WKCTC expects funding to open technology center
04/14/2005 Paducah Sun
A planned Emerging Technology Building in Paducah will be a top state funding priority in the next year, Kentucky Community Technical College System President Michael McCall announced Thursday.
"This is significant," McCall said at a reception at the recently remodeled West Kentucky Community and Technical College Bistro. "This is something that will make a major, major impact on the community and our state."
West Kentucky's proposed $15 million, 50,000-square-foot building would offer laboratories, classrooms and simulators to train students on the newest technology used by area businesses. Course offerings would respond to local industries' needs.
The building would allow the college to increase enrollment, strengthen the work force and increase the college's value to economic development, college President Barbara Veazey said. The state has funded technology centers at five other community and technical colleges.
The Emerging Technology Building will top the list of funding requests McCall presents to the KCTCS Board of Regents in September. After approval, the regents will submit that list to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The CPE board will present the requests to the General Assembly.
Veazey said the college's board of directors has not chosen a site for the building. The facility will be included in a campus master plan that will be mapped out in the next six months.
McCall toured West Kentucky's new culinary arts facilities before recognizing Tina White and Tena Payne, faculty and staff nominees for the KCTCS New Horizon Awards. The Phelps Endowment Award for Excellence in Teaching was presented to psychology professor Sharla Krupansky. The Paducah Junior College Faculty Award was given to associate professor of information technology Tammy Potter.
The reception was the first occasion held at the school's former cafeteria, which will be officially opened next month. The Bistro will be available for rental to corporate and community groups, Office of Development Director Rebecca Alcott-Haus said.
Changes at the Bistro reflect the college's shift away from a focus on cafeteria-style food preparation. Lunch will no longer be served at the facility. Students will be able to use it as a study lounge, Alcott-Haus said.
On Thursday, culinary arts students prepared a luncheon of apples and toasted walnuts on baby spring greens, roasted pork tenderloin medallions with apricot sauce and sautéed goat cheese and poached pears for McCall and the college's administrators.
"It's amazing to see the changes that have taken place here," McCall said, noting that one of his first acts as KCTCS president in 1999 was to visit the former cafeteria for a meeting with college personnel. "Look at what it's turned into. This is a prime example of what we need to be, responsive to the community and employers that we serve."
The emerging technology and culinary programs are part of the college's "Focus on the Future" campaign, a long-term fundraising campaign to expand programs tied to local interest and economic development. In less than a year, Paducah Junior College Inc. has raised nearly $866,000 for five key programs: culinary arts, fine arts and historical preservation, allied health, industrial engineering, and the Challenger Learning Center.
Community center gets ray of hope
Cincinnati Enquirer
4/13/2005
COVINGTON - Northern Kentucky businessman and philanthropist Oakley Farris has a plan for the Northern Kentucky Community Center, which has been shuttered 23 months. He wants to buy it and turn it over to a trust that will run it for use by three entities - Covington's schools, Gateway Technical and Community College, and the community center.
After making that gift, he said, "I'd be out of it. I won't exist."
Farris has contributed large amounts to local public entities in recent years, and said he has no goal of making any profit from the building.
"I'm not looking for glory, I just love Covington, man. That's all I can say," Farris said. "I came into this world with nothing, and at the rate I'm going, I'm going out with nothing."
He predicted the revitalized building, housing a community college, "would make the Eastside come alive."
The Eastside Covington building, originally known as the Lincoln Grant School, was a focal point for the African-American community in recent years as the Northern Kentucky Community Center.
It closed on May 23, 2003, because of financial troubles that included tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. Days before it closed, two separate boards argued over which was in charge.
Supporters of the center have struggled since then to reopen the landmark at 824 Greenup St.
In mid-March, lawyers for Huntington National Bank started foreclosure proceedings on a $70,000 loan to the center. In court filings last month, the bank sought the $30,166 and interest owed on the mortgage, as well as insurance costs that hadn't been paid on the property for about two years.
Covington Mayor Butch Callery called the foreclosure a blessing.
"We've been sitting on square one for a couple years now, without it moving at all. And I think that will cause something to occur, probably for the good, rather than having that building sit empty and idle," Callery said.
He added: "And I like (Gateway President) Ed Hughes' idea of using it for a community college, because that's what it was built for - education."
Hughes was not available for comment Tuesday.
Covington schools Superintendent Jack Moreland said he has taken part in discussions, mainly because the school district wants to be part of revitalizing the huge building.
