Site plan approved for Medina County Career Center's second construction trades building

MEDINA — The Medina County Career Center has plans to build a second construction trades building on its campus to address students' interests. On Thursday, the Medina Planning Commission unanimously approved a site plan for a 16,826-square-foot construction trades building on the east side of the Career Center's campus. The proposed building would be similar to the recently built construction trades building, which was approved by the Medina Planning Commission in October 2023. The 16,885-square-foot building, which opened in August 2024, allowed for the construction trades program to grow. The project was partially funded by the Ken Cleveland Foundation, which gave the Medina County Career Center $2.5 million for the building. Career center Superintendent Steve Chrisman said the school was turning away more than 100 students from the construction trades program each year before the building was built in 2024. Chrisman said it grew the class sizes from 25 construction trades students to 50. "At the ribbon-cutting, the Ken Cleveland Foundation group asked us if we could do it again, would we?" Chrisman said. "We pointed to the space just to the side, and we said, 'We'd absolutely love to do it again.'" The Ken Cleveland Foundation pledged $3 million to the career center for the second building in late August, which will substantially support its construction. Ken Cleveland, a Medina County philanthropist who died in 2019, was a housing developer, founder of the Ken Cleveland Builders Co. and founder of the Ken Cleveland Foundation. The $3 million gift will be made in installments, according to the signed agreement between the career center and the Ken Cleveland Foundation. The first payment of $500,000 will be made within 10 days of the signed agreement. Additional $500,000 installments will be made on or before each of the first five anniversaries of the initial installment. Chrisman said the second building would be dedicated to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning program, as well as the construction electricity program. "Then, we'd truly have a construction academy so that those groups could work collaboratively with them," Chrisman said. Contact reporter Sara Crawford at (330) 721-4063 or scrawford@medina-gazette.com.