Signal readers are well informed of the machinations of the existing College of the Canyons governing trustees. After a four-week public flaying of COC’s mega-builder Dianne Van Hook, this scorched-earth board summarily fired the esteemed woman who built the place up from a dirt lot with four desolate concrete tilt-ups to the admired gem that it is today serving 27,000-plus annually.
Subsequently, these rudderless trustees rush-appointed a “temporary president,” a Hail Mary attempt to fill Dr. Van Hook’s imposing shoes. Their results thus far have been an affront to the community, starting the new reign with a likely significant violation of the Brown Act in a secret meeting while excluding Signal news coverage.
And now surfaced amid this cloud of sudden and threatening change is confusion regarding new COC capital construction projects – including the possible suspension of the building contract for the long-planned Advanced Technology Center. Last week COC confirmed that the agreement between the college and the project developer, Intertex Companies, is “under review.”
The Advanced Technology Center, or ATC, is COC’s latest expansion of high-skill training benefiting our community workforce. If indeed permanently halted by the new interim COC president and board of trustees, expect our beloved college to see only costly legal wrangling and settlement negotiations rather than a new ATC facility serving the community.
An ATC cancellation would be an affront to donors, Santa Clarita Valley manufacturing companies, to students and workers looking to gain high-demand employment skills. A contract cancellation would also stymie the efforts of the long-serving COC Foundation, charged with raising $3 million to help equip and sustain this new ATC facility.
The Advanced Technology Center is just one of many Dianne Van Hook innovations, designed to bring local business needs together with local residents seeking high-level skills in the advanced manufacturing sector. Local manufacturing businesses struggle to hire qualified workers. Many locals don’t choose a college path but, rather, desire a professional trade career with plenty of upward potential. The forward-thinking Advanced Technology Center brings these two interests together, building a path for success that was previously unavailable to local jobseekers.
Currently, the ATC is temporarily housed in a rented warehouse in the middle of the city. This temporary facility was to fill the gap while waiting for the purpose-build ATC facility to be completed. Contracts for the development and construction were signed over a year ago. All the forward planning and agency approvals were “ducks in a row,” with construction ready to start.
Now, the ATC is in limbo, just as shovels were poised to hit dirt. This is a forced error and an unnecessary move, just as firing Van Hook was. And just as firing Dr. Van Hook will cost us taxpayers millions, delays or cancelling the long-planned Advanced Technology Center will also prove costly to our community and far more costly than the trustees and their impromptu “president” imagined.
Should the ATC be delayed and then resurrected by this or an incoming board, costs will be substantially higher. The foundation board has had its knees capped right in the middle of a fundraising program to build out the facility. Donors may withdraw their pledges, costing COC what would have been $3 million in gifts. If the project is canceled, hundreds, and over time, thousands of SCV job seekers will miss out on life-changing opportunities for personal growth and success. Businesses will have to hire from out of town, increasing traffic – or perhaps they’ll just move to another state.
And most important, also cancelled would be hope for equality in opportunity – stunting COC’s outreach and programs for all in our community who hope to improve their lives.
COC has long taken all comers, from all walks of life, race, gender, age, financial status, career and vocation proclivities, and connected all these people with the education and skills and even professional connections they needed for personal success and independence in life. No matter what your political proclivities may be, building individual success creates more stable, prosperous, law-abiding communities. If you don’t like these results, you’re not a liberal or a Democrat, or a progressive or radical. No, you’re a straight-up anarchist.
In my view the current COC trustees are “palling around” with educational anarchy as they fiddle with urgent projects like the ATC.
For decades, COC stood as an ultimate non-partisan accomplishment jewel in our community. Leaders left and right helped build the place and united in COC’s success. Today – those bonds of community are falling fast as the remaining trustees tear at Dianne Van Hook’s innovations. Their abrupt actions remain an angry puzzlement to everyone who has shared a part in building COC’s success.
So, as it appears for now, perhaps gone is the new Advanced Technology Center. For now, gone is Chancellor Dianne Van Hook’s continuity of leadership. Lost are all her connections with business and state and national education leaders.
Gone, are the best days of COC.
Gone, that is, until voters have a say, returning COC to constructive, non-partisan leadership, again building opportunities for SCV’s citizens, young and old, left, right and center, and from all walks of life. The COC board of trustees must begin caring less about tearing down Dr. Van Hook’s legacy and start caring about the true mission of the college: to best serve our students and our community above all other concerns.
The Advanced Technology Center must be placed back on track as quickly as possible to both best serve our local population as well as to minimize financial costs to the college.
Gary Horton’s “Full Speed to Port!” has appeared in The Signal since 2006. The opinions expressed in his column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Signal or its editorial board.