"We have two factions in the African-American community that have claims on that building," Moreland said, "and the school board doesn't have any designs on that building at all - other than thinking that it would be unfortunate if the building was lost to that community."
Callery was hopeful about Farris' idea.
"If someone wants to come in and be the white knight, like Oakley, that would be perfect," Callery said. "If he would do that, there would need to be a strong board put in place to run the facility."
"This I will tell you: I will buy this building," Farris said. He said that would happen if it is possible with all the legal entanglements.
Rob Sanders, lawyer for one of the center's two boards, has had recent discussions about Farris' plan.
"In my opinion, keeping the center operating in a similar capacity as it did in the days when (former Executive Director Bill) Martin ran it would be ideal," Sanders said. He declined to comment on specific plans.
William Walker is an Eastside native and member of the board that supported the 2003 firing of Executive Director Rollins Davis and board President Cliff Cooper. He said he would support anyone who wants to return the center to its glory days with the charismatic Martin as leader.
Back then, the center offered "one-stop shopping for community needs" - including recreational, educational and job opportunities, especially for the community's youths, Walker said.
Moreland and others cautioned against too much early optimism.
"I believe it would be a great thing for this community ... to have that be a viable entity," Moreland said. "But I think we're a long, long way from making any kind of decisions in that regard."
Community center idea praised
4/14/2005 Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON - The presidents of Gateway Community and Technical College and Covington's Eastside Neighborhood Association are intrigued by a businessman's plans to buy the closed Northern Kentucky Community Center and return it to public use.
Covington businessman and philanthropist Oakley Farris this week told the Enquirer he wants to buy the center and turn it over to a trust that would be controlled by three entities - Gateway, Covington's schools and the community center.
Gateway President Ed Hughes - who has wanted to establish a campus within Northern Kentucky's "urban core" of Covington and Newport - said he was eager to discuss the concept with Farris.
"When I read the paper today, that's the first I've ever heard of Oakley's involvement in anything like that," Hughes said.
"Unfortunately, I've not been able to talk to Oakley a little bit about it."
Meanwhile, Eastside Neighborhood Association President Bennie Doggett planned to place the matter on the agenda of the organization's meeting at 6 tonight at Ninth Street Baptist Church in Covington.
"I think it could be a great idea," Doggett said, noting that the presence of Gateway and other entities could help her impoverished neighborhood with education and job training.
But Doggett said she didn't want to take an official position until she heard from the community.
Gateway has four campuses: in Edgewood, across from St. Elizabeth Medical Center; in Highland Heights, at the edge of Northern Kentucky University's campus; in Covington and Park Hills off Amsterdam Road; and a Boone County campus that's being developed off Mount Zion Road near Interstate 75.
"One of the things our board has been talking about is over the next seven to eight to 10 years, we need to probably do some consolidation and relocation of the programs to create an urban campus as well as to complete our Boone campus," Hughes said.
Gateway already cooperates with other entities through the Urban Learning Center. That is a collaboration with NKU; Thomas More College; the school districts of Covington, Newport and Dayton; Forward Quest; and the Covington Community Center.
Hughes, who was president of Hazard Community College before he became Gateway's president in 2001, noted he has experience rehabbing a Works Progress Administration-built school in Leslie County for multiple uses.
"It's a marvelous example of how collaborative partners can come together, renovate literally an old school, keep its historical feel, but bring it into the 21st century," he said.
Hughes, like Farris and Covington Mayor Butch Callery, said the Northern Kentucky Community Center building at 824 Greenup St. is big enough to house more than one entity. The city estimates the four-story building (including its above-grade basement) has 40,000 square feet.
The building now is part of foreclosure proceedings. Originally known as the Lincoln-Grant School, it was a focal point for the African-American community as the community center until it closed in May 2003 because of financial troubles that included tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills.
Hughes visited the building shortly before it was locked up.
"My gut reaction is it's a huge facility," Hughes said. "I think there are certainly renovation issues that would have to be well-thought-out."
"My hope would be," he said, "that Oakley's idea could generate discussion among a lot of groups to make that happen."
Hughes and Covington Schools Superintendent Jack Moreland said they want to help save the building if the neighborhood welcomes their efforts.
Doggett said Farris' proposed solution could be a winner.
"I think that would be a fantastic thing to have an agency of the residents going back into that community center, offering outstanding programs, because it's so needed," she said.
