Advisory Board seeks to strengthen Community College relationship with Yavapai-Apache Nation
The Verde Valley Advisory Committee to the College Governing Board has been reaching out to the communities in the Verde Valley asking for their views on how the College can best serve them. On Wednesday, February 4 the Committee met with the Yavapai-Apache Tribal Council at Tribal Headquarters in Camp Verde.
The Committee heard members of the Tribal Council ask that more Community College classes be offered in Camp Verde and at the Tribe’s Learning Center in Clarkdale. It also heard about issues of access to classes and the new transportation link between the reservations in Clarkdale and Camp Verde. The Council suggested that with the new transportation system in place there are more opportunities for getting its members to the College.
The $5 million dollar request is in part the culmination of a specific effort on the Prescott campus to develop music courses while ignoring music development in the Verde Valley. For example, by the fall of 2014 the Community College listed 87 separate courses of music instruction and 16 areas of music concentration that students might consider. However, of the 87 courses, 85 are taught only on the Prescott campus; two music courses existed at the Sedona Center for Arts and Technology campus. None appear online.
The General Obligation bonds are approved by voters and used for capital projects. The last time voters in Yavapai County approved General Obligation bonds was in the year 2000 when they approved issuance of $69.5 million dollars in bonds for the Community College. 
The Community College has announced that the University of Arizona has selected the Chino Valley Center as the venue for an agricultural trial to see if this is a good area for summer spinach growing. Chino Valley Farms is also participating in the project, which is part of the largest spinach-growing trial in Arizona.
According to data in the 2014 Annual Financial Report that was just released, in April 2011, the District issued $14,000,000 of pledged revenue obligations, which are backed in part by student tuition. The $14,000,000 was used to prepay a capital lease and $9,435,487 was used to construct the Prescott Chiller Water Plant and Clarkdale Central Plant.
Beginning in the fall of 2014, the District began offering several new certificates including Athletic Coaching, Canine Care and Handling, Electric Utility Technology, Therapy and Service Dog Team Skills, Gas Medal Arc Welding, Gas Tungsten Arc Welding and a Pipe Welding. These new certificate programs are designed to prepare students for various careers in these industries through a combination of lecture, group discussion and hands on skill building experiences. 
“We plan to present this to the District Governing Board in the next month or two,” Wills said. “We’re always looking for and evaluating programs that meet the educational, economic and cultural needs of the people of Yavapai County and can be offered at a justifiable cost to students and taxpayers. We believe these new programs meet those criteria, and we’re eager to welcome the new students that they’ll attract.”