Sample pastries and tour facility | learn about culinary programs, admissions to credit programs and meet OLLI Ambassadors | meanwhile, culinary enrollment falling; Hotel and Restaurant program suspended for the year

Yavapai Community College will hold an in-person open house at the Yavapai Community College Sedona Center on Wednesday, October 6th, from 10 am to noon. It is located at 4215 Arts Village Drive,  Sedona.

The open house will provide visitors with an opportunity to tour the facility, sample pastries prepared by culinary students, learn about its programs, and meet Osher Lifelong Learning Institute  ambassadors.

Opened for first time: The Center was constructed  in 1999 and opened in 2000. It was essentially closed down by the end of  2014 when   the Community College was considering selling it. The Prescott based  plan was to  maintain a Community College presence in Sedona by  merely renting space somewhere in the city for the OLLI program and any needed classes.  However, outrange from Sedona/Verde Valley citizens, politicians, and educational advocates brought a halt to the plan.   It re-opened in the fall 2017 after extensive remodeling.

Land deal: Yavapai Community College and Sathcupa L.L.C., owner of the Sedona Cultural Park, completed a land-swap agreement in August 2014.  The Community College received about three acres of property contiguous to its facility in exchange for five acres the college owned elsewhere in the Cultural Park. The contiguous property was to be used  for student parking and direct access to the main thoroughfare, Highway 89A. The college planned  to spend about $1.5 million to complete the agreement and add the needed parking and access road. Prior to the agreement, the land immediately surrounding the Center was owned by the Cultural Park and made immediate access to the facility somewhat challenging.

The Community College also announced in August 2014 that it would focus on what additional programming can and should be offered at its Sedona Center. The Sedona Film School, which had been housed at the center, was suspended by the fall 2014 while the college reviewed the program.  The College  also began studying the possibility of creating a hospitality certificate and/or degree program in the Verde Valley and Sedona and a Culinary Institute.

Critics:  The Community College eventually decided sometime in 2015-16 that it would shift from offering a Film School to  developing a Culinary Institute at the Center in addition to the Hotel and Restaurant Management program.  Major renovation was needed for Culinary Institute training.

 Construction of the Culinary Institute’s training facilities, which went on in  2016-17,  was considered inadequate by some in Sedona and the Verde Valley. One reason was that  a citizens’ group asked to help advise the Community College about renovating the Center  had studied how culinary facilities were designed  at other institutions. The group   had strongly recommended four training kitchens to provide adequate training. However,  the Community College rejected their ideas and built only two.

The Center  was remodeled and reopened in the fall of  2017. The Community College then sought to establish  culinary training and restaurant and hotel management programs.

Suspends Restaurant and Hotel Management program in fall 2021: Unfortunately, the Community College was forced to  suspend the Restaurant and Hotel Management courses in 2017 just after announcing it was offering them. The reason given was  poor enrollment. The program was re-launched in fall 2018.  However, in the fall of 2021 the Community College once again announced it  was not going to offer  any courses  in this program.  When and if it will re-offer courses in Restaurant and Hotel management is not clear.

Governing Board considers additional land purchase at Sedona Center:  It may come as a surprise to some that at both its February and  March 2020 meeting, the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board members discussed a purchase of additional land at the Sedona Center. In March the Board received  a detailed study commissioned by the College that was intended to determine the efficacy of possibly purchasing land and locating a hotel on property adjacent the Center.  The Board appeared most interested in purchasing an additional five acres adjacent the Center.  If a purchase was made, the Board would then decide its best use.

The study commissioned by the Community College claimed that “Market justification exists for development of a hotel adjacent to Yavapai College’s Sedona Center.” Third District Representative Paul Chevalier appeared to oppose a hotel (owned by a third party who leased land from the College) while urging the College to pursue a possible purchase of an additional five acres.  His vision was to use the land, if it could be purchased at a reasonable price,  to consider expanding the existing culinary school.

It was clear that no one on the Board (or College executives) wanted the College to consider building and owning its own hotel. Nothing more was heard about the proposal or purchase after the March meeting.