"And the school is a part of a need for our community in education," she said. "We also need some job training, so the job-training perspective from Gateway would be very positive. But as far as the association, I really don't want to speak for them right now, until I get their perspective."
Farris said his plan to buy the center could fizzle unless the two boards that claim oversight of the center back away from it, for the neighborhood's good.
"This thing will not fly unless those two factions get together. It's a waste of effort," he said. "I'm just presenting this: that those two factions that have got that building locked should step away."
Farris said if he succeeds in his plan, "the school system would save money; Gateway would have a destination in Covington, which they want; and the community center would be viable again."
Hughes said he couldn't speculate on what programs Gateway might offer without first talking with the neighborhood.
"What I'd want to do is sit down with the community very carefully and have a dialogue," Hughes said. "Obviously, we offer training and a variety of academic and technical programs. We do a lot with adult education, with community-service activities. Those kinds of things, and I would think we would be very open to providing those kinds of activities - in concert with others.
"That's the beauty of a partnership," he said. "You can bring your expertise and they can bring theirs."
Fletcher asks Congress for fewer limits on funds
04/15/2005 Courier-Journal (Louisville)
WASHINGTON -- Appearing on behalf of the nation's governors, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher told Congress yesterday that states need more flexibility in how they use federal aid for education and job training.
Fletcher told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that Kentucky wanted to spend $29 million in federal money for such needs as training coal miners but couldn't because the money was restricted to other uses.
The training would have helped a key Kentucky industry where, Fletcher said, miner salaries average $51,000 annually.
Rules about how federal funds can be spent not only hinder worker-training efforts but also high school programs designed to prepare students for college or a job, Fletcher said.
"Every child, every teacher, every school and every state is unique," he said, asking that states be allowed to move federal dollars more easily where they are needed.
Fletcher's spokesman, Doug Hogan, said afterward that the $29 million was a series of payments during the past three years under the Workforce Investment Act. The money was restricted to certain uses, and miner training was not included.
Congress is considering renewing the 1998 work-force act. The law provides for training for adults, youth and workers who have lost jobs, as well as various employment services.
Also testifying before the Senate panel was Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who said the Bush administration's proposals to reform job training would give state and local governments more flexibility to address their unemployment problems.
Chao, wife of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the plan also seeks to spend more money on actual training and less on bureaucracy.
Fletcher, a Republican, testified as a National Governors Association representative, along with Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a Democrat.
"Let us be the laboratories," Sebelius said of the states. She also said states need to spend less time on paperwork required by the federal government and more effort on improving education from preschool through college, and making lifelong learning a part of job training.
Gov. Fletcher tells senators education key to workforce development
04/15/2005 Lexington Herald-Leader
WASHINGTON - Gov. Ernie Fletcher told federal lawmakers that education is a key to workforce development, and states need more flexibility to work outside rigid standards set up in some programs.
Fletcher, a former congressman, said Thursday education is also becoming increasingly important to promoting economic growth in a competitive environment.
"It is extremely important that we realize that education needs to be seamless, and it needs to be tied to the needs of businesses as well economic development," Fletcher told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
A crucial component to any policy changes should be giving states more flexibility when running education and workforce development programs, Fletcher said.
When Kentucky wanted to train miners to fill 3,500 jobs that paid about $51,000 a year, the state hoped to use $29 million received through the Workforce Investment Act, Fletcher said. But that money was restricted to certain uses, and the state had to look elsewhere for training funds, he said.
When doling out money, the federal government should ask for a verifiable end result, rather than running prescriptive programs that require states to prove they have taken certain interim steps, he said.
The committee heard from two panels of speakers - including Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao - on opportunities for continuing education.
Fletcher was warmly greeted by some of his former colleagues, including Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., who joked that Fletcher "came this time with a little less fanfare than one of your last trips."
When the governor flew to Washington for Ronald Reagan's funeral last year, his plane had a mechanical malfunction after entering restricted airspace and caused the Capitol to be evacuated.
WKCTC expects funding to open technology center
04/15/2005 Paducah Sun
A planned Emerging Technology Building in Paducah will be a top state funding priority in the next year, Kentucky Community Technical College System President Michael McCall announced Thursday.
"This is significant," McCall said at a reception at the recently remodeled West Kentucky Community and Technical College Bistro. "This is something that will make a major, major impact on the community and our state."
West Kentucky's proposed $15 million, 50,000-square-foot building would offer laboratories, classrooms and simulators to train students on the newest technology used by area businesses. Course offerings would respond to local industries' needs.
