A new Gavilan College campus in south San Jose came a couple of steps closer to becoming a reality Oct. 13 as the governing body unanimously approved more than $4.5 million in contracts to begin site grading, soil inspection and the purchase of five modular buildings.
The 55-acre land, located at 650 Bailey Ave. in the northern end of the Gavilan Joint Community College District, was purchased after the $108 million Measure E bond was approved by voters in 2004.
A ground-breaking ceremony for what is known as the Coyote Valley Education Center is expected Dec. 4 with college classes to start shortly thereafter by the fall of 2016.
The first phase of developing the site, which has already undergone habitat mitigation, involves the placement of five small modular buildings, which will be used as a training facility for peace officers with the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium.
About 10 percent of current Gavilan students are in the academy with training done at the main Gilroy campus. However, Evergreen Valley College, where a majority of the training was handled, is no longer going to offer those services and all peace officer work will soon be solely at the new Coyote site.
“The long-range plan in 10 to 12 years is to actually build that site into a full-fledged college campus that will able to serve 10,000 students,” said Gavilan Trustee Jonathan Brusco, who is the board’s Morgan Hill representative. “In the short term, the reason we’re approaching the Coyote Valley site first is it’s the most underserved community in our district.”
The college also purchased land in San Benito County, where trustees plan to expand services at a later time as well.
Meanwhile, the Coyote Valley temporary facilities—the modulars that can be resold once the permanent structures are built—will also hold general education classes in the evening hours with the police academy in the morning and afternoon hours.
Brusco said that only 31 percent of Morgan Hill Unified School District graduates attend Gavilan with the vast majority enrolling in other community colleges in San Jose.
“We have this property and we have the ability to serve them,” said Brusco, noting that southern Santa Clara County is experiencing “tremendous growth” and more potential students to attract from the local area. “Coyote Valley is my district for the new trustee areas so it’s really important to me that we got this done and did this right.”
Gavilan officials recently received the long-awaited approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to begin Phase I plans for the Coyote site.
“That process has been really long and pretty expensive as well,” Brusco said. “That has contributed to the delay.”
At the Oct. 13 meeting, the board approved a $90,000 contract with Irick Inspections, Inc. for Coyote Valley Site Grading and Utilities; $118,500 contact with Cornerstone Earth Group for geotechnical observation and testing services; and a $4,354,885 bid from Teichert Construction for the four modular buildings as well as the installation of cement foundations, electrical wiring and infrastructure.
Currently, Gavilan serves 5,300 students at its three campuses in Hollister, Gilroy and Morgan Hill. While Gilroy serves as the main campus, Gavilan burgeoned out of San Benito Junior College in Hollister in 1919. Gilroy and Morgan Hill then combined with Hollister to form the Gavilan Junior Community College District in 1963. The full-fledged Gilroy campus opened in 1967 and, 30 years later, a Morgan Hill satellite campus opened off Vineyard Boulevard and then to the Community & Cultural Center in 1997.
