Applauds renovating Building “L” for Allied health and nursing but is concerned budget shows no future commitment to additional CTE training

Third District Representative Paul Chevalier

Third District Yavapai Community College District Governing Board representative Paul Chevalier expressed concern over the future of career and technical education development in the Verde Valley at the Tuesday Board meeting. Mr. Chevalier pointed out that there was nothing in the Community College budget over the next 3 to 4 years to indicate facilities for programs outside the medical area would be considered.

Vice president Clint Ewell responded that a portion of one of the two floors in building “L” was set aside for manufacturing. However, Mr. Chevalier pointed out that the space set aside in Building “L” was not  an adequate for programs such as diesel and automobile programs. He also evinced a belief (shared with many on the east side of the County) that a CTE facility for broader training programs should be more centrally located than on the Verde Campus.  Board chair Ray Sigafoos suggested that nothing was written in stone and opined that there could be future changes.

Mr. Chevalier reminded the Board that 19 years ago when a $69.5 billion bond was passed to improve facilities District-wide, it was anticipated that a large number of CTE courses would be taught on the Verde Campus in Building “L” including Carpentry, Air Conditioning, Electrical, Automotive Technician, Welding, Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Refrigeration, Commercial Driver’s License Training, and Truck Driving among Others. He argued that  the Community College should try and live up to those aspirations.

You may view some clips from the Board meeting where Mr. Chevalier is making these arguments on behalf of District 3 below.

Focus is almost all on Allied health and nursing training

Executive Dean of the Verde Valley Campus James Perey outlined in detail to the Governing Board at Tuesday’s meeting how once Building “L” is completed it will be used for training. As the current architectural plans show, almost all of the space will be used for Allied health and nursing training. A small section has been set aside for manufacturing training of some sort. Dean Perry said that it is hoped that the number of students in the Allied health and nursing training program will expand once the renovations in place.

According to the architects, existing exterior hallways will be enclosed to improve safety and security, increase energy efficiency, install new LED lighting, and provide a secured lobby with limited entry points. The renovation will begin in mid-May and the Community College expects it to be completed by the fall 2020 semester.

The Community College has been working “for months” with SPS Plus architects, a Scottsdale firm. The plan provides for fewer but larger classroom and lab spaces. It is intended to be flexible.

Building “L” will be closed during renovation with courses moved to other buildings on the Clarkdale campus.

The Blog has produced an eight minute film clip of Dr. Perey’s presentation to the Governing Board, which follows below.

Construction to begin in May on Verde Campus; claims it may spend as much as $4.9 million on project although no specific details announced; nursing and allied health facilities are obvious additions

Another renovation for Building L

Yavapai Community College announced in an interview with Verde Independent newspaper staff reporter Bill Helm that it would begin remodeling Building L on the Verde Campus in May 2019. The announcement came as a part of two stories appearing in the Friday, March 1, 2019 Edition of the Verde Independent about Building L

According to the story in the Independent, the Community College met both internal and external stakeholders including economic development directors, elected officials, and businesses and industry representatives to discuss how building L should be used.  What exactly was said and by whom is a secret because all of the meetings were private and by invitation only. The news media were barred from attending and recording those meetings.

The Community College has not finalized its renovation plans. However, according to executive Dean James Perey, the renovation will allow the Community College to create and expend quality CTE programming that meets local workforce needs and prepares students for careers.

Perry told reporter Helm that by renovating current space, the Community College would be able to increase capacity for both nursing and allied health while possibly adding other programs in emergency medical services, parent medicine and home healthcare.

Perry also told Helm that it may add a manufacturing lab to the building and a lab for short-term programs that could ramp up and down as needed.

Building L is currently used for nursing, allied health, computer networking technology, film and media arts programs, science labs that support university transfer courses, healthcare services and the viticulture and analogy programs.

Design team, architects and construction companies all selected; secret meetings regarding Building L held in January with locally selected Verde Valley politicians and others

As noted in earlier blog notes, Building L on the Verde Campus has been renovated, remodeled, and otherwise revamped for a variety of purposes since 2004.  It is the Rodney Dangerfield of College buildings. Here we go again.

The Yavapai Community College Facilities Management department announced at the February 2019 Board meeting that programming is underway regarding Building L on the Verde Campus. Faculty and staff review meetings were scheduled throughout January 2019, according to the College.

It also announced that it had selected a Design Team (SPS+ Architects Construction Team) and a construction team ( Kinney Construction Services).

During January the College held secret meetings with a hand-picked number of politicians and others in the Verde Valley where the future of Building L was discussed.  Because there is no record available of that meeting and the press was not allowed to attend, it is not clear what was said and by whom.

The College must use Building L for some type of Career and Technical Education because it was constructed in part back in 2004 with the help of a Government grant and a promise that the federal funds would be used for that purpose.  The most likely scenario is that it will be renovated for the nursing program.

Award based on “building and launching programs in culinary and hotel and restaurant management”

In a press release Yavapai Community College announced that Executive Dean of Yavapai College Verde Valley Campus and Sedona Center, Dr. James Perey,  recently received national recognition in accepting the PACE Economic Development Award at the Association for Career & Technical Education (ACTE) CareerTech VISION conference in San Antonio, Texas.