The building would allow the college to increase enrollment, strengthen the work force and increase the college's value to economic development, college President Barbara Veazey said. The state has funded technology centers at five other community and technical colleges.
The Emerging Technology Building will top the list of funding requests McCall presents to the KCTCS Board of Regents in September. After approval, the regents will submit that list to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. The CPE board will present the requests to the General Assembly.
Veazey said the college's board of directors has not chosen a site for the building. The facility will be included in a campus master plan that will be mapped out in the next six months.
McCall toured West Kentucky's new culinary arts facilities before recognizing Tina White and Tena Payne, faculty and staff nominees for the KCTCS New Horizon Awards. The Phelps Endowment Award for Excellence in Teaching was presented to psychology professor Sharla Krupansky. The Paducah Junior College Faculty Award was given to associate professor of information technology Tammy Potter.
The reception was the first occasion held at the school's former cafeteria, which will be officially opened next month. The Bistro will be available for rental to corporate and community groups, Office of Development Director Rebecca Alcott-Haus said.
Changes at the Bistro reflect the college's shift away from a focus on cafeteria-style food preparation. Lunch will no longer be served at the facility. Students will be able to use it as a study lounge, Alcott-Haus said.
On Thursday, culinary arts students prepared a luncheon of apples and toasted walnuts on baby spring greens, roasted pork tenderloin medallions with apricot sauce and sautéed goat cheese and poached pears for McCall and the college's administrators.
"It's amazing to see the changes that have taken place here," McCall said, noting that one of his first acts as KCTCS president in 1999 was to visit the former cafeteria for a meeting with college personnel. "Look at what it's turned into. This is a prime example of what we need to be, responsive to the community and employers that we serve."
The emerging technology and culinary programs are part of the college's "Focus on the Future" campaign, a long-term fundraising campaign to expand programs tied to local interest and economic development. In less than a year, Paducah Junior College Inc. has raised nearly $866,000 for five key programs: culinary arts, fine arts and historical preservation, allied health, industrial engineering, and the Challenger Learning Center.
Gov. Fletcher tells senators education key to workforce development
04/15/2005 WKYT
WASHINGTON Governor Ernie Fletcher has told federal lawmakers today that education is a key to workforce development, and states need more flexibility to work outside rigid standards set up in some programs.
Fletcher -- a former congressman -- says education is also becoming increasingly important to promoting economic growth in a competitive environment.
Fletcher says a crucial component to any policy changes should be giving states more flexibility when running education and workforce development programs.
When Kentucky wanted to train miners to fill 35-hundred jobs that paid about 52 (t) thousand dollars a year, the state hoped to use 29 (m) million received through the Workforce Investment Act. Fletcher says that money was restricted to certain uses, and the state had to look elsewhere for training funds.
Fletcher says when doling out money, the federal government should ask for a verifiable end result, rather than running prescriptive programs that require states to prove they have taken certain interim steps.
The committee heard from two panels of speakers _ including Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao _ on opportunities for continuing education.
Fletcher was warmly greeted by some of his former colleagues, including Senator Richard Burr, of North Carolina.
Senators Hear Proposals to Improve Job Training by Giving States More Control
04/15/2005 The Chronicle of Higher Education
State officials should have more control over the nation's job-training system, the U.S. secretaries of education and of labor said on Thursday at a Senate hearing.
Their comments came as Congress considers renewing and coordinating several key higher-education and job-training laws, including the Higher Education Act, which governs most student-aid programs, and the Workforce Investment Act, which supports training programs at community colleges.
"Today, a high-school education is only the beginning," the labor secretary, Elaine L. Chao, said. "The average American worker will hold an average of nine jobs between the ages of 18 and 34. That means learning must be a lifelong pursuit. Reforming our nation's job-training system is essential to providing workers with opportunities to continually upgrade their skills."
The hearing was held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Discussion ranged from preschool education to adult vocational training, and included testimony from Gov. Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky, a Republican; Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, a Democrat; Steve Gunderson, a former U.S. representative from Wisconsin; Brian Fitzgerald, executive director of the Business-Higher Education Forum; and Pamela Boisvert, vice president of the Worcester Consortium.
Sen. Mike Enzi, a Wyoming Republican and the committee's chairman, said that about 80 percent of new jobs this decade will require postsecondary degrees, which only about 50 percent of Americans over the age of 25 have received.
