Georgia Piedmont Technical College


Georgia Piedmont Technical College is a technical college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Technical College System of Georgia and provides education for a four-county service area, mostly in the metro Atlanta area. The school's service area includes Dekalb, Rockdale, Newton, and Morgan counties. GPTC is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate degrees, diplomas, and technical certificates of credit. Many of the school's individual technical programs are also accredited by their respective accreditation organizations.

History

GPTC was first established in 1961 as DeKalb Area Vocational School. The college was initially organized in cooperation with the Vocational Division of the State Department of Education and operated by the DeKalb County Board of Education. DeKalb Technical College operated as a division and campus of Georgia Perimeter College from 1972 to 1986, and as the post secondary unit of DeKalb County School System until June 30, 1996. On July 1, 1996, DeKalb Tech began operating as a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. In 2000, DeKalb Technical Institute's name was officially changed to DeKalb Technical College.
The college enrolled its first class of 18 students in Electronics Technology in 1961. At that time, the college was in temporary quarters while the DeKalb Campus facility was under construction. The facility on North Indian Creek Drive in Clarkston opened in October 1963 and consists of five buildings, totaling 275,000 square feet of floor space.
In 2018, the U.S. Department of Education placed the college on heightened cash monitoring status, a status that places additional financial demands on the college as related to federal financial aid. Shortly thereafter, the college's system began investigating finances at the college. As a result, the college's president was fired and four other administrators placed on leave.

Locations and programs

GPTC's primary campus is located in Clarkston, though the college also has a campus in Covington and nine centers of learning in DeKalb, Newton, Rockdale and Morgan counties. The school currently has more than 8,000 students enrolled in credit programs and more than 9,000 in adult education and continuing education classes. Academic and technical programs at GPTC cover more than 120 different occupations. There are more than 260 full-time members of the faculty and staff, and part-time faculty and staff number approximately 660.
In February 2017, president Jabari Simama announced plans for a new film academy program in an effort to offer courses in growing industries. The college is working with the Georgia Film Academy to create the new curriculum.