Yavapai Community College students and staff have created a great emergency fund and food program. It is now time to expand the program to the east side of the County.
The Clarkdale Town Council may take action on a memorandum of understanding tomorrow June 12, 2018 between Yavapai County Community College and the Town regarding the placement of a radio communications antenna. According to the college, the installation of the antenna will improve radio communications in the Foothills area. New leather information was available. Source of information: Town of Clarkdale (Verde Independent)
A new fee agreement between Yavapai Community College and the Valley Academy for Career and Technical Education (V’ACTE) will be approved at the April Governing Board meeting setting all fees for V’ACTE courses operated in conjunction with the College at the Tier 3 level. This means that with one exception, the widely advertised rate of $87 per credit hour for Community College courses set for next year will not apply. Instead, students will be paying the maximum of $110 per credit hour. This gives the College an extra $23 per credit hour for each student the signs up.
The fee chart released by the College to the Governing Board showing the fee agreement follows below.
Longtime Verde Valley resident and art instructor Tom Schumacher was recently honored by staff and faculty for his forty years of service at Yavapai College’s Verde Valley campus in Clarkdale. “To me, Tom Schumacher is the heart and soul of the Verde Campus,” said fellow instructor Terence Pratt. “He’s had an indelible effect on our institution and has built an art department that hundreds of our citizens have benefited from.”
Among his many accomplishments is the wine-making program on the Verde Valley Campus. In 2009, the wine-making program was established primarily because of Tom’s persistence and hard work. Five years later the Southwest Wine Center became a reality. Schumacher recalls working with 30 volunteers on a blazing-hot June day to plant the first acre of grapevines, and thinking, “God I hope these things grow.” They did! There is now a 13 acre vineyard and a $3 million dollar academic winery on the Verde Campus, thanks to his groundbreaking efforts. The first wines from the winery have won accolades from the wine industry.
“I’m very proud of our viticulture and enology programs, not only for what they have done for the (wine) industry, but for the community. The community is now thriving because of this industry.”
Schumacher holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. Along with his wife, Deborah, a financial aid advisor at Yavapai College, he has raised their two children in the Verde Valley. He says he plans to continue teaching ceramics and Photoshop at the College along with creating his own artwork.
On May 27, 2017 the Blog ran a story indicating its concern with the care and treatment of the Butterfly garden on the Verde Campus. It pointed out that the College had a $3 million dollar maintenance budget and argued there was no excuse for the poor condition of the Butterfly garden. Robert Oliphant, who edits the Blog, also reported on the concern over the Garden at the June 2017 Governing Board meeting and provided the Board with photos showing the deterioration.
At the time of the May 27 story the Blog found weeds growing profusely in the garden, unplanted dead trees in large pots that had been left in the area for months, and paths that were weed filled and potholed. It appeared little care and attention was being given to the care and development of this garden on the Verde Campus.
The only Governing Board member to show interest in the Oliphant’s concern about the Garden deteriorating was Governing Board representative Deb McCasland. She made a special visit to the Garden and expressed her concern about the situation to several people.
Since the Blog’s story and McCasland’s visit, the Blog is happy to report that the College has made major improvements. It has improved the walking paths by adding appropriate pathway sand and filled the potholes. (There needs to be more sand added to some existing paths as the College didn’t order enough.) Most weeds have been removed in most of the Garden. The dead trees were removed and the College has planted new ones. A Gazebo planned for the area has been built and new benches were moved into the Garden.
Clearly, a major effort to clean up and complete the beautiful area for butterflies has been made. Kudos to the College for its efforts.
Now, the College must finish the job. The building blocks the Blog found in the garden in the spring need to be removed, more sand added, and weeding continued. The newly planted trees will need extra care over the next five years, the area properly weeded, and walking paths maintained. The Verde Campus Butterfly Garden will need the same kind of care, attention and maintenance given the College’s beautiful Richard Marcusen Sculpture Garden on the Prescott Campus. Let’s hope it can follow through.
The show is about the late Don Reitz, who created ceramic masterpieces on his ranch in Clarkdale, and the artists who followed him and kept Reitz’s vision alive. To the outside world, Don Reitz was considered one of the fathers of modern ceramics. In its press release, the College says that “This show is about Sheryl and Ted and the group of artists who have joined them to build on this vision. `One by one, they just started showing up and before we knew it, we were surrounded by Don’s memories and the people he inspired,” said Sheryl Leigh-DaVault.’”
There is a reception reception at 5 p.m. Friday, January 19 at the Art Gallery on the Verde Campus.
The event is free and open to the public. Complimentary small bites and wine available for purchase from the Southwest Wine Center.
Zachary Jernigan has been hired as Yavapai College’s Community Education Coordinator for the Verde Valley and Sedona. He will be focusing on non-credit courses in the Verde Valley including summer programs for kids. He begins January 16.
Jernigan is a journalist, college creative writing instructor and author. His novels, No Return and the Nebula Award-nominated Shower of Stones, are compiled in Jeroun: The Collected Omnibus. His short fiction has been selected by publishers for the Pushcart Prize and shortlisted for the Spectrum Award.
For the Fall 2017 semester, Jernigan is teaching CRW 139: Introduction to Creative Writing.
As a journalist for Larson newspapers, residents in the Verde Valley have enjoyed his reporting on education and other matters for the Cottonwood Journal Extra and the Camp Verde Journal. His replacement at Larson Newspapers is Kelcie Grega.
Congratulations Mr. Jernigan.
While confusion reigns, taxpayer money continues to be spent on various renovations. The following is a historical summary you will only find on this Blog. It details the confusing history of Building “L” on the Verde Campus and an indication of how much revenue taxpayers have paid into it.
The vision of the CTE Center that was sold to voters in order to approve the million dollar expenditure on it in the 2000 bond changed dramatically when the Board decided to build the major CTE College facility at the Prescott airport in 2007. Most of the ambitious plans for Building “L” and Career and Technical Education facilities and training were scrapped on the Verde Campus Center (low enrollment was an excuse used by the administration) and gobbled up by the new College facility at the Prescott airport.
[2007-08] In 2007 and 2008 the College expanded the nursing facilities in Building “L” by spending about $1.4 million on renovation during a two-year fiscal time period (using College expenditure reports).
[2013 Master Plan] Quoting the College, its Master Plan announced in December 2013 said the nursing plan was leaving and labs for agricultural classes were going to be installed. Here is what it said: “Building L currently houses the Nursing program. As the program migrates to the Prescott Valley campus, the master plan recommends renovating this building for use by the agriculture programs relocating from the Chino center. As laboratories already exist in Building L, the addition of the agricultural classes will virtually recreate the Chino Valley Center’s main building.” Page 67 of 2014 Master Plan. https://masterplan.yc.edu/files/2014/01/Final-Report-RPT-2014-0218-WEB_UPDATED.pdf
Quoting the College: “Following construction of the new center (sic), the existing Prescott Valley programs and the Nursing and Allied Health programs from Prescott and Verde Valley would migrate to the new location. This, in turn, would free up space on the Prescott campus or NARTA/AJS to move to the second floor of Building 2 and for agriculture to move from Chino to Verde Valley.” Page 89 of 2014 Master Plan. https://masterplan.yc.edu/files/2014/01/Final-Report-RPT-2014-0218-WEB_UPDATED.pdf
Quoting the College: “Verde Valley: Building L has now been scheduled for a major renovation to enhance its ability to offer Career Technical Education (CTE) programming. We plan to do this work in FY19, giving VACTE a year to conduct their planning and to provide input to YC. Verde Valley Campus will continue to offer Nursing, as well as other CTE programming such as Viticulture, Enology, and Film & Media Arts. This represents an increase of roughly $3.8M.” https://www.yc.edu/v5content/district-governing-board/sub/2017/03/agenda_full.pdf
Second District Representative Deb McCasland raised the question of adequate access to Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities and the absence of CTE facilities in the Verde Valley at the October 24 District Governing Board meeting in Prescott. West County Representative Chair Ray Sigafoos said that he was prepared to support a $5 million-dollar 30,000 square foot or 40,000 square foot facility on the East side if a proposal came over the mountain to him and the Board.
Sigafoos conceded that the College does not “have an adequate single JTED facility in the Verde Valley.” However, he blamed the former Verde Valley JTED for not providing the Board with that opportunity. He said that there has not been a “stable [CTE] organization in the Verde Valley” or a building the College could afford until the last year or so. He claimed that he had not “ignored” the Verde Valley.
West County Representative Pat McCarver seemed somewhat less enthusiastic about CTE on the East side of the County than Sigafoos. She blamed the prior JTED Administration for the current situation saying it was not possible until now to consider building a centralized CTE facility on the East side of the County. She also stated that from her perspective that educational facilities and opportunities will “never be equal” on both sides of the County.
Representative McCasland continued her consistent theme of supporting the development of adequate Career and Technical Education facilities and opportunities on the East side of the County. Representative Connie Harris and West County representative Steve Irwin made no comment.
Sigafoos noted that the Board will begin discussing capital projects in January 2018.
The discussion covered about three minutes and is provided in the following video in its entirety.