The final touches are being put in place on Building “L” on the Verde Campus. It is ready for fall semester.
As the following photo from the July College Maintenance Update shows, grounds crews have completed landscaping the south side of the facility, as seen in the photo below.
The District Governing Board was informed at its April meeting that efforts to obtain an agreement for a five-year lease on property located about half-way between Cottonwood and Camp Verde on highway 260 for a Career and Technical Education Center (CTE) fell through. Vice President Clint Ewell reported that a five-year proposal was sent to the owners of certain property on highway 260 with the expectation they would agree to it. However, at the last minute they decided to sell the land to another entity rather than lease it to the Community College for a CTE facility.
The Community College said it will continue to look for other property to possibly lease in the area.
The Community College indicated it is determined to open a CTE in the Verde Valley by 2021. Funds to build a CTE facility on the Clarkdale Campus were put back into the budget should the College be unable to lease an appropriate facility.
You may view the approximately eight minute discussion by the Board and College regarding the capital budget and a possible Verde Valley Community College Career and Technical Education Center in the video clip below.
Recall that the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board has authorized the College to spend a half million dollars to purchase futuristic 3d construction machinery. (See earlier videos and stories on the Blog about how these printers work.) The authorization was for two printers, according to officials interviewed at the Tuesday Governing Board meeting, not one.
The first printer is considered “small” and experiments with how it operates are anticipated to begin this summer at the Chino Valley Center. The larger 3d cement printer will arrive later in the year.
The first experiment will have the 3-d cement printer used to build a small manufactured home replacing one now owned by the College that is need of repair.
It appears that the initial courses on how to operate the machine will be offered at the Career and Technical Education Center that is adjacent the Prescott airport. At some point, the machines can be used to develop courses for operating them on the Verde Campus.
With these futuristic machines and curriculum, the College hopes to attract a new group of students for its construction program. It has a long-term desire to partner with a builder.
Architect Tom Riley explained to the Governing Board at its February meeting how the newly authorized half million dollars in Yavapai Community College 3d construction printing equipment can be used. He has offered to draw the first plans for a small building at the Chino Valley Center that will be using the equipment.
Riley, who was a member of the Community College team that looked at this equipment in Utah, congratulated the College on its decision to expend the funds to purchase this equipment. He said that this kind of 3d printing is “perhaps, the greatest leap that we’ve seen in construction technology since the 2 x 4.” He went on to say that the “potential for creating low cost buildings, not just housing, . . . is fantastic. It is the brand new technology that is coming our way.”
Riley said the 3d printing machine makes it possible to construct facilities “with less people, less materials, and . . . at a much lower cost.”
You may view all of Mr. Riley’s short presentation to the Governing Board in the video clip below.
Yavapai Community College announced January 31, 2020 that it will launch the Nation’s First 3D construction program. The program is a modification to the College’s current Construction programs and features emerging technology of 3D printing to construct houses.
The belief is that by using 3D printers, consumers will save an enormous amount of time and money to construct a house. In essence, the 3D printer would print the interior and exterior walls of homes using a special concrete mixture.
This new process would enhance several trades and early estimates suggest the printers can have the foundation, interior, and exterior walls completed for a medium-sized home in 3-5 days. After roofing, electrical, plumbing, and other services are installed, it is estimated that these 3D printed homes will help alleviate Yavapai County’s attainable housing shortage.
The program was approved unanimously by the District Governing Board at its January 27, 2020 Executive Session. In order to add the program, the College had to amend its existing budget. It is not known how much the budget was increased in order to launch this program.
The Coconino Community College’s construction technology management program received a $1 million grant last week from the Dell E. Webb Foundation. The funds will be used to renovate the current Construction Technology Management facility at its Flagstaff Campus. It will also be used to expand existing CTM classes and in-demand programs such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning and refrigeration or HVACR technology.
The ultimate goal is to increase the number of degree and certification earners in the construction trades from an average of 30 students 294 students over a three-year period. This is in response to growing demand in the industry, according to the Department of Labor statistics, and a growing number of northern Arizona contractors who cite shortages in the local skilled workforce.
Poor building “L.” Has it become the Rodney Dangerfield of Yavapai Community College? Rodney once joked: “I get no respect at all – When I was a kid, I lost my parents at the beach. I asked a lifeguard to help me find them. He said, `I don’t know kid, there are so many places they could hide'”.
The year 2000: It seems that nobody has respect for Building “L” and the future of Building “L” is hiding. Recall that in 2000 County voters in approved a $69.5 million bond to improve community College facilities in the district. Among those improvements was construction of Building “L” as a Career and Technical Education (CTE) building on the Verde campus in Clarkdale. Voters approved spending about $1.3 million of their tax money the Federal Conference Department Workforce Development Center added another $1.2 million.