ACTE is the largest national education association in the United States, dedicated to providing educational leadership in developing a competitive workforce. The national winners for the ACTE division of Post-secondary Adult Career Educators (PACE) were announced at an award presentation recognizing outstanding post-secondary leaders in the country.

The PACE Economic Development Award recognized Dr. Perey’s work in creating Career and Technical Education (CTE) partnerships and programs tied directly to the economy.

Dr. Perey led Yavapai College’s $5 million renovation of the Sedona Center, which included building and launching programs in culinary and hotel and restaurant management tied directly to the local economy.

You may read the entire College press release by clicking here.

Secret Building “L” meeting reflects fear College has of input from public at large; lack of comprehensive planning

Well, there’s another meeting that is to be held January 10 by the Community College to once again discuss the fate of Building “L” on the Verde Campus. Only certain unnamed folks outside the College have been invited to the meeting, we are told.  The meeting is to be held at out of the public eye. The public is not invited, and the college has not informed the public of the time and place of the meeting.

Poor Building “L”, which I refer to as the Rodney Dangefield of College facilities. It gets no respect. It’s future now is being decided, it appears, in secrecy and without a clear public five-year plan for development of the College on the east side of the County.

The Building has been kicked around since it was built in 2004. The original vision was to use millions from a Federal Government grant and a voter approved bond to create a major Career and Technical Education (CTE) training Center on the Verde Campus in Building “L”.  Unfortunately for Building “L” and the 70,000 residents living on the east side of Mingus Mountain, that vision was pretty much abandoned when the politicos on the west side of the County decided in 2006-07 to build an entirely new CTE campus at the Prescott airport to serve the residents over there.

Since that fateful decision by the Prescott folks, Building “L” has been struggling to find a proper use. It has been renovated for enology labs and modified in part for the Verde Campus nursing program. In the December 2013 College development plan, Building “L” was to play a central role of the shift in agriculture when the Chino Valley Campus was closed and many of its operations transferred to the Verde Campus.  But that plan landed with a resounding thud in Chino Valley and has no chance to materialize. 

To add to the woes of Building “L”, discussion on January 10 will take place in a vacuum in terms of a written, serious, comprehensive, understandable five-year development plan for east-county post-secondary education.  I suspect there may be something about a “strategic” five year plan dumped into the discussion pot by the College. However, those of us who have carefully looked at it find it lacking in vision and clarity.

The sad fact is there is no effort on the part of the College to produce a serious post-secondary development plan for the 70,000 residents on the east side of Yavapai County.  And there never has been.  What I’ve seen over the past two decades is a piecemeal approach to any development on this side of Mingus Mountain. Just enough to keep the folks from too loudly raising their voices in protest of the second class treatment afforded them by the College.

In sharp contrast is the serious, focused development that has taken place on the west side of the mountain.  Over the past 18 years the west side Yavapai Community College politicians and presidents working under their influence have delivered the following to Prescott and Prescott Valley residents: A new professional tennis complex, swimming pool, therapy pool, 1,100 state-of-the-art dinner theater, two renovated residence halls, renovation of all parking lots and every campus building, a new CTE Campus, a huge athletic program, baseball field, softball field, leased soccer fields, major sized gymnasium, music program, theater program, new 4-year bachelor’s degree with ASU, a new Allied Health facility, new police training building, and much more.  Meanwhile, east side residents have either slept through all this selfish development for one part of the County or have been politically marginalized.

To illustrate the enormous commitment of the west County politicians to developing the college on that side of Mingus Mountain, college documents show that almost $60 million (maybe more) of the $69.5 million 2000 bond went to west County development.  In addition to the bond money, the College spent other funds to build an $11 million Prescott Campus heating plant, a $20 million dollar Career and Technical Education Campus at the Prescott Airport, and around $7 million to renovate two dormitories on the Prescott Campus.  If that doesn’t take your breath away, recall that in 2013 the Governing Board approved in concept spending another $100 million on the west side of the county for additional construction and renovation. (That has since been reduced to something around $65 million.)

Meanwhile, the College spent $18 million to replace the infrastructure, renovate and replace the 40 year-old falling down wooden buildings on the Verde Campus and about a half million for the poorly designed outdoor pavilion. After citizens put a halt to the idea of selling the Sedona Center, and after it was essentially closed for over two years, the College has finally and reluctantly invested around $5.5 million in renovation, a new parking lot and building a street. (The viticulture land and building on the Verde Campus were primarily the result of donations.)

It is time for a serious comprehensive Community College five-year development document for the 70,000 residents on the east side of the County.  Without it, the traditional piecemeal, “’how ya Gonna Keep ‘em down on the farm” mentally will continue to rule post-secondary Verde Campus and Sedona Center worlds. Without it, any discussion of how Building “L” should be used in in the future seems pretty useless.

Provides an opportunity for those interested in construction to learn more about the current courses offered by VACTE and the College plus paid internships that allow on-the-job training with local contractors

The Valley Academy of Career and Technical Education (VACTE) and Yavapai Community College are jointly sponsoring a construction training information program for the public where those interested in this area of work can find out all about the courses and paid internships being offered. The program will be held November 13 and begins at 6:00 p.m. It will run for about two hours. It will be held at the VACTE training center in Cottonwood, 3405 E. SR 89A, building B (room 2) in Cottonwood.

The November 13 program provides students or adults with the opportunity to meet with industry employers in the Cottonwood/Camp Verde/Sedona areas who will be working with the College and VACTE on this program.  

For those interested in a career in construction, courses include training in basic framing, carpentry and building skills, tool and job site safety.  Paid internships are available and the courses are certified.

This effort follows the program begun by the College this fall at its Chino Valley Center.

For additional information, contact Superintendent Bob Wier at 928-717-7720.

RESA Corporation is shuttering its participation with the College in the project

The RESA Corporation and the Community College are parting ways.  The training program to supply RESA with college-trained technicians begun with great anticipation in January 2018 will be shuttered when the eight remaining students complete their training this fall.

The College Board approved a three-year lease with RESA of 3,700 square feet at the Career and Technical Education Center at its March 2018 Board meeting. 

Recall that College Vice President Ron Liss and Prescott City Manager Michael Lamar explained to the Community  College Governing Board at its January 16, 2018  meeting about how the City of Prescott, NACOG, the Community College and the Resa Corporation had joined hands to create a series of courses and internships in less than a month. The courses were intended to train potential employees for the Resa Corporation.  The training began January 29.

Resa is a small company located in Prescott. It has been around for about twenty years and is known for providing orthopedic insoles.  Insoles prescribed by a podiatrist may cost from $400 to $500 a pair.  However, Resa said it had developed and patented a process where the entire procedure for making insoles takes place at a kiosk. The machinery in the kiosk scans and captures every detail of a person’s feet in three dimensions. The insoles are designed specifically for one individual based on activity level, medical need and foot structure. Once the scanning takes place at a kiosk located in a store such as Costco, the custom insoles are then 3D-printed with a high-quality thermoplastic in about an hour. They are then ready to be picked up by the customer.

Resa told the College that it had obtained a number of agreements to locate kiosks in several high volume, high profile stores.  But the kiosks, which will be located in stores around the nation, must be maintained by well-trained technicians. Resa told the College it needed at least 25 technicians almost immediately. Resa anticipated training a future workforce in Prescott of from 150 to 300 technicians in an 18 month time frame. (That later seemed to change to a three-year time frame.)  The program has trained only a small number of technicians so far.

The City of Prescott needed a quick response when Resa contacted it indicating a need for the trained workforce. The City believed that if it couldn’t produce the labor force for the Company, it would relocate. The City, which was contacted in December 2017, asked for help from the College and at some point, the Northern Arizona Council of Governments (NACOG).

The College responded by creating a 19 credit hour program to be completed in 14 weeks specifically for the Resa technicians. Yavapai Community College CTEC faculty spent the two week holiday designing the curriculum.

Tuition was paid by NACOG. If NACOG did not fully cover the tuition, the Company agreed to do so.  In addition, the technician Internships that accompany the training program paid $14 an hour for from 16 to 20 hours a week.  Students spend the first three days of the week in training and the second two days as paid interns.  A $25 an hour job awaits at the Company for students who successfully complete the intense 15 week training program. Classes begin January 29.

The College held a preview day for the second installment of the program in April 2017.  At that time RESA indicated it was seeking 300 trained employees over the next three years. 

RESA has not issued a statement explaining its decision to abandon the training at CTEC.

Expresses hope that there will be a CTE facility built by the College that will work closely with him and his programs in the not too distant future

Bob Wier

Mr. Bob Wier, the superintendent for the Valley Academy Career and Technology Education program in the Verde Valley, reported to the Governing Board at its October meeting on the progress he was making on cooperatively developing Career and Technical Education programs at his Cottonwood facility with Yavapai College. 

Recall that Mr. Wier’s east county 8,000 square foot facility is paid for by East County taxpayers as a part of their annual property tax bill.  Also recall that the west side of the County has a similar CTE program plus the state-of-the-art 105,000 square foot CTE facility built and run by the College at the Prescott airport. The College works closely with the east County Mountain Institute and has trained thousands of its high school students.  (Not one high school student from west side of County has been trained there.)

It is hoped that in the not too distant future that the College will construct a facility similar (but not as large) as the one at the Prescott airport and join hands with Bob Wier’s programs in its operation.   The Mountain Institute CTE program, on the west side of the County , has developed a close working relationship with the College and actually offices at the College’s CTE facility at the Prescott airport.

Mr. Wier reported that he is starting a cooperative construction program with the College in the fall.  Students will have paid internships.   He has doubled enrollment in culinary training at the College’s Sedona Center. 

Mr. Wier also reported that the superintendents on the east side of the County are working together cooperatively on a number of CTE projects.  You may view his report to the Board on the video below.