The Southwest Technical Education District of Yuma, or STEDY, has come a long way since its inception in 2015. The career and technical education district has been serving Yuma County high schoolers by offering CTE programs at its central campus and satellite locations. New growth has seen increased programming – most notably in recent years, logistics and supply chain management and cosmetology.
Over the past three years alone, the number of students in central campus programs have nearly tripled: from 66 in 2022-2023 to 121 in 2023-2024 to 177 in 2024-2025. To accommodate this growth, STEDY purchased the building it was renting at 899 E. Plaza Circle.
“Long story short, we looked at it, and the the cost of purchasing the whole thing was a cost that we could be able to, through some management of some carryover funds we had that we could, we had the the resources to purchase it, and we didn't have to go to our taxpayers to ask them for any additional information,” STEDY Superintendent Tom Tyree said. “So that was a big plus.”
By leasing some of their space out as well, the district will see added benefit in maintaining its central campus.
“We got revenue coming in now that we're the owners that help us pay some of the bills and take care of some of the things that we need to do to the building,” Tyree added. “And we're going to have a really first class facility that I think allows us some room to grow for some number of years.”
Just in time to celebrate its 10th anniversary, STEDY is beginning a renovation project this week that will revamp 4100 square feet of space with a cost that is guaranteed to not exceed $303.3K. By the end of July 2025, the project will provide STEDY with a larger boardroom with viewing screens and monitors. The old board room will transform into a student learning center. During his interview with KAWC, Tyree explained that the new boardroom will have enough space for events like recognition ceremonies, the most recent of which took place on Wednesday, May 21.
“But for example, in a couple weeks (at the time of this interview), we're going to have our recognition ceremony for students,” he said, standing in the future board room space. “Our numbers have grown so much that we can't–we used to have them over in what's now our boardroom, and we've grown too large to do that. And so we're actually going to rent the Yuma theatre this year to have the completion ceremony over there, but beginning next year, we'll be able to have that in here.”
Increased facility space will also mean more room for more students and courses.
“Our medical assisting program at this point in time and our cosmetology program are both programs that we have more students who want to get in than we're able to accommodate there,” Tyree said. “... We have waiting lists of people so we have more student interest in (cosmetology). That's one that there's a lot of interest in.
“Same with our medical assisting program. In that case, we have multiple teachers teaching year one and year two, and we're going to add another year one and year two section next year just because of the need for the program. And because of the space that we've acquired, we've got the classroom space to do that so we're going to start that over there.”
Accommodating the growth has been a positive challenge in Tyree’s view.
“I've always said, you know, we always want to accommodate as many students as we can and we hate to think that there is any student that would want to be in our program that would be appropriate to be in the program that they can't be in,” he commented. “But I've always said that an indication of success on our part will be when our demand exceeds our ability to accommodate that.”
And the work to bring new opportunities continues. The newest program at STEDY, logistics and supply chain management, is now available to high school students and adult learners through a partnership with Northern Arizona University.
When the program began, STEDY ran into an issue with funding to cover a student’s tuition because of a law preventing them from partnering with a university. Because of this, they turned to Arizona Senator Tim Dunn (LD 25) and because of Arizona Senate Bill 1525’s recent passage, they’ll be able to cover high school students’ tuition like they normally do for programs with Arizona Western College, their primary partner in endeavors.
“I really want to give all the credit to Senator Dunn – and also we have a lobbyist that represents CTEDs in the state – and so our lobbyists and Senator Dunn and other people, his legislative staff… they were the ones that carried the water and got that done for us,” Tyree said. “And so we're really grateful to them for getting it done.”
Making the course available to STEDY students was a priority for Tyree, who explained there’s a big demand for Yuma workers in supply chain management.
“When I first looked at what we had just down on the border, you got two large companies down there that transport a lot of agricultural goods into the United States from Mexico or the other way or coming in from other places in the United States,” he noted. “Our hospital (Onvida Health); think about the hospital, all of the supplies that they need. They have a warehouse that a lot of that stuff comes in. In fact, that's where we have that class held. But thinking more day to day, how much stuff do you get online?
“So supply chain logistics is a huge thing, and so what we need to do is train our students, our people, how to do that. In fact, there's a real need for that as Yuma continues to grow. So supply chain, logistics, agriculture, IT technology. We started a Homeland Security course this year–federal law enforcement, border patrol, all those things, ICE, all those things around the area. So we look at our students’ needs or interests, but also what our communities’ are and then we try to develop programs that fit those needs.”
The supply chain management program with NAU - Yuma consists of six 3-credit courses. All but the first are upper division level classes, and the final is a capstone project that places students with a business.
“It's an opportunity,” Tyree said. “You can earn a certificate after you've completed those 18 units. But if you wanted to continue on into college and maybe you have, let's say, an AA degree or you've taken some community college courses already and you got these 18 units that all would fall in – if you wanted to go ahead and get a bachelor's degree in that, you've got a good leg up on doing it.”
The next class begins in September, so interested high school students can learn more at stedycte.org. Interested adults can learn more at nau.edu/yuma.
