During the Santa Clarita Community College District governing board meeting last week, board members had a list of questions following an informational presentation for the proposed on-campus Advanced Technology Center at College of the Canyons’ Valencia campus.
The presentation was delivered by David Andrus, interim president of the college, and covered how feasible it would be to construct an ATC on the Valencia campus.
Andrus advised the board that it would be in the best interest to invest what remains of the Measure E bond money with their highest-priority projects. At the top of that list would be the ATC.
“I tried to convey to the board at the joint foundation meeting to temper your expectations on Canyon Country (Campus) because anything sizeable out there, if you want it, it doesn’t even compare in its priority to the ATC,” said Andrus.
He added that college officials know that the ATC will benefit students and attract new full-time students because of the research they have done.
Board President Sharlene Johnson said she was still uncomfortable with moving forward with this investment without knowing all the details about the finances that are going into the building.
Johnson also spoke about not knowing the “what ifs” and how that could potentially hurt the project down the road, and she would feel better seeing all of that before they move forward.
“I just like to have that information posed in front of us because we’re going to run into those ‘what ifs’ when we expedite a project in such, to me, a little bit of light speed,” said Johnson. “And I understand from hearing from you why, but it still concerns me because I feel like we’re not making honorable decisions because we don’t have the data in front of us, and we don’t have the ‘what ifs’ and we’re thinking ahead of the game on how do we resolve it.”
Andrus responded that the information that the current board is receiving has been quickly delivered and has been more information than the previous board ever received. He added that he believes the board is not rushing through the process.
In order to give the board a detailed pro forma report, a hypothetical financial report that projects future financial performance based on specific assumptions and scenarios, the board needs to allow for some of the bond money to be invested into professionals who can get them the information, according to Andrus.
One of the projects brought up during the meeting was remodeling and updating the student union center on campus. Andrus stated that was one of the projects they needed to set aside for now while they prioritize the ATC.
Board member Fred Arnold said the board should look at a list of buildings that will need modernization before they prioritize the ATC above all else and recommended that, at the next meeting, the board should be voting to modernize the student union center.
“I think it’s important that we look at the totality before we go all-in, and all-in might be the right answer once we figure everything out,” said Arnold. “We need to know the needs of all departments on campus and what our needs are going to be over the next 10 years, because we’re not going to have extra money to fix things and to modernize.”
Andrus said if the student union center modernization was brought back for approval it would “cripple” the ATC planning. He agreed that the students do deserve a remodeled student union center but that it was not necessary at this time in comparison to the ATC.
Harriet Happel, dean of Career and Technical Education, agreed with Andrus that there was a need for a modernization of the student union but that in comparison to the ATC it was not going to bring in new students or help prepare them for a job.
Board member Edel Alonso said she also agreed that the student union center improvements could wait and requested that instead of a presentation that the board be given a simple list of where they are at in the process with the ATC and the next steps that need to happen to move it along.
“I think what we need to see is at each step of the way, how much are each of these things going to cost us,” said Alonso.
She recommended that the list consist of the next steps, cost for each step, and indicate whether a deadline applies.
