SPANISH FORK — The rush is on to finish work on a new building for the Mountainland Applied Technology Center.

"It's supposed to be ready on Aug. 22," the beginning of fall semester, said Mark Middlebrook, MATC's marketing and development director. "If it is not ready, we have alternative plans (to use) Nebo School District facilities."

The 40,000-square-foot building, on Del Monte Road in Spanish Fork, will be the first south Utah County facility owned by MATC. Its current south county location is in the Nebo Learning Center in Springville.

It cost $3.5 million to build the main facility and refurbish an adjoining facility to teach automotive repair.

It also is the first building of all MATC locations that it will own. The MATC also purchased property at Thanksgiving Point for a future campus.

Other leased locations include American Fork, Orem, Park City and Heber City.

About 350 students will be able to attend classes in the Spanish Fork building. The MATC owns property surrounding the building and can expand in the future if necessary.

Some 75 percent of MATC's student body of 10,000 are high school juniors and seniors who can take courses in career fields such as medical coding, cosmetology or physical therapy assistance.

The medical assisting and informational technology programs at the Spanish Fork campus will fulfill enough credit hours that students can earn associate degrees with just a couple more classes from Utah Valley State College, Middlebrook said.

The state will pay tuition for teenagers in public schools who want to attend MATC classes.

The school is in walking distance of the charter school American Leadership Academy, and the school's administration hopes students take advantage of opportunities at the MATC.

"We already have a wide range of classes among the fine arts and computer work," said Elizabeth Jacinto, public relations coordinator for the school. "But the ability to be able to offer assistance to a dentist or other classes like that will definitely create an incentive for students to enroll in American Leadership Academy and graduate with an associate (degree)."

The MATC is part of the Utah College of Applied Technology.

For more information, visit www.mountainlandatc.org.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com