Will exclude from menu  all things frozen and fried, instead offering grilled cheese and other specialty sandwiches and salads, coffee and pastries

The effort to operate a Café/restaurant on the Verde Campus has a checkered history of starts, stops and closings.  When it reopens this year, most likely for fall semester, it will try something different. 

According to a news release issued by the College on June 22, 2022, it will now operate the Café/restaurant on the Verde Campus as a “laboratory for aspiring culinary artists and entrepreneurs as well as a showcase for the vegetables and herbs that horticulture students cultivate in an one-campus greenhouse.” 

It has hired an experienced restaurateur, Kelley Foy, to direct the operation.  She will be the manager and instructor for the “reimagined café.” The new café is “dubbed YCGC for YC Grilled Cheese.”

In its press release, the College says that “even while pursuing her passion for designing custom furniture and serving as the gelato chef for Merkin Vineyards in the Verde Valley, Kelley decided to tackle creating the teaching restaurant for YC because she loves cooking, loves teaching and believes hands-on experience is invaluable for students. `I’m drawn to teaching that involves actually doing the work at the same time,” Kelley said adding, “I want to be part of the direction the college is going’ — that is providing life-lifting career opportunities for individuals and strengthening our local economy.”

When it reopens, the café will operate from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. The Cafe’s  student staff will also cater college gatherings and events, including those hosted at the college’s teaching winery, the Southwest Wine Center.

Notes 15.1% population growth on west side of Mingus since 2010 while only 4.8% growth on east side

Yavapai Community College President Dr. Lisa Rhine provided the County College District Governing Board with an overview of the investment the College has made in the Verde Valley during the Friday, January 25 Board workshop.

At the beginning of her slide presentation, she noted the most recent democratic trends in the County.  According to data the Community College has collected, overall population growth in the County has been the most significant on the west side of Mingus.  She told the Board that since 2010 there was 15.1 percent growth on the west side of the County and only 4.8% growth on the east side. 

She did not explain how the difference in growth may impact future investments in the Verde Valley.

In the remaining portion of her presentation (see below) she outlined the College’s investment in the Valley beginning with the 2014 Southwest Wine Center.   She highlighted the Wine Center and vineyard, the 2017 Sedona Center renovation, the  2020  Building L renovation and  construction in 2021 of the Verde Valley Skilled Trades Center and small greenhouse.

She described creation of new classrooms for the beer brewing program and renovation of the Verde Campus Café.  She also pointed to new mini-classes for eighth-grade students and other programs and efforts made as a part of the investment in the Valley.

You can see all of Dr. Rhine’s eleven-minute slide presentation (absent questions that followed) in the video below.

College provides transportation, faculty and facilities at no cost to the District; hopes to expand these “hands- on” courses throughout the Valley

Yavapai Community College and the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District have partnered in a unique training program for eighth-grade students.  Students in the District are given an opportunity to sign up for one of six three-week classes designed and taught by the Community College. There is no cost to the school district or the students. Students receive hands on training at the Community College in a selected mini-class.

Students attend their chosen class for four days a week for three weeks.  The six mini-classes are:  Law enforcement, construction, culinary arts, nursing, CNC machining, and Greenhouse growing. 

Verde Valley Campus Dean Dr. Tina Redd explained to the Sedona Council on January 25 that she hoped to expand the program to other school districts in the Verde Valley.

There are benefits to the Community College and the school district.  For the Community College, it is developing a pipeline that will encourage these future potential students to consider enrolling there once they graduate.  For the District, it is an opportunity of getting the eighth-grade students involved at an early age in the skilled trades and a particular profession.

The classes are very “hands-on.”  For example, the course in law enforcement involved classes showing students how to run radar detection, bike safety, crime scene investigation, crime searches, and real-life reenactments. The police officer instructors are from the Verde Valley.

You may view Dr. Redd’s short report on this program made to the Sedona Council January 25, 2022, on the video below.  You may review all of her presentation to the Sedona Council on video by clicking here.  

Sources:  Sedona Council meeting video of January 25, 2022; story in the Verde Independent by Vyto Starinskas published January 23, 2022.

Says enhanced partnership with VACTE “critically important” | Will offer unmanned aviation systems at “east high school” | Expand east side cultural opportunities | Investigate “affordable on-campus housing opportunities” | But provides few specifics

Yavapai Community College president Dr. Lisa Rhine outlined some of the future considerations for improving the College’s educational opportunities in the Sedona/Verde Valley area of the County at the September 14 District Governing Board meeting on the Verde Valley Campus.    She offered no specific details about the future plans and did not identify by campus where the improvements might  occur in the future. 

She emphasized that enhancing the Community College’s partnership with the Valley Academy of Career and Technical Education was “critically important.”  At least 25% of the Community College enrollment at the large CTEC campus operated at the Prescott airport comes from high school students on the west side of the County.  She did not indicate what percentage of high school students are now enrolled in Career and Technical Education training at the College’s new CTE facility. Or, at the VACTE training center on highway 89 in Cottonwood.

Another promise she made was to expand the cultural opportunities for residents of the east side.  For over 50 years the Community College has pumped millions of dollars into the west side of the County in its commitment to bring cultural activities to that area of the County while mostly ignoring the east side. Whether it has any money available to back up this commitment in a meaningful fashion is problematic.

Dr. Rhine also hopes to expand athletics into the east side of the County.  Again, for 50 years the large and growing athletic program has been exclusively one for the east side of the County.  By 2022 there will be at least eight athletic programs with a multi-million dollar support program driving them.  It remains questionable whether Community College athletics will find a significant place on the east side of the County.  There is little interest and all of the major matches and events are scheduled on the west side of the County.  The distance and challenging driving conditions plus an absence of public transportation between the east and west sides of the County are major obstacles for east side residence attendance at west side events.  

While suggesting the future possibility of an affordable residence hall on the east side of the County for Community College students, Dr. Rhine appeared somewhat less than enthusiastic about the idea.  While the Community College has built three residence halls on the west side (one was recently torn down), it has never seriously considered construction of a single one of the east side.  It remains problematic whether such a facility will arrive any time soon on the east side of the County.

You may view her remarks in the short video clip below.