Roanoke County budgets $75 million for new CTE center; school renovations and safety funding highlighted

Roanoke County announced plans to expand career and technical education and to continue school renovations as part of its 2025 State of the County address.

Chairman David Radford said the county will invest $75,000,000 in a new career and technical education (CTE) center designed to link classrooms to local career opportunities. He said the project is expected to be completed in early 2027 and will strengthen workforce pathways in partnership with local employers.

Radford also identified school renovation work at Lehi Cove and W.E. Cundiff elementary schools, which he said have reached key milestones and are expected to be ready for students in 2026. On safety, Radford said the county has committed $2,400,000 from the general budget to provide a dedicated school resource officer at every Roanoke County public school.

Why it matters: The investments aim to prepare students for local manufacturing and technical jobs and to modernize older school facilities. Radford and other speakers emphasized aligning education programs with employer needs to retain talent locally.

Clarifications: The speech included two different square-footage figures for the new CTE facility in separate passages; the chairman described the CTE project as a major, state-of-the-art facility but did not provide a single clear square-footage number in his remarks.

What comes next: County officials said they will continue to work with the school system on construction timelines and workforce-program partnerships. Radford also recognized outgoing superintendent Dr. Ken Nisely and welcomed incoming superintendent Dr. Jamie Soltis during the address.

All budget and timetable figures in this report are drawn from Radford’s remarks and presented as county statements made during the event.