Maricopa Skill Center

Making Solid Changes: Countdown to Conversions at MSC

-- The Final Countdown --

We’ve been away from this blog a little too long! With construction over at MSC, our Making Solid Changes blog will be coming to an end. In the future, we hope to revamp the blog and relaunch it with a new focus. But until then, we have two more posts this week and one more post during the second week of December. The final post will go out then.*

Below you can read about Cutting Edge, a Cosmetology school for high school students in the West Valley made possible through a partnership between MSC and West-MEC, which has recently completed an expansion project. Thanks for reading and sharing our “countdown to conversions” journey!

Cutting Edge Wraps Up Construction

In October, Cutting Edge, a cosmetology school for high school students made possible through a partnership between MSC and West-MEC, completed a major expansion project. The campus, which serves over 400 junior and senior high school students per year, now has added 2,600 sq. ft. to better accommodate students and staff.

West-MEC made the campus expansion possible by purchasing the vacant space adjacent to Cutting Edge. The additional space added an extra storage room, conference room, and eight staff offices. Existing areas, such as reception/waiting, student break room, teacher room, and cosmetology supply storage, expanded. In fact, the student break room doubled in size. 

Cutting Edge now extends into a former vacant retail space (left); The reception desk (center) and waiting area (right) are much larger, open and brighter than before the remodel.

Students and staff have responded positively to the remodel. The finished campus allows them to have more functional and storage space. Before the remodel, Kim Richardson, associate director of Cosmetology at MSC and Cutting Edge, says that space was limited.

“The old student break room could accommodate no more than six to 10 students at one time. Our instructors didn’t have a comfortable working space for in-between classes. Staff had no meeting space, and many didn't have offices,” says Richardson.

Cutting Edge went to having very little space for its support staff to now being spacious, including new offices and storage.

MSC and the Cutting Edge staff are grateful to West-MEC, especially Greg Donovan, West-MEC’s superintendent, for making the remodel possible and to Jokake Construction, the contractor, for staying on schedule.

*This has been edited to reflect that the actual last post will be published during the second week of December.