COLLEGE SPENDS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON SPECULATIVE 3D CEMENT PRINTER AND THREE NEW ATHLETIC PROGRAMS BUT CANNOT BRING ITSELF TO EVEN EXPLORE POSSIBILITY OF FREE ELECTRICAL VEHICLE TRAINING PROGRAM WITH SEDONA

College continues historic rigidity when it comes to locating advanced programs in the Verde Valley; some fear that sophisticated Community College career and technical training opportunities  will be lost to the Verde Valley without local control over decision making and budgets

Editor Robert Oliphant

OPINION. The revelation by the newly elected mayor of Sedona, Scott Jablo, at the November District Governing Board meeting  that Yavapai Community College has shown no interest when offered an opportunity  to explore a sophisticated EV training program at no cost is consistent with the historic treatment of the east side of the County by the west side.  Ask anyone, for example, who knows about the collapse of the ambitious east county CTE project back in 2005-2006 and the scramble on the west side to find a CTE campus to house diesel engine training.

When making the College’s reaction to the recent offer by Sedona known to the Governing Board, Jablo explained that Sedona is transitioning to an all-electric bus transportation fleet and will be constructing a maintenance and repair facility to house the vehicles.  He said that the City was prepared to offer space to the Community College free of charge along with an opportunity to train alongside its staff of EV technicians.

Jablo said the offer of the training facility space was made a year or so ago.  Since then, there has been silence in response from the Community College.

By comparison, on the west side of the County,  the College readily found almost a half million dollars  in its budget back in 2000 to purchase a huge 3D cement printer in an effort to create a highly sophisticated construction training program over there. Turns out that after the huge printer was received, it had to be rebuilt at a cost the College refuses to divulge.  Worse, the College has  yet to demonstrate that it understands how to use the sophisticated 3D cement construction printer to  build anything.

Also, by comparison, on the west side of the County, the Community College executives in the last couple of years decided to add three more teams (more coaches, support staff, scholarships) to its growing list of sports programs. This has increased the annual budget by hundreds of  thousands of dollars and in part is responsible for the College asking for a tax rate increase in 2023.  

The sports program services almost exclusively the west side where virtually all matches and games are held and all baseball, softball and soccer fields are located.  (The west side also has the only major sized gymnasium where its volleyball team plays its matches, with rare exception.) The west siders are breathlessly waiting to transform at a cost of hundreds of thousands the current soccer practice field into a field where matches will be held. 

However, when it comes to the east side of the County, and the possibility of an advanced EV  technical education training opportunity such as that proposed by the Sedona mayor, the west side executives have shown no interest in exploring such a venture. 

There is little east side residents can do about decisions (or the absence of decisions) like this because control of the Yavapai Community College rests entirely in the hands of persons living in Prescott with what appears to be an obvious Prescott preference for seizing advanced CTE training programs and locating them over there.  Until the local east County Community College Verde Campus and Sedona Center are run by local residents, and decision making for the future development is theirs alone, such conduct will continue well into the future.

So, a great opportunity is apparently lost. But watch where EV training will emerge.  It won’t be on the east side of the County.