College Seeks St. Mary's Space
Culinary, Childhood Development Classes to Move
Last updated Thursday, October 9, 2008 8:11 PM CDT in News
By Dan Craft
THE MORNING NEWS
BENTONVILLE -- Culinary arts classes should move to the former St. Mary's hospital in Rogers by next fall, NorthWest Arkansas Community College officials said Thursday.
The college is negotiating a lease with the Jones Trust, owners of the hospital building, said Steve Gates, vice president for college advancement.
The college's early childhood development program will likely also relocate to the hospital, although a timeline for that move has not been determined, he said.
Both programs are moving out of the college's Regional Technology Center in Fayetteville.
The college has leased that site from the Fayetteville School District since 2005, and will not renew the lease when it expires next June, said Becky Paneitz, college president.
The $72,000 annual lease was part of the college's plan to open satellite campuses throughout Northwest Arkansas, Paneitz said. A long-term goal is to build or buy a permanent campus in Washington County, and get away from leasing, she said.
The college is still looking for new homes for other RTC programs, including welding, dental assisting, medical professions and auto collision repair, Gates said.
College administrators considered leaving the technical center a year ago, but did not have alternative space available to house the programs.
The college is one of about a dozen nonprofit organizations seeking space in the former hospital. The culinary arts and childhood development programs would require about 30,000 square feet of space in the 269,000-square-foot building, said Jim Lay, construction coordinator for the college.
The hospital kitchen is state-of-the-art and should be an improvement for culinary students, said Joe Spivey, a college trustee who toured the hospital last week. Determining where classrooms and offices will be is yet to be determined, he said.
The new site will allow expansion of the program, which has 97 students.
"It's just a bigger space. We can do more with it," Gates said.
While culinary and childhood development classes will be held at the hospital, support services such as the registrar, career placement and advisers will not have operations there. Students will have to travel to the main campus in Bentonville for those services, Paneitz said.
The 64,000-square-foot Regional Technology Center, which housed high school-level technical programs from 1969 until 2005, will revert to the Fayetteville School District. The district could use the center for an alternative school, rent it out or sell the property, superintendent Bobby New has said previously.
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ashortcutie2005 wrote on Oct 10, 2008 9:33 AM: