COLLEGE SHOWS NO INTEREST IN PARTNERSHIP WITH CITY OF SEDONA TO TRAIN EV MECHANICS

Newly elected Mayor outlines partnership where City will pay for construction of new EV facility, all costs associated with operating it; provide College space to train students on repairing EV buses; so far, College indicates no interest in offer

Sedona Mayor Elect Scott Jablow

The new incoming Mayor of Sedona, Scott Jablow, offered a superb educational opportunity for Yavapai College when speaking to  the College’s  Governing Board at its November meeting. Jablow told the Board that Sedona was embarking on plans to create an all-electric vehicle (EV) transportation fleet of buses (and possibly other city vehicles). He explained that the City as a part of its EV program intends to build a maintenance facility for the EVs, staff it with technicians, and pay all associated operating costs.

In a stunning revelation, he said a year ago he had proposed to the Chair of the Board that the city of Sedona  would provide space where Yavapai Community College students could train on repairing EVs in its EV facility.  The only cost to the College would be to provide a curriculum and a teacher for the program.

Despite the generous offer by the City, the Mayor reported that the College has shown absolutely no interest in such a partnership. “None.” 

It seems like history, at least to a certain extent, is repeating itself when it comes to advanced CTE programs in the Verde Valley.

Recall that back in 2005-2006, Phelps-Dodge  (later Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold), a Phoenix-based global mining company, let Community College executives know that it was looking for a place that would train students in diesel, industrial and electrical mechanics. It suggested that it would financially support the creation of a two-year College apprenticeship program and would help build classrooms and pay faculty salaries for the first three years of the program if the College initiated such a program.

The Prescott based College executives leaped at the offer and immediately began searching for a west Yavapai County facility to purchase. At the time the Prescott-based executives had the option of putting the diesel training facility on the Verde Valley Campus as a part of the newly created CTE program, which it called the Northern Arizona Regional Skills Center.

Rather than begin a new and exciting program on the Verde Campus as a part of its CTE development, the Governing Board authorized purchase of a 108,000 square foot building at a cost of five million dollars, located at the Prescott airport, to house the diesel project. Once the purchase was complete, it began renovating the facility with an initial investment of $750,000. The building is now called the Career and Technical Education Center (CTEC) and houses the diesel training program.

The decision to develop a diesel training program at the CTE campus at the Prescott airport marked  the death knell for the  Career and Technical Education program just started on the Verde Campus. The idea of seriously pushing the development of a major northern Arizona CTE Center on the Verde Campus soon evaporated. 

Now, years later, Sedona is offering the east side of the County an opportunity to train technicians to repair EV engines with little cost to the College.  It would be training students for the present and future. However, the west side executives, who control all major decisions on the east side of the County, are simply looking the other way. It’s what happens when local residents cannot control local programs at a local community college.

From the west side’s reaction, it’s fairly easy to see where EV training will go in the future. Only to Prescott’s CTE training facility.

You may view all of Mayor-elect Scott Jablow’s short presentation to the November Governing Board by clicking here. Note the first part of his speech has to do with the Brewery program being proposed for the Verde Campus.