Goal is to work together to benefit students and communities
The presidents of Coconino Community College, Mohave Community College, Northland Pioneer College, and Yavapai College recently signed an intergovernmental agreement called the Northern Arizona Community College Partnership (NACCP). According to a press release from Yavapai Community College, the agreement calls on the districts to collaborate and combine resources to better serve citizens and communities throughout northern Arizona. This includes sharing college courses to improve student success and completion and enhancing workforce development by utilizing each district’s vast array of unique programs.
The agreement states that the districts will “exercise efficient and maximal use of available educational resources through common and complementary resources of each institution.”
The colleges will specifically focus efforts to collaborate in areas of credit and non-credit offerings, curriculum development, data sharing, business functions, student services, and other support services to provide a cooperative higher education network for residents of Northern Arizona which includes Mohave, Navajo, Apache, Yavapai and Coconino Counties.
It is not clear how they will carry out their collaboration and no examples were given at the September Governing Board meeting.
The four northern Arizona college districts claim they will also work together to strengthen their partnerships with K-12 institutions, universities, and workforce development partners.
Board members from each district approved the agreement, and the districts began working together under the agreement on October 1, 2022. The issue was placed on the September 27 consent agenda for approval by the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board. It was approved without comment by the President or discussion.
Sources: Yavapai Community College Governing Board meeting September 27, 2022; Yavapai Community College press release dated October 3, 2022.
avapai Community College was awarded the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its budget. This was the second year in a row that the College has received this award.
The Blog also notes that Dr. Karen Reed from Shaker Heights, Ohio was selected as the Interim Dean of the Verde Valley for Yavapai Community College to begin work April 11, 2022. The College anticipated, according to its press release in April, that Dr. Reed would serve in the role until October. A national search for the permanent dean was to be conducted.
Yavapai Community College briefly went into lockdown Sunday
afternoon after a report of shots fired near the campus in Prescott. The Prescott Police Department reported receiving a call at around 2:30 p.m. that gun shots were heard in the 800 block of East Gurley Street, near the intersection of Gurley and Arizona streets. The Police Department says that a caller reported a man waiving something at passing cars and heard shots fired after that.
It will probably come as a surprise to most readers of the Blog that after 50 years the Verde Campus in Clarkdale has lost its designation as a “branch campus” of Yavapai Community College. It will now be referred to as an “additional location” during required accreditation reviews. 
Critics may argue that the change adds a psychological arrow to the quiver of the Prescott based administration in its effort to keep control of the Verde Valley Campus from local residents. Lowering its prestige, goes this argument, may lower the value of the college in the eyes of local residents and consequently reduce their interest in seriously developing it. Critics may also argue that this sends a clear message to everyone in Yavapai County that the Prescott location is the only true campus in the County and, therefore, its most prestigious learning center. 
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) announced the recipients of its annual Regional Awards for community college trustees, equity programs, chief executive officers, faculty members, and professional board staff members on August 15. In the Pacific Region, Community College Board member Ray Sigafoos, English Professor and Faculty Senate President Dr. Karen Palmer, and Yvonne Martinez-Sandoval, the executive assistant to President Rhine and the District Governing Board, were recognized. They were among more than two dozen recipients of various awards from five regions made by ACCT this year.
The Arizona Auditor General’s office reported on the 2021 audit it conducted of Yavapai Community College at the Governing Board meeting April 12. The Auditor gave the Community College high marks for the excellent cooperation of its staff in helping with the report. Moreover, it found no irregularities in its audit of 2021.
