May spend an estimated $146,000 for acoustical and technology upgrades for rooms (out of $50 to $70 million in total County-wide projects) but nothing for additional programs

The Yavapai Community College District Governing Board approved 4-1 a five-year capital development program in concept at its November 2022 meeting.  It estimated $50.14 million in construction costs and $77.13 million in total project development costs.  It appears from the planning documents that a only tiny amount of the development funding is going to the Sedona Center.

When listing priorities for capital development, the planning documents indicate that the College plans in concept to spend only $146,000 on the Sedona Center over the next five years.  The money allocated to the Center is aimed at improving technology and acoustical issues in the classrooms.

You may view the excepts from the adopted Master Plan that appear below to confirm the Blog’s analysis. Note that during the Priority Projects list shows the College expending a total of $50.14 in construction costs and $77.13 in total costs.

Priority list of projects indicates the location to be determined with sketches in plan inconsistent with priority list; confusion over location coincides with College using different figures for estimated costs

The Yavapai Community College District Governing Board approved 4-1  in concept  the construction of an estimated $8 million dollar brewery project at its November meeting.  However, there remain questions about whether the project is being delayed, its actual estimated cost, and  its possible location.

The confusion over this project arises for a number of reasons.  First, in October 2022 the College announced in its Facilities Management Newsletter without further explanation that the Brewing project had been “postponed.” 

Second, at the November 2022 Governing Board meeting the brewery project was approved in concept by a 4-1 vote.  As noted by Third District Governing Board Representative Paul Chevalier during the meeting, the cost estimates seem to be unsettled. For example,  in October the College said in its Facilities Management Newsletter the project would cost around $10 million. However,  in November the cost was listed in the adopted concept plan (see below) at a little over $8 million.

Third, in the November presentation, the College lists the location of various possible projects.  However, when it came to the Brewery project, on the “Priority Projects” list it clearly states the location is to be determined (TBA). See below.

Fourth, In the same presentation there is a map of the Verde Campus with numbers that indicated where each Verde Campus priority project would be located.  The Brewery project is number 8 in the list of priorities but nowhere on the Verde Campus map showing locations of projects does that number appear. (See below).

Fifth, to add even more confusion to the issue, in a slide contained in the five year concept plan that briefly explains the Brewery project, there is a dot on the upper right of a tiny map of the Verde Campus showing the possible location of the Brewery.

So far, the Prescott based Community College executives have not supplied any explanation to the public about the confusion over cost, postponement, or actual site for the project. (For additional information about this project found in the Blog please click here.)

Following below are some excerpts from the plan approved in concept by the Governing Board at its November 2022 meeting.

Estimated cost is $608,000 to initiate program on Verde Campus; Chino Valley Center is currently home to Community College developed CDT program and will continue with an estimated $608,000 additional funding

The Yavapai Community College Governing Board approved in concept at its November 2022 meeting spending an estimated $608,000 on the Verde Valley Campus in Clarkdale to begin a Commercial Driver Training Testing site.  Any final decision on starting the project and allocating the funds for it rests with the Board when it approves its budget in the spring 2023.

The justification for the expansion was that there is a high demand for truck drivers with commercial driver’s licenses. 

The project for the Verde Campus includes site grading and construction of an ADOT approved asphalt lot and track for commercial drier license skills testing.  The size of the lot and test track will be determined when the Community College decides to go ahead with the project and hires an architect for it.

It should be noted that back in June 2022 the Community College said in a report to the Board that it had applied for a grant from Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. During the announcement, the presenter made reference to Camp Verde as receiving some of the grant funds for a commercial truck driving school. The reference now appears most likely an error or slip of the tongue.  (To view the video clip of the June report to the Governing Board on the grant request see https://www.screencast.com/t/lFUFFkfTC.) 

Below are excerpts from the Yavapai Community College Governing Board November 2022 adopted concept Five Year Plan:

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.

Jobs in brewery industry on east side of County are few and low paying; focus should be on training for  well-paid high tech CTE jobs

Sedona Mayor elect Scott Jablow

During his successful run in November for Sedona Mayor, current Vice Mayor Scott Jablow talked with prospective voters about Yavapai Community College.  According to his brief report at the November 2022 College Governing Board meeting, many Sedona  voters expressed little if any interest in seeing the College expend millions of dollars on a brewery on the east side of the County.

Jablow said that “many of the people” he spoke to “were concerned about” what the Governing Board and College were doing “with the taxpayer money from the Yavapai side of Sedona.”  According to him, they told him that “a brewery was not necessary for our region.  That the money being spent — $10 million dollars – is unheard of when we don’t have the need from any of our brewers . . ..”  (See video clip for complete statement.)  “They feel it is a waste of money,” he said.

The preference among voters with whom he spoke was for more training in hi-tech Career and Technical Education jobs.

You may view his brief report to the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board on video  by clicking here.

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.

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?