and we don’t take enough pride in as we should because it does not happen everywhere,” Pisciottano said.

Davis, who grew up not far from the school in McKeesport, believes young people in Pennsylvania need access to programs like the ones Steel Center provides.

“Today is truly a great day across the Mon Valley here in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” Davis said. “This was such an important project for me because I’m a proud graduate of McKeesport Area School District, and McKeesport was lucky that we had a career and tech ed center as a part of our high school.

“I got to see up close and personally how that created real ladders of opportunity for young people in my community to succeed, and that’s something that every young person in the Mon Valley should have the opportunity to.”

Several other legislators were at the event, including state Reps. Andrew Kuzma, R-Elizabeth, and John Inglis, D-West Mifflin.

“It’s so refreshing to see this commitment and investment into career and technical education,” Inglis said. “Now more than ever, we need to let kids know that no matter what pathway they’re taking, there’s opportunities.”

Steel Center, which serves approximately 1,035 students in grades 10 through 12, will begin classes for the new school year on Monday.

Steel Center Executive Director Kevin Rice thanked everyone involved in the renovation project.

“We are extremely honored to welcome Lt. Gov. Davis back to Steel Center for this milestone,” Rice said. “His support helped us advance this project during an important stage of its development, so it is especially meaningful to have him here as we celebrate its completion.”

Joint Operating Committee President David Schaap praised the committee members and the construction workers involved in the project, some of whom are Steel Center graduates.

The renovation touched every part of the building, according to Schaap. There is new HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems, ADA accessibility, updated furniture, Wi-Fi, lighting, flooring, ceilings, fresh paint and other improvements.

Because of the growth of the center, Schaap said they added health science, computer science and entrepreneurship programs and expanded their growing trades.

“These aren’t the shop classes of decades past,” he said. “Every program here is built on the same math, writing and critical thinking as any classroom, drawing from technical training that leads directly to a career.

“This $36 million renovation is an investment in those young people, and in the idea that career and technical education deserves the same excellence that’s in any classroom. The best days of Steel Center are ahead.”

Since 1964, their goal has been to assist all students in developing the knowledge, skills and aptitude necessary to be successful in their chosen careers.

Representatives of Steel Center’s 11 member school districts, who comprised the Joint Operating Committee, also attended the event, including West Mifflin School board Director Mark Donahue, who was impressed with the renovations.

“I think it’s really great,” he said. “I have an engineering degree, and someone said to me ‘Why would you go there?’ and I said not everybody goes to college. Not everybody is supposed to. Everybody has their own path, and (Steel Center has) been doing a great job for years. Everybody is on the board because they want to be here.”

The Pennsylvania’s Department of Education Bureau of CTE’s representative Thursday, Judd Pittman, said the skilled trades allowed him to go to college. He added that places like Steel Center make that happen for hundreds of families.

“A renovation like this, $30-plus million, is more than a building upgrade,” Pittman said. “It’s more than the paint, it’s more than the facade you saw when you walked in. It is a conscious choice by each and every one of you to give students more access to career connected learning.”

Innamorato said necessary and rewarding careers happen through the education at Steel Center and CTE programs that help boost the county’s economy forward. She added that the region’s economy depends on a skilled workforce, and the newly renovated center provides that even more now.

“CTE isn’t about steering students away from college,” Davis said. “It’s about giving them more pathways to success, and Steel Center students will have those pathways, and those opportunities to family-sustaining jobs. Investments like these are building our next generation of leaders.”