Enrollment difficulty at Culinary Institute: Enrollment at the Sedona Center for its Culinary programs was doing well in 2018, according to Sedona/Verde Valley Executive Dean James Perey.  He  updated  the District Governing Board on February 13, 2018,  about enrollment in culinary courses for the spring semester. He said there were 169 students enrolled.  He also said he was  considering adding another section in fall 2018 to accommodate the demand for the culinary offerings.

However, enrollment  appeared to have suddenly taken a downward slide by the fall of 2021. The Community College Administration reported to the Sedona City Council on September 30, 2021,  that it was having enrollment difficulty in its culinary program.  Early registration reports for the fall semester found only 20 students signed up with 68 open seats available.   The Community College administrators did not provide any final registration figures to the Sedona City Council at the September 30 meeting.

Facilities: The Sedona Center sits on what is described by the Community College as “an inspiring location, the perfect environment to achieve your educational goals.” It houses  a variety of classrooms and community spaces. The Sedona Culinary Arts Program and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Yavapai College (OLLI) are its current occupants.  Osher is an independently well-financed Institute that receives some operational financial support from the Community College.

OSHER  is successful: The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, which operates on the east and west sides of the County, offers a rich and evolving array of courses, lectures, and special activities, taught by distinguished faculty, scholars, and community experts. Members, who must be over 50, come from all walks of life and bring a lifetime of experience to the classroom and OLLI’s activities. It is considered a very successful program.

Going back 20 years: Twenty years have seen great change in the Center’s operation. Back in 2001, the Center had been open only one year when in June 2001 the Administration began looking to purchase up to 80 acres of land of the Coconino National Forest adjacent the Center. The purpose was to expand the facility to meet the unexpected huge number of students seeking admission to the Zaki Gordon Film Institute, which was then based at the Center and worked cooperatively with Yavapai Community College.

The Red Rock News of June 13, 2001, reported that Keith Harwood of the special projects office of the Community College president’s office was interviewed about the lack of space to accommodate applicants to the film program.  He said, “we’re bursting at the seams.  In the short term, we expected to have 100 in our Sedona multimedia program, and we have 500.”  The 20,000 square foot Center had only six classrooms. It was also reported that there was a two-year waiting list to get into the program.

The Community College did not purchase any additional land at this time.

However, the film school training program began to collapse following  a 2011 dust up between the Film Institute’s Director and the Community College president over curriculum and control. Shortly thereafter the Independent Film Institute fled to a private university.  The College insisted the program would continue to thrive and remain open. It did not.

In 2014-15 the film school was closed by the Community College President and the Community College director of the Sedona programs (who lived in Prescott). The Community College then began moving video training to the Verde and Prescott campuses.  Today, what little is left of original  film training program appears to be mostly based in Prescott. 

Despite the recent renovation and focus, it appears that the Center has been able so far to sustain strong enrollment. Moreover, the Community College has resisted offering a wide variety of class since reopening in 2017.

For the Community College, the Center remains a work in progress.

Follows former business manager Celestia Ziemkowski’s guilty pleas to felonies  in  2020 involving embezzling VACTE money for personal use

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced Friday, September  24, that the state’s grand jury had handed down a six-count indictment charging former Valley Academy for Career and Technical Education (VACTE) superintendent Lois Lamer as being involved in  fraudulent schemes, artifices and  violating the  duties of a custodian of public monies. The alleged crimes occurred while Lamer was employed by VACTE. Lamer was VACTE’s  CTE program director starting in July 2002 and became superintendent in July 2011 until she resigned in March 2016. VACTE is a major provider of Career and Technical Education training on the east side of Yavapai County consisting of about 75,000 residents.  

 An indictment was also  handed down charging Dennis Fiscus, the Arizona Department of Education’s former CTE programs of study director, with similar offenses. He  was allegedly involved in a scheme with Lamer to divert federal grant money into personal accounts.

Ms. Lois Lamer in happier times (Facebook photo)

Lamer is scheduled for a hearing on the charges  on October 15 at the Prescott courthouse.

The Arizona Department of Education terminated Fiscus in November 2015 after “discovering discrepancies” with Perkins monies.  Fiscus was fired because he awarded excessive amounts of Perkins money to VACTE in 2011. VACTE  should have received $120,000 in Perkins grant money; however, Fiscus awarded VACTE $467,039. As a result of the Auditor General’s investigation,  in February 2018 the U.S. Department of Education requested re-payments totaling $426,451 from the state’s education department. They were repaid in full by January 2020.