"Lifelong education opportunities are vital to ensuring that America retains its competitive edge in the
global economy, and that every American can participate in our nation's success," Senator Enzi said.
"With most of our federal policies that deal with training and the work force needing reauthorization, we have an opportunity to provide the clear message that we can no longer accept the status quo or business as usual."
Secretary Chao said that, in return for giving states more flexibility in designing job-training programs at the local level, the federal government would require them to meet annual performance goals.
"The long-term goal, to be achieved over a period of 10 years," she said, "will be to place every person who receives federally funded training in a job."
She also discussed two ways to let job seekers pick which training programs met their needs. Innovation Training Accounts would let people customize their training through public or private training. Personal Re-employment Accounts would provide $3,000 for unemployed individuals to spend on career training, and if they found a job quickly and retained it for six months, they would receive a re-employment bonus.
The education secretary, Margaret Spellings, focused much of her remarks on the No Child Left Behind Act and on improving reading skills. But she joined Ms. Chao in proposing a program that would support up to $284-million in loans to about 377,000 students, including dislocated, unemployed, transitioning, or older workers.
Movement in the Senate
04/15/2005 Inside Higher Education
With a sudden show of momentum in the U.S. Senate late this week, the renewal of the Higher Education Act seems to be moving off the back burner.
College lobbyists still place long odds on the prospect that Congress will actually finish work this year on an extension of the law governing most higher education programs. That's especially true because lawmakers' work on the law will be intertwined and, in some ways, dependent on the outcome of Congressional deliberations over the federal budget, which promises to be the thorniest it has been in a decade.
But Thursday brought a burst of activity on the Higher Education Act by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, including a hearing that was billed as a "kickoff" of its review of the law (though there was little substantive discussion of the legislation).
In addition, several Democratic senators met Thursday morning with the leaders of several dozen higher education associations to discuss their plans for the process known as "reauthorization" of the law, and another meeting is planned for today between college lobbyists and staff members for Sen. Michael B. Enzi, the Wyoming Republican who heads the Senate education committee.
The Senate panel plans to draft its version of the higher education law by June, college lobbyists and Congressional staffers say. House Republican leaders have already released a draft of their version of the legislation, and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce has a hearing scheduled next Tuesday called, "College Access: Is Government Part of the Solution, or Part of the Problem?"
According to aides to the Senate education panel, Thursday's hearing on "Lifelong Education Opportunities" was designed to provide a framework for the committee to use in considering not only the Higher Education Act but also dozens of other education and job training laws that the panel is due to renew over the next two years.
Enzi acknowledged that the panel faces a tough road; he noted that the committee "only got two to three reauthorizations done in the last two years, and we have 38 more to do by September," he said with a shake of the head.
Thursday's hearing featured a bunch of heavy hitters, including the U.S. secretaries of education and labor (Margaret Spellings and Elaine L. Chao, respectively) and the governors of Kansas and Kentucky, Kathleen Sebelius and Ernie Fletcher. Much of the discussion focused on the interrelationship, and frequently the collision, of the complex web of federal laws and programs that govern job training and higher education. The witnesses urged the senators in attendance (who included none of the committee's 11 Democrats) to look at the laws together rather than separately as they renew them.
"The pending reauthorizations of the of the Workforce Investment Act, Higher Education Act, Head Start, and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act present an unprecedented opportunity to align federal education laws and promote lifelong learning," said Sebelius, who heads the National Governors Association's Education, Early Childhood and Workforce Committee.
Steve Gunderson, a former Republican Congressman from Wisconsin who now directs the Washington office of the Greystone Group, a consulting firm, even went so far as to encourage lawmakers to stitch the Higher Education Act and the two workforce laws together into one, to end the "disjoined programs and turf battles over money and responsibility." Not likely.
What seemed far more likely after hearing the Republican senators talk, though, was that the education committee's approach to extending the Higher Education Act will pay close attention not just to how colleges are doing at educating their students academically, but how well they are preparing them for the workforce.
Virtually every comment by the witnesses and the senators alike focused on the extent to which the American education system, lower and higher, is or is not giving the students who emerge from it the skills to work effectively in the 21st century economy, and how southeast Asia and, increasingly, Europe are beginning to catch up and even surpass the United States.
If that becomes a central focus of the Higher Education Act renewal, colleges can probably expect a push for more accountability on how successful they are at placing their students into jobs — a thrust that might sit well with community colleges and for-profit institutions, but not so much with liberal arts colleges.