AMERICAN SCHOOL & UNIVERSITY: New building under construction for technology-themed high school in Maryland

New campus for Thomas Edison High School of Technology is set to open in 2018 in Silver Spring.

The Montgomery County (Md.) district has broken ground on a new building to replace the existing Thomas Edison High School of Technology.

WHAG-TV reports that the new building in Silver Spring is expected to be ready in time for the 2018-19 school year. The facility will replace the a school, also in Silver Spring, that was built in 1982.

The Thomas Edison program offers high school students an opportunity to have the chance to enroll in one of Edison’s 17 career and technology programs.

Students accepted into the program will attend three class periods each day at the Edison campus and earn 1.5 credits a semester. They can also earn professional certifications and college credit.

The district says the new facility also will feature the Junior Achievement Finance Park, a financial literacy program that will be offered to all students in seventh grade.

The Junior Achievement Finance Park experience consists of four weeks of classroom curriculum that culminates with a day at Finance Park, where students will be immersed in a reality-based, decision-making process that addresses budgeting, health care, investments, philanthropy and banking.