Colleges’ promises unkept, critics say

By Alicia Castro | Posted: Friday, April 12, 2013

Residents pay taxes, get little in  return

Many Calaveras County residents interested in community  college offerings are fed up with nearly $4.5 million in property taxes and bond  measure payments being funneled into two nearby college districts with few local  services offered in return.

Valley Springs business owner Dave Tanner, who ran last  year for a seat on the Delta college district board, expressed frustration over  the district’s lack of follow-through.

“We’re their sugar daddy,” said Tanner, “and we really  can’t afford it.”

Calaveras County is split between two community college  districts.

Residents of the Calaveras Unified School District,  including towns like Valley Springs and San Andreas, fall within the boundaries  of San Joaquin Delta Community College District. The nearest district campus  within that district is San Joaquin Delta Community  College.

Those who live along the Highway 4 corridor are a part of  the Yosemite Community College District, which includes Columbia College and  Modesto Junior College.

Terri Tanner, a Calaveras High School guidance counselor  and Dave Tanner’s wife, estimated 65 percent of Calaveras graduates live at home  and drive or ride transit to Columbia or other community colleges. Bret Harte  High School’s stats are similar to Calaveras’, in Tanner’s  opinion.

It was almost a decade ago that a bond was passed in each  of the college districts, both of which promised a satellite community college  within Calaveras County’s borders.

Measure L, a $250 million bond measure, passed in March  2004 in the Delta district.

In order to accommodate the growth and increasing student  enrollment, the college intended to “acquire a site(s) in the Mother Lode/  foothills area.”

In November of the same year, the $326 million Measure E,  “local community college repair and overcrowding measure” bond, was passed in  the Yosemite district; of the total amount, $7.6 million was set aside in funds  to create a “Calaveras Center.”

For this center, the goal was to “expand access to  educational opportunities in underserved communities,” and for Columbia  College’s service area, the Calaveras community was the only one listed as  “underserved.”

The measure was intended to establish a permanent college  education center in Calaveras County, which represents more than 21 percent of  the college’s enrollment.

The prospects

Over the continuing duration of the bond measure  payments, various prospective locations for satellite campuses have been  presented.

For the Delta district, the district was in a non-binding  contract with Saratoga resident Tom Coe, who owns 643 acres in Valley Springs on  which he wishes to develop a full-fledged vocational  college.

Coe said the district had set aside $50 million for a  foothill campus.

“Those were such preliminary amounts,” said Delta College  Superintendent and President Dr. Kathy Hart, who did not know the exact amount  allocated to Calaveras County, but said the budget set “kind of ballpark  numbers. We had far more projects than we had  money.”

Since that time, completed projects include various  buildings and improvements on the Delta  campus.

“The actual ballot measure focused on the Stockton  campus,” said Hart. “At the time we did this, $250 million seemed like all the  money in the world.”

Also completed was a satellite campus southwest of  Stockton in Mountain House.

Hart said she is not on the board, and at the time of  this decision, was not in a position to say why this location was  selected.

She said the foothills location would not have been the  first place because, “When we delved into it, the population is just not there.  In light of our scarce resources, we couldn’t spend the money to put a center  there that we couldn’t guarantee to everyone that we could  fill.

“We’re going to be able to do far less – half, or a  quarter – of what we really need to do,” she  said.

Despite $2 million a year in funding from Calaveras,  “they don’t have us slated for a campus,” said Coe. “We’re paying to be in a  district; we’re paying to serve a bond that promised a campus – and our kids  can’t even get classes.”

In 2012, to have a greater foothold on bond funds and  student support, Dave Tanner ran for the trustee seat of Area 5 – northern  Stockton and Calaveras County.

Coe said Tanner “won outstandingly” with the Calaveras  and Lodi residents, but elections were held at-large and Stockton voters chose  the incumbent candidate.

“It would divert funds from Stockton to the foothills,”  said Coe. “As a result, it’s creating a problem. It’s not equitable. That’s why  we’re seriously considering working with another  district.”

That other district may be the Yosemite district,  according to Coe and Tanner.

“Columbia has a strong staff,” Tanner said. “They’re  well-educated and passionate.”

Still, Columbia and the Yosemite district have seen a  fair share of criticism.

In 2010, Columbia College announced the purchase of about  6 acres of property on Murphys Grade Road within the City of Angels Camp limits  for $615,000 from the Calaveras County Office of  Education.

“We still have that plot of land,” said Columbia College  Acting President Leslie Buckalew. “It’s in the long-term plan to develop that  when funds are available. Right now, our emphasis is on managing  resources.”

In the fall of 2012, $3 million of the $7.6 million  Measure E funds dedicated to a satellite campus was shifted to other projects  within the bond.

“The total amount allocated to the bond hasn’t changed,”  said Buckalew in response to concerns of where that money may have gone.  “Sometimes money is reallocated to increase student  access.”

The options

In response to ways the Delta district is specifically  serving the county, Hart said Delta offers online classes that provide “kind of  a stop-gap program for foothill students, which allows them to stay up there  without having to build something.”

She said classes held within in the county over the past  five years were met with little success, and that because foothill students  represent a low percent of Delta’s total service population, building a campus  within the county would not be the best use of remaining  funds.

“I understand that the citizens of Calaveras County wish  that we had done something in Calaveras County, but we simply can’t afford it,”  Hart said. “We can’t build something and hope that the students will come,  especially in this economic environment.”

Buckalew echoed the point of online coursework offered,  presenting a list of 34 classes available online and nine available as a  combination of online and classroom settings, which she said may be “very  convenient, especially for students who are also  working.”

She also said six classes are scheduled to be offered  this fall at either the Calaveras County Office of Education or Bret Harte High  School; she is in discussion with county administrators as to which may be the  better option for local students.

“Right now, partnering makes the most sense,” she said,  “We are committed to Calaveras County, and we’re showing that through offering a  full-course load in a central, more convenient  location.”

The classes that will be locally offered include prep for  college composition, old world culture, algebra 1, sociology of the family and  two English as a second language offerings.

In the fall, Buckalew said administrators will assess  whether the college is offering the right slate and if there may be interest to  expand to offering career and technical-related  coursework.

As far as a satellite campus is concerned, Buckalew said,  “We’d love to build, but if we did, we wouldn’t be able to offer these  classes.”

Still, residents continue to pay into the districts’  bonds, many with the understanding that a satellite campus would be  forthcoming.

“That would be a dream come true for all students in our  county to actually have a college campus here where they would be able to pursue  good classes and furthering their education,” said Terri Tanner. “I know we have  a group of people looking into getting a community college. We had hoped Delta  was going to do that for us but it doesn’t look like that’s going to  happen.”

Coe suggested “encouraging our supervisors to stop  sending money to Delta.”

County resident Ross Alford – who has been voicing his  opinion about the Yosemite district’s allocation of Measure E funds on his  editor’s opinion page of the Calaveras Chronicle – has pointed to the example of  Amador County, which is “experiencing similar  difficulties.”

Amador is the only county in California independent of a  community college district.

“They’re creating a community college foundation to take  responsibility for educating their own community,” said Alford. “It’s an  interesting and viable option.”

Dave Tanner also mentioned Amador, suggesting a “joint  effort that could be made with other counties – with their numbers and our  numbers.”

No matter what is to come, the solution lies with  legislative action.

Coe and Tanner both expressed enthusiasm over the  California’s District 5 freshman Assemblyman Frank Bigelow, with whom they’ve  been talking about post-secondary education  options.

“Frank Bigelow is very involved with education, both he  and his family,” Tanner said. “He’s been involved in technical education  programs in high school. I’m looking to the future in a positive direction; I’m  intrigued and excited. I’ll be meeting with him in the near future to discuss  the future of education in the county.”

Assemblyman Bigelow could not be reached by press time,  but he will discuss this issue with Enterprise reporter Joel Metzger during an  interview today on Public Access Television.