The Dayton Regional STEM Schools announced plans this week for a 11,000-square-foot addition to the middle and high school building.
That expansion will become the Larry R. and Elaine A. Dosser Center for Manufacturing Sciences, which is meant to expose students to science, engineering, and manufacturing challenges.
Construction on the expansion is set to begin in fall 2026. The center is anticipated to open during the 2027-2028 school year.
In addition to collaboration and presentation spaces, the center will include laboratories for manufacturing sciences and chemical physics. The expansion was made possible through a philanthropic gift from Dr. Larry Dosser and his late wife, Elaine Dosser. The announcement did not state the amount of the gift.
“The goal has always been to create a place where students learn by doing, where they can ask questions, experiment, build, test ideas, and discover how science and engineering solve real problems,” Larry Dosser said in a statement.
The center will provide hands-on access to modern industry technology, including advanced manufacturing technology. It is also designed to introduce students to photonics, a branch of science studying the application and manipulation of light. The Center will also serve students on the Career Technical Education pathways in Engineering, Healthcare, and Computer Science.
In 2019, the Dossers helped establish the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Photonics Laboratory at the Dayton Regional STEM Schools. The new center is over ten times the size of the original classroom.
The center will support students from kindergarten through twelfth grade.