UPDATE: The Olathe school board voted last week to name the new career and technical education program center. The name will be the Olathe Public Schools Innovation Campus.
Original story continues below.
Renovations are underway — and set to be completed next school year — for Olathe Public Schools’ new career and technical education program center, despite challenges along the way.
The district bought the former Lindenwood Business Center, a 138,000-square-foot office building, a few years ago for about $5 million. Interior demolition started earlier this year at the property, 450 Rogers Road, near Interstate 35 and Santa Fe Street.
“With an adaptive reuse project, there’s always some unforeseen issues and challenges that come up,” said Travis Palangi, Olathe Public Schools executive director of facilities and operations. “The existing building was built in the ’60s and ’70s.”
The challenges:
- Replacement of the sanitary sewer lines
- Exterior wall repairs
- Install extra supports for some settlement in the southwest corner
- Find the right compaction for subsurface dirt under a building addition
“We have identified all those items that need to be fixed or replaced, and we’re now moving forward with those repairs so that we can finish the project for an opening” during the 2026-2027 school year, Palangi said earlier this month.
The new space, called the Olathe Innovation Center, will house several of the district’s career and technical education programs, many of which are outgrowing their current spaces at high schools across the district.
“Right now, we’re working on the exterior walls of the existing building that will house our CTE programs and we have just erected our exterior walls for the addition that will house our operations service center,” Palangi said.
Programs moving to the new center:
- Culinary arts
- Health sciences
- Animal sciences
- Avionics and Electronics Technology, a partnership with Garmin
The center will also contain a restaurant space and a publicly accessible coffee shop operated by students in the culinary program.
Additionally, special education programs available to adults 18 to 21 will operate out of the Innovation Center, as well as Olathe Public Schools’ mental health services. Plans for the lower level include meeting space for professional development or other district meetings.
“Our community is excited for it,” said Erin Schulte, assistant director of communications for Olathe Public Schools. “We have top notch programs, so to be able to provide them more space, a nice new facility, is just going to be amazing for our kids.”
Read more: Olathe Schools starts on major new career education center. When will it open?