The Auditor General’s Office investigation had also revealed that from June 2015 through March 2016, VACTE business manager,  Celestia Ziemkowski, “may have embezzled VACTE monies when she issued five unauthorized warrants totaling $19,851 for her personal purposes and used a VACTE credit card to make personal purchases totaling $10,746.” Because of the investigation, Ziemkowski resigned in May 2016 from her position at VACTE.

Ziemkowski was  indicted in June 2019 with misuse of VACTE public money, fraudulent schemes, forgery, and computer tampering for unsanctioned charges in 2015 and 2016 totaling more than $30,000.  After pleading guilty to two counts of the indictment in 2020, she received probation.

Opened renovated Building “L” in 2020 (first approved in 2017), constructed small new replacement greenhouse and  new 10,000 square foot CTE facility now operational; needs cooperation from VACTE, saved over $300,000 in student book costs, and offered  several tuition free classes this fall

Dr. Lisa Rhine

Yavapai Community College president Dr. Lisa Rhine outlined during a presentation to the District Governing Board September 14 a few of the recent physical improvements on the Verde Valley Campus. She also  highlighted her efforts to reduce student book and tuition costs.  She called for greater cooperation between the Community College and the Valley Academy  for Career and Technical Education (VACTE district in developing technical training programs on the east side of Yavapai County.

Among the physical improvement on the Verde Valley Campus, Dr. Rhine pointed to the reopening of Building “L” .  The renovation of Building “L” was announced back in December 2017 by then Verde Valley Campus Dean James Perey.   However, actual renovation began in May 2019. At the time it was estimated the Community College would spend around $4.9 million on the renovation.  The building was renovated to improve the facilities for its nursing program and add a manufacturing lab.  The renovation was completed in time for the fall 2020 semester.  It had a re-opening  ribbon cutting ceremony on October 15, 2020.

You may recall that it was November 2014 when then Verde Valley Campus Dean James Perey publicly announced that the nursing program already being taught on the Verde Valley Campus would remain there.  There had been an uproar among Valley residents and education advocates when it was learned the program might be moved and consolidated into the nursing program being taught at the  College’s Prescott Valley Center. In fall 2021 the Community College showed a robust nursing training program now in operation on the Verde Valley Campus with virtually all of the classes filled to capacity.

The Community College completed construction of a small 18’ x 48’ greenhouse by the 2021 fall semester.  An even smaller greenhouse was removed from the Campus during the summer of 2021.

The Community College  also constructed a 10,000 square foot Career and Technical Education building, which opened with 100% enrollment this fall.  By comparison, the Community College operates a 105,000 square foot Career and Technical Education Center at the Prescott airport for residents living mostly on the west side of the County. There was 100% enrollment in CTE classes offered at the Verde Valley CTE facility, according to Dean Rhine.

College-wide, the College offered  a host of free tuition classes in the fall 2021.  The students enrolled at the Verde Campus had all of their classes paid for the entire semester thanks to the COVID-19 relief funds it received.  Students signing up to take  12 credits a semester can take an additional three credits without cost.  A handful of CTE classes at CTEC on the west side of the County were awarded free tuition for the fall semester.  

So far, the effort to introduce Open Educational Resources (OER) course materials into the curriculum has saved students more than $300,00.  The OER program, headed by Dr. Diane Ryan, was launched in the fall 2020.  This was a part of President Dr. Lisa Rhine’s effort to make post-secondary education available to everyone in the County at the lowest possible cost. It was estimated in 2020 that the OER program would take three or four years to fully implement.

Dr. Rhine strongly suggested to the Governing Board that the partnership between the Valley Academy for  Career and Technical Education should be strengthened.  On the west side of the County, an estimated 25% of the students taking technical education courses at the CTEC Campus come from high schools on that side of Mingus Mountain.  She also suggested that VACTE should re-locate its headquarters with the Community College on the Verde Valley Campus.  If this were accomplished, it would be following the model used with success on the west side of the County.

You may view Dr. Rhine’s presentation on this subject in the four-minute video clip from the September 14 Governing Board meeting below.