Gavilan Joint Community College District is searching for a new
site in Hollister to build a satellite school, which may develop
into a full-service campus, President Steve Kinsella said
Monday.
Hollister – Gavilan Joint Community College District is searching for a new site in Hollister to build a satellite school, which may develop into a full-service campus, President Steve Kinsella said Monday.
“The biggest advantage this campus will have is the option to tailor courses to meet the specific needs of local industries,” Kinsella said.
Passage of a $108 million bond, Measure E on last March’s ballot, earmarked $12.7 million to acquire land in Hollister for a new site. Kinsella would not comment on where the board was looking, but said the site, which could be up to 100 acres, could grow into a full-service campus over the next 20 or 30 years.
The size and scope of the new site will depend on population growth and community need. No deadlines have been set, but Kinsella said the site will be selected in the next 18 months.
“This is a long term project, we’re looking for the right piece of land in the right place,” Kinsella said. “But we’re really trying to get this going as soon as possible.”
Kinsella said the money to buy the property was sought through the bond measure in order to expedite the site selection process. If the college had requested money through the normal state budgetary process, the project could have been delayed, Kinsella said.
In the future the college will look to the state to provide funding for actual building construction. Kinsella said the board did not anticipate future bond measures.
“We’re really going after the state for the funds for this new construction,” Kinsella said.
The board of trustees may purchase property that already has buildings, but would be forced to consider the seismic capacity of any structures before making a decision.
Kinsella said the sewer moratorium will not influence the selection process, but will affect eventual construction on the site. Kinsella said he was confident that the sewer moratorium would be lifted before construction commenced.
San Benito High School Superintendent Jean Burns Slater encouraged passage of the bond measure last March, and believes the satellite site will offer additional opportunities to high school students. Slater said she hopes SBHS students will be able to take college-level classes at the new site during regular school hours.
“I think it will give students an opportunity to try college-level work and see that it’s do-able,” Slater said. “It will give them a jump start on their college careers.”
The college is also looking for a similar site in the Coyote Valley area. That purchase will take place before the site in Hollister is acquired.
Jan Bernstein Chargin, the college’s director of public information, said the district’s growth analysis predicated a Coyote Valley area site would be needed sooner than one Hollister.
Interim board of trustees member Kent Child said community demand for college classes has exceeded the limits of Gavlian’s Briggs Center in downtown Hollister. Additional space will also be needed to accommodate the district’s growing population.
“We’re seriously looking for a permanent sit in San Benito County, probably on the outskirts of Hollister,” Child said.
Currently the 2,009 Hollister residents who attend Gavilan college make up about 30 percent of the school’s students. Kinsella said Hollister enrollment is expected to increase 14 percent by 2010 and 35 percent by 2020, according to population growth data gathered from the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments.
The Gavilan Joint Community College District, which enrolled nearly 7,000 students last year, serves southern Santa Clara County and almost all of San Benito County. The college was originally established in Hollister as San Benito Community College, more than 80 years ago, and is one of California’s oldest 2-year colleges.
After serious funding cuts and as the result of redistricting in 1963, the college was renamed and a new 150-acre campus was opened in Gilroy in 1967. The school’s aviation program is located at the Hollister Municipal Airport and several other offices and classrooms are located in the ground floor of the Briggs Center on San Benito Street, which was built in the early 1990s.
Brett Rowland covers education for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
