The forum in the Verde Valley is scheduled for the Verde Campus in Building “M,” Room 137 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. | This is second round of forums as the first forums were held December 6 and 7
Yavapai Community College has announced that it will spend one hour on Monday, February 14 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at an open forum on the Verde Campus, Building “M,” Room 137. The purpose of a second forum appears to be essentially the same as the first. According to the Community College’s announcement on is web page, the second forum on February 14 will be used:
“to help guide the next eight years of capital investments for college facilities. The Campus Master Plan will incorporate the College’s Strategic Plan to determine where and when to invest resources at the campuses and centers to either upgrade, enhance, or construct infrastructure to support academic facilities and support resources and/or create student engagement and activity areas, community common spaces, improve campus and center aesthetics, among others.”
Recall that the first public forum on the Master Plan was held on the Verde Campus on December 6, 2021. There was a good turn-out for that meeting with citizens from Sedona and the Verde Valley in attendance. It included Sedona’s mayor, former mayor, vice mayor and members of the local town and city councils. There were also a few faculty from the Verde Campus.
In general, the citizens at the first forum expressed a strong need for development in Sedona and the Verde Campus over the next decade that included faculty/student on-campus housing, enhanced and expanded Career and Technical Education facilities, an enhanced and expanded vineyard and viticulture program, an expanded and improved culinary facility at the Sedona Center, and continued support and expansion of the Allied Health programs. They also encouraged the College to consider adding programs that are not included on the east side of the County such as music and theatre.
There were concerns expressed from some of the citizens at the first forum in December about the composition of the present sixteen-member development planning steering committee. This committee is heavily balanced in favor of the west side of the County. It consists of fourteen persons from Prescott and only two from the Verde Valley.
There were also expressions of concern at the first forum among some that ten years ago the same planning team used back then was hired once again to plan future development. The last time the Community College created a development plan it ended up with a $103.5 million dollar plan with over 95% of development focused on the west side of the County along with the possible closing of the Sedona Center. There were hopeful expressions during the first forum in December of this year that a ten-year(or eight-year) plan created in 2022 would not yield such an incredibly uneven and unfair result.
Recall that a decade ago east side residents also spoke to the same planning group that was once again hired to do Community College development planning. Those east side voices made no dent in the decision to allocate virtually all major development to the west side of the County and to shutter programs and support staff on the east side of the County.
It should be remembered that Sedona/Verde Valley residents have been politically fighting the $103.5 development plan ever since with occasional but grudging success it was approved by the Governing Board 4-1 back in December 2013. It was hoped that with a new administration there would be a serious effort to begin diverting millions of dollars to the east side to seriously develop educational opportunities there.
It will be challenging, of course, to make up for the decades the east side has been virtually ignored in terms of serious development by the Community College. The history of the College is that for over 50 years serious development and funding have been poured into the west side of the County where the result is a heavily financed small college or university-like institution.
The discussion in the first forum was directed by a member of the Smith Group consulting organization. The moderator at that forum ran out of time to respond to a wide variety of citizen questions.