[JesseK]

We tried the 'get local government involved in helping to get a building', yet the political partners didn't get involved in executing enough before they moved on to other things. I can't tell how much the local school system interfered with that particular effort (bit of a story behind that). So we've (and by we, I mean the leader) refocused the entire community outreach of the team from a community STEM center to a more grass-roots effort.

In the meantime, our faculty member has made robotics so popular in the school academic program at the high school that she has two very large classrooms to teach 1 FRC block, 8 FTC teams in a couple of blocks, and then her usual database/IT courses in her other blocks. We have (roughly) a 1/3-size FRC field (using mockup components and good measurements) and a full FTC field, adjacent to our shop. This year it fit the full pyramid with high goal. We only wish it had carpeting and a higher ceiling (for errant game objects), yet considering what we've gone through we feel blessed to have it.

We know it's working. We're getting letters from realtors and developers (Toll Brothers) telling of people who want to move into our high school's district solely because of the robotics program.