Eighteen years ago plan. Eighteen years ago the College plan was to aggressively develop a CTE facility on the Clarkdale Campus to serve at least three counties in northern Arizona. At the time the College staff said that “[T]he (Center) will provide much-needed educational space and resources to further develop job training programs to benefit residents of northern Arizona.” It was intended to provide an opportunity for northern Arizona residents to gain specific work related skills that would allow them to seek immediate employment or increase their level of income in their current positions.
The year 2004: By 2004 the building “L”was completed and the College launched an aggressive effort at developing the CTE program. The staff explained that “the basic vision was to not only provide livable wages for the jobs currently available in Northern Arizona but also to identify new opportunities, such as higher technology, to upgrade job-skills training.” Staff also said that the CTE program was intended to improve skills training for the jobs that are already here. “We’re going to get more involved in the building and construction trades.”
According to staff, “the bottom line of the project is to help rural Arizonans find good jobs.”
But things did not go well for the development of the program. Hardly had it got off the ground when the Prescott dominated Governing Board began exploring creation of a sophisticated and forward-looking CTE campus for the west side of the County.
The year 2007: With little serious consultation with the east County residents, the College Governing Board purchased the huge 105,000 square-foot facility at the Prescott airport. It opened a CTE campus that serves almost exclusively residents and high school students on that side of Mingus mountain.
Unfortunately, the vision of a major CTE program on the East side of the County began to fade as soon as the new CTE campus on the west side of the County was opened. Classes on the East side of the County were closed. Over the past twenty years, the college has invested in taxes, grants and contributions something around $20 million in the Prescott CTE campus. Meanwhile, it has essentially ignored the problems of access to sophisticated, advanced CTE training on the East side of the County.
The years 2007-08: In 2007 and 2008 the College indicated it had 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).
The year 2013: In December 2013 the College announced its ten-year Master Development Plan and said the nursing program was leaving building “L” and labs for agricultural classes were going to be installed. Here is what the College wrote in its Master Plan: “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 2014 Master Plan. https://masterplan.yc.edu/files/2014/01/Final-Report-RPT-2014-0218-WEB_UPDATED.pdf.
“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 for NARTA/AJS to move to the second floor of Building 2 and for agriculture to move from Chino to Verde Valley.” Page 89 2014 Master Plan. https://masterplan.yc.edu/files/2014/01/Final-Report-RPT-2014-0218-WEB_UPDATED.pdf
Interim 2013-17: Nursing program apparently has not moved from the east side of the County. The idea of closing and selling the Chino Valley campus has apparently been tabled.
March 2, 2017. On March 2, 2017 the Community College Governing Board received an updated Master Plan report from Vice President Clint Ewell stating that Building “L” would undergo another renovation for Career and Technical Education facilities somewhat similar to some of those at the Prescott airport. That report as written by the College read: “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
November 28, 2017 Sedona City Council meeting: Verde Campus Executive Dean James Perey told the Sedona City Council that Building “L” would most likely be renovated for nursing.
January 10, 2019: A hand-picked group (invitation only) is being assembled by the Community College to once again discuss the future of Building “L.”
Camp Verde citizen Carol German pleaded with the Yavapai Community College Governing Board at its October meeting to use some of the $22 million in tax dollars paid every year by Verde Valley residents in property taxes to build a centralized Career and Technical Education Center over here. Ms. German said that she appreciated the efforts made so far in the Valley by the College in its fledgling CTE effort but “they needed to be expanded.”
Ms. German also said that the Verde Valley is in great need of a trained workforce and the College should address the issue head on with a centralized CTE facility. She pleaded with the Board saying, “Please hear our cry, you have the money, use our tax dollars, and help us get that established.”
You may view Ms. German’s speech to the Governing Board below.
The Commercial Driver’s License program is offered in the summer and fall at Yavapai Community College’s Chino Valley Agribusiness and Technology Center. From all reports, it is doing well. Unfortunately, there is no similar program offered to persons residing on the east side of the County.
The course prepares a student to take his or her commercial license test. It includes the basics of operating commercial vehicles. Students are provided utility trucks, trailers, and a tractor/trailer rig as a part of their training.
As noted above, the College does not provide a similar program to the 73,000 residents living on the east side of the County at the Sedona Center, the Verde Campus, or anywhere else. Furthermore, the College fails to provide transportation from the east side of the County to the training site on the west side for those interested in taking the course but who have transportation issues.
The Yavapai Community College has received a $21,000 education grant from the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation. According to CTEC Dean John Morgan, “this grant will help students work in a paid internship while they are taking college classes, ultimately leading to better opportunities for gainful employment in high-wage, high-demand jobs upon degree or certificate completion.”
The College says it will use the grant to expand its advanced manufacturing internship program to students pursuing electronics, 3-D printing, welding, diesel technician, and automotive technician certifications. The College indicated its industry partners include: RISA Wearables, Inc. (Prescott), Toro manufacturing, Bent River Machine (Clarkdale), and Branchman’s Paint and Body.
The goal of the project is to build long-term partnerships with businesses and industry partners that hire into middle skills positions in the region.