THORNTON, Colo. — Adams 12 Five Star Schools is investing nearly $40 million to build more space for career and technical education programs as interest in skilled trades continues to grow across Colorado.
On Monday, school district leaders celebrated the groundbreaking for an expansion of FutureForward at Bollman, one of the district's two career and technical education campuses serving high school students from across the district. The project is funded through a voter-approved 2024 bond.
The two-story, 36,000-square-foot addition will expand space for existing programs while creating dedicated space for new offerings, including cosmetology, esthetics, barbering and dental assisting.
Janet Renden, Bollman's principal, said the demand for CTE programs across Adams 12 is at an all-time high, with growing waitlists for many programs. She said Bollman has grown from about 300 students nearly two decades ago to about 1,300 today, with the expansion expected to make room for roughly 500 more students by fall 2028.
"I think that, you know, our students are pickier consumers of education than they ever have been," said Renden. "They want to do hands-on. They want to be engaged. They want to get excited about their learning, and they want to fully participate in it. Right? They don't want to just sit and listen to how to do it."
Data from Colorado CTE, the state office for career and technical education, show enrollment in CTE programs across Colorado high schools jumped 15% from the 2018-2019 to 2024-2025 school years. During the 2024-2025 school year, the data show 46% of Colorado high school students were enrolled in at least one CTE class, up from 38% in the 2018-2019 school year.
Renden said students are also weighing the financial and time costs of a traditional four-year college path.
"They're not interested in the debt that comes with four-year college. Sometimes they're not interested in the time that's going to take," Renden said. "They want to feel like they're making a difference, and they want to feel like they're doing that earlier."
Thornton High School senior Alexander Ortiz is enrolled in a culinary class at FutureForward at Bollman, where he said the program opened his eyes to options beyond a traditional college track.
"You get to specialize in something you truly want and have passion for," Ortiz said. "I think that there's hundreds of kids who share that same experience with me, and I think that this is a perfect opportunity for them to be able to express that."
Bollman graduate Liliana Friedenson said the program gave her a head start that carried into culinary school, and eventually back to Bollman to help teach other students.
"FutureForward was what got me going to school every day. So to be able to give that ability for other students to go and explore something that maybe they haven't even considered yet, to be able to get them going to find something that they're interested in and give them a head start on their future is just, it's such a great opportunity," said Friedenson.
