Standing in front of the old armory on Canon Perdido Street on Wednesday, Santa Barbara Unified Superintendent Hilda Maldonado recounted her first job in high school: the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit (a youth program, to be clear).
“I think back on what opportunities I had to prepare for a career,” she said. She gestured to the armory behind her, currently a piece of underutilized district property. “When we look at this site, we see more than a facility — it’s a bridge to a high-wage and high-skill career.”
Right now, the 4.7-acre site is being primed to become a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) Center for the district, completing an education corridor on the Eastside between Santa Barbara High School and Santa Barbara Junior High. It’s a project nearly a decade in the making, starting when the district acquired the property in 2018.
The armory is currently used as a hub for district maintenance and operations, but it is envisioned to house 20-24 large CTE classrooms, each designed for a specific career-track…