Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus

Vocational schools in New Jersey, United States

The Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus is a hub for education located in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.

Plans to open what would later become the Union County Vocational Technical Schools Campus were announced in early 1966, as the new home for the Union County Vocational Technical Institute. A 42 acre site along Raritan Road in Scotch Plains was chosen to construct three buildings, at a cost of $3.75 million. Upon opening in 1968, these buildings housed central services, the adult technical institute, and the high school aged vocational center. Campus expansions included an allied health studies building in 1973 and an expansion to the Vocational Center in 1980, focusing on special services. After a merger with Union County College in 1982, the focus on adult classes was moved to other UCC locations in the county, leading the technical institute building to be abandoned. Beginning in the mid 1990s, a push was made to open a magnet high school on the campus. $3.5 million was spent gutting and renovating the abandoned technical institute building, which opened as the Union County Magnet High School in September 1997. Since 1997, the campus has seen a number of expansions as more high schools are built and fewer adult classes are offered. The Academy for Information Technology opened on the south side of the campus in the mid 2000s. During the same time period, the central services building was renovated and expanded to house the Academy for Allied Health Sciences. As part of the same construction project, an addition was added to the vocational center to house a new cafeteria, which would replace the one in the central services building. In the late 2000s, the Academy for Performing Arts was built on the northeast corner of the campus. As the 2010s approached, bridges and breezeways were constructed across the campus, making it possible to walk between buildings without going outside. As of 2015, construction is currently underway to partially demolish and expand the vocational center, to house new academic classrooms.