Page View
Cartwright, Carol Lohry; Shaffer, Scott; Waller, Randal / City on the Rock River : chapters in Janesville's history
(1998)
8. Education, pp. 147-164
Page 157
In 1940, the shops programs at the technical school moved into a new building at 526 S. River St., but the remainder of the programs stayed at the old high school. In 1960, a large, addition to the South River Street building reunited all vocational-technical school programs in one building (527 S. Franklin St.). In 1968, the State of Wisconsin organized the Janesville and Beloit technical schools into one district that included large portions of Rock and Green counties. Known as District No. 5, it is one of 17 districts supervised by the Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education. Reflecting these changes, the technical school became the Blackhawk Vocational and Technical School. ("VTA School Has New Name" RCHS files) The merger of the two technical schools, an expansion of vocational-technical programs, and increased enrollments caused the Blackhawk Vocational and Technical School Board to build a new facility on the far south side of Janesville that would be convenient for students from many areas. The new campus would also provide centralized facilities for programs that had become scattered in many locations. A site on Prairie Road was acquired, and the new campus for the Blackhawk Vocational and Technical School opened in September 1975. Shortly afterward, the South Franklin Street campus was converted into the Janesville school system's Educational Services Center. (Blackhawk Vocational and Technical Institute Bulletin, RCHS files) Blackhawk Tech has continued to grow in the late twentieth century as vocational-technical programs have expanded and the adult education component has grown. The school is currently known as Blackhawk Technical College, reflecting its associate degree programs and college level courses. It has an expansive campus at 6004 Prairie Rd. that serves the vocational- technical educational needs of south-central Wisconsin. The early locations of the vocational- technical school are no longer extant. The 1940 vocational shop building is still extant on South River Street, but the large, modem addition along South Franklin Street overwhelms the older building, making this location not potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. The campus on Prairie Road is not potentially eligible due to its recent date of construction. Rock County Normal School Another post-high school program that existed for a time in Janesville was the Rock County Rural Normal School. The school was founded in 1911 to train teachers for the many rural schools in Rock County. During the era before school consolidation, rural education was conducted in one- or two-room schoolhouses that dotted the rural countryside. One way to provide the teachers for these schools was to train them at a normal school, usually a one- or two-year program in place of or beyond high school. ("History of the Rock County Rural Normal School") The Rock County Normal School was housed in the old Jefferson School (Jefferson Park, not extant), a building that had been constructed as the first Janesville High School. The normal school occupied the third floor of the building, while the first two floors housed an elementary school. During the first 10 years of its existence, the normal school program was offered to high school graduates, who took a one-year course, and to non-graduates, who took a two-year course. The potential teachers were trained in both a model classroom in the Jefferson School building and in the rural schools themselves. ("History of the Rock County Rural Normal School") The Rock County Normal School graduated from 14 to 43 students each year; in its 22 years of existence, it graduated a total of 585 teachers. In the early 1930s, the school declined. The location of the normal school in the almost 100-year-old Jefferson School was not suitable to the State Department of Public Instruction. Enrollments also declined due to the proximity of the Education 157
This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17, US Code).| For information on re-use see: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright