Career and Technical Education :: Page 4

Yavapai Community College in Northern Arizona

Archive for Career and Technical Education – Page 4

APPEARS THE TEN MILLION DOLLAR VERDE VALLEY BREWERY PROJECT HAS BEEN PUT ON “HOLD” FOR REASONS YET TO BE DIVULGED BY THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

By R. Oliphant

Thursday, November 10th, 2022

“Postponement” announcement buried in Yavapai Community College Facilities Management Newsletter of October 2022 | Length of postponement unclear | Governing Board and public await an explanation

The rumor has been circulating in the Verde Valley that the Yavapai Community College Administration has “postponed” development of the Ten Million dollar Verde Valley beer brewing brewery project. Although there has been no formal announcement made to the public or the District Governing Board about the project, the Blog discovered an announcement of the postponement buried in the October 2022 Facilities Management Newsletter.

Why the public, or at least the District Governing Board, was not informed of the reasons for the postponement or the expected length of the delay at the October meeting is puzzling. But this project is one that the College administration has tried very hard to keep details secret as much as possible from public scrutiny.

The general definition of “postponed” is that something will take place at a time later than that first scheduled. The College administration might inform the public and the Board at its meeting in November about what has changed its plans for the project. So far the College has invested thousands of dollars in preliminary planning and architectural drawings, which will go to waste if the project is eventually abandoned.

Moreover, will the postponement mean no request for a tax increase in May?

Below is a copy of the announcement found in the College Facilities and Management Newsletter of October 2022.

Categories : ADMINISTRATION, Beer projects, Career and Technical Education

PIMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE PARTNERS WITH GLOBAL AUTONOMOUS DRIVING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

By R. Oliphant

Sunday, October 16th, 2022

Company will base its operations at the community college’s new Automotive Technology and Innovation Center| Shouldn’t Yavapai invest the $10 million on such a center on a smaller scale on the Verde Campus rather than a brewery? If you missed it, the future is here.

Editor Robert Oliphant

OPINION. Pony.ai announced on Oct. 12, 2022, a partnership with Pima Community College to test drive its autonomous electrical vehicles in Tucson on Oct. 12, 2022. A global autonomous driving technology company, Pony.ai, will open its first Arizona location in Tucson to test its electric vehicles. The company will base its operations at the Pima Community College’s new Automotive Technology and Innovation Center on its downtown campus.

The company said that it chose Tucson because it already had a strong relationship with the City of Tucson and Pima Community College’s new Automotive and Technology and Innovation Center.

In a press release, Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson said that with Pony.ai’s vision, under-resourced populations will have access to more reliable transportation for persons with disabilities. According to a 2017 report published by the Ruderman Family Foundation, self-driving cars offer potential for reducing transportation obstacles for people with disabilities. The report points to government transportation survey data from 2003 that found six million people with disabilities have difficulties getting the transportation they need.

Wouldn’t it be much wiser for Yavapai Community College to invest the $10 million it’s decided to spend on the Verde Campus in developing an electric automotive and technology center rather that a brewery? I think so. After all, in case you missed it, the future is here.

Categories : Career and Technical Education

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YAVAPAI COLLEGE’S PLAN FOR BUILDING A BEER BREWERY AND A DISTILLERY?

By R. Oliphant

Saturday, October 8th, 2022

Rep Chevalier outlines concerns with $10 million project charging College failed to conduct appropriate need assessment; prefers College focus on and provide more hi-tech training on east side of County for students

OPINION. By Paul Chevalier. As the Third District representative to the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board, (Sedona, Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Big Park etc.) I see two of my responsibilities as follows: First, providing the residents of Sedona and that portion of the Verde Valley with information about important College developments. Second, protecting your wallet when it comes to wisely spending the millions of taxes residents annually pay toward that institution to support post high school education.

My concerns relating to those responsibilities arose at the College annual budget meeting, last May, when the Administration asked the Board for approval to spend Ten Million Dollars Plus (since revised to $9,813, 600)to build a 14,000 square foot commercial brewery and distillery somewhere in the Verde Valley for the purpose of teaching students the jobs in beer breweries and distilleries. The Board had never discussed the pros and cons of building a brewery and distillery versus expending funds to expand our fledgling Skilled Center – funds the college has now removed from our capital budget for at least the next five years in order to build the brewery and distillery.

Paul Chevalier, Third District Representative to College District Governing Board

The Board was never provided with a need assessment, which is a process that examines what criteria must be met in order to reach a desired outcome. It answers questions such as the following: Where will the students come from? Where will people completing a certificate find a job and what will it pay? How many faculty will the project require and their needed backgrounds? How will the commercial sale of beer impact the costs associated with the project? What are the anticipated annual maintenance costs? Why wouldn’t it be smarter and cheaper to teach the course with the participation of a local beer brewery? And more.

Despite the absence of information, the Governing Board voted 4-1 to approve the project. I alone dissented and I alone asked questions about the project. But I received scant information.

Following the meeting, I felt it was my obligation to obtain information that could answer the need issue. I asked the college for its need assessment. However no need assessment was provided. My best option left was to submit a Public Records Document request to the College, something every citizen is allowed to do. If such information addressing the need for, or other reasons for, creating/teaching beer brewery workers existed the law required the College to provide it to me. I received a document entitled “ Yavapai College Program Demand Gap Analysis”. That document never mentioned beer brewery or distillery workers. Clearly the College never did a need assessment.

I have a background in business. My formal education included two graduate business degrees from Columbia and Harvard. There I was taught to do a rigorous need assessment before expending significant funds on any new project. I later worked for two Fortune 500 companies for decades. My last 10 years of work were spent in very senior management positions. We did our need assessments.

I decided to try and educate myself about the need for this project on the east side. I note that people who take classes on either side of the mountain live there and rarely travel to the other side for classes because of the time and cost of commuting. Therefore brewery/distillery students will almost all come from the east side.

What about such jobs availability on the east side? My research showed that currently there are less than 40 people employed in a grand total of six micro beer breweries on the east side of the mountain. And six of these people are brew masters with many years of fermenting experience. Our program will offer certificates and not prepare anyone for a brew master position.

Even if turnover in these breweries goes as high as 15% only five jobs a year would be available somewhere on the east side with no guarantee that east side graduates will be offered them or want to commute to them. With regard to hard alcohol distilleries I have found none on the east side of the mountain except one in a several year long startup phase. It has no employees. The owner is doing the startup work. Bottom line: There are no distillery jobs available on the east side.

Moreover the starting wage of Arizona beer brewery and distillery workers does not compare favorably with that of persons who obtain a certificate in some hi-tech training programs taught at Yavapai College in Prescott involving automobiles, automation, or commercial aviation. The College does not teach those courses on the east side. It could use this money to do that.

Why the College wants to spent nearly $10 million to build a beer brewery and a distillery on the east side has never been explained to the Board and frankly it eludes me.

Is this really a good idea?

Categories : Career and Technical Education

YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE REVEALS POSSIBLE BREWERY BUILDING PLAN TO REP CHEVALIER PER PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST

By R. Oliphant

Thursday, September 22nd, 2022

Do not assume this is the final plan – Blog has no way of knowing whether College is also considering other plans | Plan includes art gallery, tap/tasting room, community room | cost estimates differ

Yavapai Community College provided Third District Representative Paul Chevalier with one possible plan for a College beer brewing facility in the Verde Valley after he submitted his last Public Records Request. Readers should be warned that there is no assurance that there are not other options or plans for a brewery not provided to Mr. Chevalier that the Community College is considering.

The plan Mr. Chevalier obtained, and provided to the Blog, covers only 8,000 square feet. You may recall that on May 17, 2022 at the Governing Board meeting that the College said it was expanding the Verde Valley Skills Center via this Brewery (see video) and is preliminary estimates put the square footage at 14,000. (See video.) Later during the May meeting the Governing Board 4-1 approved the project at an estimated cost of $10 million.

In the plan submitted to Mr. Chevalier, the square footage of the facility is put at 8,800 square feet (see below) and cost estimates provided to him show a cost exceeding $8 million. It is expected that at Tuesday’s meeting (the first general session since May) a new cost estimate will be provided to the Governing Board on this project.

The brewery is part of a $50 to $60 million plan for various improvements and projects throughout the district over the next five years. (see video clip)

A video clip of the Brewery discussion where the square footage and location is stated can be seen by clicking here.

Categories : Career and Technical Education

SAGA OF REP PAUL CHEVALIER’S EFFORT TO OBTAIN INFORMATION ABOUT BUILDING $10 MILLION COMMERCIAL BREWERY SOMEWHERE IN THE VERDE VALLEY CONTINUES

By R. Oliphant

Sunday, September 11th, 2022

Has revised and narrowed the Public Records request he initially sent to Yavapai Community College asking for more data

The saga of Yavapai Community College Third District Governing Board representative Paul Chevalier’s quest to obtain data supporting the College’s administrators decision to use $10 million to construct a commercial brewery/distiller somewhere in the Sedona/Verde Valley area continues. Recall that the Administration, with support from the Governing Board Chair, refused Mr. Chevalier’s request for more information following the May meeting where the Board 4-1 (Chevalier dissented) approved the concept.

Third District Yavapai Community College Representative to the Governing Board Mr. Paul Chevalier

Because he had run up against a solid wall when he sought more information following the May meeting, Mr. Chevalier filed a formal request for public documents as allowed by Arizona law with the Community College. In response the College said it would cost him $2,500 to obtain the information and the information could not be provided for at least 90 days.

The College suggested he might reconsider his request. In a recent interview with the Blog, Mr. Chevalier said that he was revising and rewriting the request to make it much narrower. His apparent hope is that the public documents with data can be provided at much lower cost. As of the posting of this Blog story, Mr. Chevalier had not yet received a response from the Community College.

Recall that Chevalier is the elected representative to the College Governing Board from the Third District, which covers Sedona and a large portion of the Verde Valley. There are several major concerns associated with the decision by the Governing Board to approve this expenditure. As noted in the September 3 Blog post, Chevalier and others have received no hard data showing an actual need for such a facility. He and others have also not received hard data showing the potential number of graduates from such a program, the number who might be employed in the brewing industry after receiving a certificate or degree, or the estimated starting salaries of students with a certificate.

As also noted in the September 3 Blog story on Mr. Chevalier’s initial request, the Governing Board has not debated or even discussed the pros and cons of using $10 million or more for a commercial brewery project versus using the funds for expanding the small Skills Trade Center on the Verde Valley Campus with a goal of providing a wide variety of high-tech training opportunities to a large number of east County residents. Many of those graduates may enter the workforce following a certificate with a large starting salary.

From the Blog’s perspective, Chevalier’s gallant effort to obtain information via a public records request should not be necessary. It is hard to understand why a publicly taxpayer supported institution is providing such scarce information to the public and the public’s elected officials about spending $10 million or more in taxpayer money.

Categories : Career and Technical Education, Politics

IF THIRD DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE TO COLLEGE DISTRICT GOVERNING BOARD WANTS MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE $10 MILLION EXPENDITURE FOR COMMERCIAL BREWERY, IT WILL COST HIM $2,500

By R. Oliphant

Saturday, September 3rd, 2022

College says it will take about 90 days before it can provide the Public Records data requested unless he narrows query

In May 2022 the Yavapai Community College administration asked the Governing Board to approve expending $10 million on developing a commercial brewery/distiller somewhere on the east side of the County. The information provided the Governing Board was sparse. However, it did inform the Board that the brewery would be housed in a 14,000 square foot new building.

Despite having little information, the Governing Board approved the expenditure by a 4-1 vote. Third District Board representative Paul Chevalier dissented.

The approval came despite the fact the Board had received no hard data showing an actual need for such a facility. Or, hard data showing the potential number of graduates from such a program, the number who might be employed in the brewing industry after receiving a certificate or degree, or the estimated starting salaries of students with a certificate.

To make matters worse, the Governing Board had not debated or even discussed the pros and cons of using funds for a brewery versus using the funds for expanding the small Skills Trade Center with a goal of providing a wide variety of high-tech training opportunities to a large number of east County residents.

Representative Paul Chevalier made it clear at the meeting that he opposed the expenditure until he had more information justifying spending this much money for the project. (The College already has a small brewing lab in Building “G” on the Yavapai Campus and registration for the fall 2022 course offerings was not full.) His stated preference was to use the funds to expand hi-tech training programs where job opportunities are many and starting salaries high.

Following the May meeting, Chevalier made several attempts to obtain additional information about the expenditure from the Community College. However, the Community College shut the door on him, with approval from the Governing Board chair, at every turn. In frustration he submitted a Public Records Request to the Community College asking for details and data about the brewery project.

The College responding to his request by informing him that he will have to pay $2,500 for the information and it will take about 90 days to assemble it. Otherwise, he must find a way to reduce his request.

According to Mr. Chevalier, he is considering his options. As an elected official who is supposed to be able to fully inform his constituents of College programs and development, he is puzzled by the College’s sustained effort to keep so much data and information from him and his constituents.

Yavapai Community College’s response to Representative Chevalier’s Public Records request follows below.

Good morning, Mr. Chevalier,

In researching your recent Public Records Request form, we have identified 3700+ emails and mail with lengthy attachments. The total request is 10,000+ pages with a cost of $2,500.00 due before the documents are provided. Additionally, each email must be read, and any personal identifiers redacted so this will take some time to produce. We are estimating at least 90 days.

Would you prefer to tighten the scope of your Public Records Request form or proceed with your original Public Records Request form as written? If you choose the latter, please remit payment of $2,500.00. Once received, we will begin the process.

Categories : Beer projects, Career and Technical Education, Politics

EARLY REVIEWS BY RESIDENTS OF YAVAPAI COLLEGE’S VERDE CAMPUS CAFÉ GIVE IT A BIG THUMBS UP

By R. Oliphant

Saturday, August 6th, 2022

Use of fresh vegetables and overall quality of food a hit

The Verde Café on the Verde Campus of Yavapai Community College has just opened and it appears to be a big hit with local residents. Those who have ordered lunch and commented on their experience say the food is delicious, well prepared, and overall terrific. They seemed especially pleased with the freshness of the vegetables and the baked bread being use for sandwiches.

The new café is called the Yavapai Community College Grilled Cheese. It has been described by the College as uniquely a laboratory for aspiring culinary artists and entrepreneurs as well as a showcase for the vegetables and herbs that horticulture students cultivate in an one-campus greenhouse.

“In culinary school you learn a lot of things, but unless you have a restaurant on site you don’t get a chance to know what it’s like to operate one,” Foy is an accomplished chef and artist who has launched several successful restaurants. Kelley decided to tackle creating the teaching restaurant on the Verde Campus this summer.

The Café excludes all things frozen and fried, instead offering signature grilled cheese and other specialty sandwiches and salads, coffee and pastries from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. (NOTE TIME ON AD IT RAN SAID OPEN AT 9 AM. BUT PRESS RELEASE BY COLLEGE INDICATED IT OPENED AT 10 A.M. ALSO LUNCH HOURS MAY RUN AT A LITTLE DIFFERENT TIME–PROBABLY FROM 11 OR 12 TO 2 P.M. BLOG STRONGLY SUGGESTS GIVING THEM A CALL IF YOU’RE PLANNING BREAKFAST OR LUNCH THERE AT 928-634 6554.) Its student staff also cater Community College gatherings and events, including those hosted at the Community College’s teaching winery, the Southwest Wine Center.

Categories : Career and Technical Education

YAVAPAI COMMUNITY COLLEGE’S POOR RELATIONSHIP WITH CAMP VERDE HIGHLIGHTED IN DEAN REDD’S RESIGNATION LETTER

By R. Oliphant

Friday, July 1st, 2022

Says that “interactions with Camp Verde are regularly looked upon with suspicion”

It is well known among most close observers of Yavapai Community College that its relationship with the town of Camp Verde has been less than ideal. Dr. Tina Redd reflected on some of the problems she faced that involved Camp Verde during her short term as Dean of the Sedona Center/Verde Campus. In her resignation letter to President Dr. Lisa Rhine She wrote:

“I was falsely accused of inviting Camp Verde Mayor, Dee Jenkins, to speak at the Skilled Trades Center opening in March 2021. . . ..

“The strained relations with Camp Verde, partly due to an incident involving Rodney Jenkins that happened before I was hired, continue to cloud and undermine interactions with city officials, yet I am charged with supporting every municipality in the Verde Valley. Interactions with Camp Verde are regularly looked upon with suspicion.”

The strained relationship referred to by Dr. Redd has a long history. Recall that around 2010 the Community College closed down the leased facilities it operated in Camp Verde. The College claimed at the time that student numbers there was not sufficient to continue, especially when the College was allegedly facing a financial crisis of sorts. Although the College recovered from its alleged financial crisis, little attention has been paid to Camp Verde since 2010.

The more recent relationship between the College and Camp Verde is checkered. Back in 2020-21 the town was hopeful that the College would locate its Career and Technical education facility in a structure located on highway 260 rather than build on the Verde Campus. They argued that the site was a more centralized location that would allow easy access for Mingus Union, Sedona and Camp Verde students to train in Career and Technical education courses. Although the College made overtures to lease space in a structure on 260, it was unsuccessful. It eventually completely rejected the 260 location idea and chose to build ilt a small CTE facility on the Verde Campus.

More recently, Third District Represent Representative Paul Chevalier was chastised by some Governing Board members at the January 29, 2022 District Governing Board Workshop for suggesting that the “College is not really dong anything for Camp Verde.”

At a March 2022 closed door meeting with local politicians and the College, Camp Verde offered free teaching space to the Community College at a structure it had purchased or was considering purchasing on highway 260. Nothing more is known about the offer.

The Community College is well aware of the poor relationship between it and Camp Verde and has taken some steps, it appears, to improve it. For example, at the May 2022 meeting of the Yavapai College District Governing Board, the College administration announced it was seeking a $600,000 grant from the federal governing to fund the purchase of trucks with some of them going to Camp Verde, apparently for a truck driving school. No decision on this request will be made in Washington apparently until spring, 2023. Moreover, the College has not made public plans for a truck driving school in Camp Verde.

Categories : Camp Verde, Career and Technical Education

COMMUNITY COLLEGE COMPLETED MAJOR REMODEL AT A COST OF THOUSANDS ON VERDE CAMPUS IN FALL 2021 SO BREWERY TECHNOLOGY CLASSES COULD BE OFFERED

By R. Oliphant

Thursday, May 19th, 2022

Were those dollars wasted as College decides only months later and one semester of classes to build a $10 million commercial lab to teach brewery technology? Many questions remain unanswered

It was less than a year ago that the Community College completed major expensive renovation of facilities in Building “G” on the Verde Campus to support Brewery Technology classes. Those classes opened for the first time August 16, 2021.

At the time, the College indicated it had set up an industry-standard pilot-brewery similar to those used by breweries to make small batches of beer for experimentation. Michael Pierce, the director of enology and viticulture at the College’s Southwest Wine Center, was quoted as saying the new beer facility will not be doing a “tap” because the focus is on training students who are employable.

As created, students taking the Brewery Technology classes have a small pilot-brewery, a series of fermenters, a brew station, and some smaller brew kettles to make beer on their own. The Community College indicated it did not intend to grow hops or other crops on its vacant 80 acres of land on the Verde Valley Campus. Rather, it intended to purchase hops from sources in the town of Camp Verde.

Questions about the decision to invest $10 million are many. A few of them include the following: Why wasn’t the public and the Governing Board given better information and details about the project before it was announced in May as a part of the $90 million dollar budget? Is there a need based on data for training large numbers of students in making beer? Will students who obtain certificates in Beer making be able to obtain well-paying jobs comparable to those who complete hi-tech CTE classes? Why invest in a large commercial brewing facility when there is a need to train students in hi-tech career and technical education jobs that may pay up to $75,000 with a two year degree? Is this an effort to generate additional College revenue to be used for operations/scholarships while teaching some students? Over the long-run, without student housing, will it attract outside students to supplement the always needed minimum of 12 students per class? Will the construction cost be supplemented by the College Foundation as was the Southwest Wine Center? Is there a business plan? If so where is it?

Photo Source: Yavapai College Facilities Management News dated September and November 2021 (November photos were taken by Mike Walsh and provided to the College for publication in the Facilities Management News.) https://www.yc.edu/v6/facilities/docs/newsletters/2021-09-facilities-management-newsletter.pdf and November 2021. https://www.yc.edu/v6/facilities/docs/newsletters/2021-11-facilities-management-newsletter.pdf

Categories : Beer projects, Career and Technical Education

COLLEGE BOARD APPROVES 4-1 $10 MILLION CAPITAL “BEER BREWING” TRAINING FACILITY FOR SEDONA/VERDE VALLEY; LITTLE INFORMATION PROVIDED TO BOARD IN RE NEEDS OR MARKET ANALYSIS

By R. Oliphant

Thursday, May 19th, 2022

Administration says expenditure will fund a 14,000 square foot commercial lab facility focusing on Brewing and Distilling beer; communication on project to public and Board EXTREMELY poor at best; Third District Rep strongly prefers funds be used for a second CTE facility to train Valley residents and students for hi-tech, well-paying jobs but is ignored

Nothing is clear in the 2022-2023 Community College capital budget, approved by the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board 4-1, when it comes to expending almost $10 million on building a beer brewing commercial lab facility in the Verde Valley. Despite the almost total lack of information, the budget containing this expenditure was approved with one dissent at the May 17 District Governing Board meeting.

All that is definitely known is that the facility will be located somewhere in the Verde Valley. (See Budget Exhibit 12 below showing expenditure as approved.) (See also video clips of presentation and discussion by clicking here.)

The only information during the Board meeting regarding this facility and its purpose came when Third District Representative Paul Chevalier tried to obtain some details from College Vice President Clint Ewell. Ewell said, in part, in response to Mr. Chevalier’s questions that “our preliminary estimates are about 14,000 square feet to build a commercial lab facility to teach brewing and distilling.” (See video clip by clicking here.) He indicated that the College will most likely then be selling beer in addition to wine. “That’s why we’re going with the larger commercial (site or size),” said Ewell.

The focus in the budget on a major beer facility came as a surprise to Board members who in March 2022 were presented with a draft capital budget. In that budget the College focus clearly appeared to be on expanding the current Verde Valley Skills Center by an expenditure of almost $10 million over a three-year period.

There had been some reference to expanding the current beer and distillery program at the March Board meeting in the consultants written and oral reports to the public. But no one thought that the mere suggestion to expand this program would evolve into a major $10 million project. Or, that it would be presented to the District Governing Board without data showing a serious need, future potential high paying job openings after training, a development outline plus an open discussion by the Board about the pros and cons of such a facility.

Chevalier argued at Tuesday’s meeting that the Community College should focus on providing hi-tech Career and Technical Education training rather than expending millions on programs about how to make beer. He said that he didn’t believe that using ten million to teach persons brewing skills could favorably compare with teaching them hi-tech jobs with certificates and degrees where starting salaries were reported at $75,000 or more.

He suggested that a small portion of the $10 million be used to develop a joint program with a local brewery with the remainder going into developing hi-tech jobs. He observed that in his discussions with the public in his district, he had not heard an outcry for teaching how to brew beer. Rather, his constituents wanted hi-tech career and technical education certificates and degrees.

Chevalier also said he agreed with the remainder of the budget submitted to the Board. However, he would not approve it with the millions aimed at building a brewing training facility in the Verde Valley. If it was removed, he would vote “yes.” Otherwise, his vote was “no.”

The remaining four Governing Board members appeared reluctant to ask any questions about the project or consider removing the expenditure from the 2022-2023 budget. Representative Ray Sigafoos seemed to lament he had not heard the pros and cons of the project while representative Mitch Padilla said that he was not opposed to the program starting. Chair Deb McCasland said she thought it was “shortsighted” to hold up approval of the budget because of opposition to the brewery expenditure.

Video clips of the comments by Governing Board members can be viewed by clicking here. You may view the entire District Governing B0ard meeting when it is posted with the minutes on the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board website.

Categories : Beer projects, Career and Technical Education