Northwest Education Services cancels 2026 Cool Tech Camp due to HVAC maintenance

Northwest Education Services Career Tech has canceled the 2026 North Ed Cool Tech Camp for students in grades 5-7 at its Parsons Road campus in Traverse City, officials say. "Officials say the ongoing work makes it unsafe to host students this summer," a notice on the cancellation states.

Officials cited extensive HVAC maintenance and rooftop construction projects scheduled throughout the summer months at the Career Tech facility at 880 Parsons Road as the reason for the cancellation. "Officials said the scale of the work makes it impossible to safely host students in the learning labs, shops and classrooms this summer and the facility’s resources would be difficult to replicate elsewhere," the statement adds.

The annual camp is designed to introduce rising middle schoolers to Northwest Education Services' career and technical education offerings that serve a five-county region. North Ed Career Tech provides 23 state-approved programs for high school juniors and seniors from Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties; camp programming normally relies on the site’s hands-on learning labs and shops.

Construction and maintenance were described as major, with projects scheduled to run throughout the summer months at the Parsons Road Career Tech campus. Those timelines, officials said, overlap directly with the planned 2026 summer session for the Cool Tech Camp, creating safety and logistical barriers to running classes that require specialized equipment and shop space.

The cancellation removes a key recruitment and outreach activity that typically connects younger students to the Career Tech pathways available when they reach high school. North Ed’s Parsons Road facility is the hub for those 23 state-approved programs, and officials emphasized that many of the tools and instructional spaces used during the camp cannot be easily duplicated off-site.

Northwest Education Services has not provided a named official who announced the cancellation, nor has the notice included contractor names, exact start or completion dates for the HVAC and rooftop work, or details about refunds or rescheduling for registered participants. The announcement was posted during the week of February 24, 2026, when the cancellation first became public.

The cancellation affects rising middle school students across Grand Traverse, Antrim, Benzie, Kalkaska and Leelanau counties and temporarily removes an in-person pathway to explore North Ed Career Tech’s offerings. Parents and local schools seeking specifics about registration refunds or alternative programming will need to await further details from Northwest Education Services as the district finalizes construction plans.