Culinary arts, Film Institute, and hospitality at top of educational needs expressed by 35 citizens at town hall meeting
The Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee (VVBAC) to the Yavapai Community College Governing Board held a town hall meeting at the Yavapai College Sedona Center October 21. The purpose of the town hall meeting was to provide input to the VVBAC on the unmet post-secondary educational needs of the community. At least 35 residents took the opportunity to express their views of the community needs to the Committee.
There were a total of 97 persons who attended the event. Included in the audience were members of the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee, two members of the Yavapai College District Governing Board, and the Mayor and six of the seven Sedona City Councilors.
Representing the College were Vice President Clint Ewell and Dean Dennis Garvey, both from Prescott. It should have come as no surprise to Ewell that the residents listed Culinary, return of the Film Institute, and hospitality as the top three unmet post secondary educational needs in the community. He and President Penelope Wills have heard those requests repeatedly from Sedona and Verde Valley residents at numerous meetings over the past two years. Despite the many requests, President Wills and Vice President Ewell have consistently shown an arrogant propensity to ignore them.
In an effort to placate the Verde Valley and Sedona folks, a small culinary effort was launched at Camp Verde High School this fall and twelve credits in digital photography were made available in Prescott and on the Verde Campus. Neither of these offerings can be compared in any way to launching a serious culinary program, such as that operated at the Scottsdale Community College Campus, or take the place of the Sedona Film school, which offered almost 70 credits in film training.
Graduates of the Film School who spoke at the Town Hall meeting leveled biting criticism at the College for its 2014 closing. One Film School graduate reflected the views of several others saying that “what we did at Zaki Gorden was unique in the country. Fifteen years ago almost no one had a program like we had at Yavapai College. In the last five years [of the Film School’s existence], while Yavapai College was cutting salaries, cutting staff, cutting the marketing budget, community colleges around the country were taking our idea and they were running with it.” Another Film School graduate focused on a lack of College management saying that “it was a constant struggle to educate the College on what we [were] about. And how to properly run and market a Film School.”
Leaders in the restaurant, culinary, and hospitality industry in Sedona lamented the absence of a significant culinary and hospitality training program at the Sedona facility. Kevin Maguire of the Enchantment Group said: “We can’t fill the positions we have at our properties.” Sedona Rouge Executive Chef Ron Moley expressed exasperation with the “small pool of [trained] chefs” in Sedona to service the 4 million or more annual visitors.
Ms. Ruth Wicks suggested that the situation with Yavapai College had reached a point where the only option left for residents was to create a separate taxing district for the East side of the County. Only in this way, Wicks said, would the East side of the County be permanently removed from control of West County College administrators.
The videotapes of the citizen presentations will be available on YouTube in about a week. The Blog will let you know when they are posted. A story about the Town Hall Meeting in the online edition of the Redrock News can be found by clicking here.
An online poll is being conducted by the Redrock News and asks: “What should Yavapai College provide to Sedona?” You may take that poll by clicking here.
There was a great deal of focus on the culinary courses during the Board presentation by the Community College. It was learned that somewhere between 200 and 250 students will have the opportunity to take the culinary courses on the West side of the Mountain. The Mountain Institute JTED on the West side of the County has been running courses at a Fudrucker’s for over a year. JTED operates two Culinary Arts programs: the one housed at the former Fudrucker’s restaurant is considered a “central campus,” and another exists on the Chino Valley High School campus. In October, 2013 the Mountain Institute reported that Chino Valley’s program has 113 students currently enrolled, compared to 88 this past year; the central campus increased from 34 to 45. At the Board meeting in January, 2015 Dr. Wills estimated 250 high school students on the West side of the County as potential applicants while Dean Perey put the figure at 200.