Longtime SWTJC instructor Jan Burchfield has been named by the SWTJC Board of Trustees as the new Division Chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
In other business, David Brown of Ferrell/Brown and Associates updated board members on the Eagle Pass campus construction.
According to Brown the construction is ahead of schedule and going forward smoothly.
“The Eagle Pass project is moving along very, very nicely and the contractor is slightly ahead of schedule,” said Brown.
Brown praised the City of Eagle Pass by saying, “They have been excellent to work with and have been very cooperative.”
The presentation noted new utilities lines have been installed, including new fire lines, sanitary and sewer lines. The contractor anticipates slab pours to be completed by next week.
The board approved a bid from Frontera Construction of Del Rio, which came in at $753,228. In the intervening month since the bid was submitted the staff of Ferrel/Brown and Associates along with SWTJC staff went through the value engineering process and were able to eliminate $88,000 from the current bid.
“We always like to go through the value engineering process; there is always a better way of doing something and often times it’s less expensive,” said Brown.
In addition college president Dr. Hector Gonzales recommended the bid be approved with an added $32,000 for under-slab plumbing.
Dean of workforce education, Romelia Aranda gave a report on health programs under workforce training and development, which include Nurse Aide, Clinical Medical Assistant and Emergency Medical Technician.
Currently in the works are plans to transfer the EMT program from workforce training and development to a technical program, which could offer a certificate.
“We met with five different agencies including Uvalde EMS, Eagle Pass EMS, Del Rio EMS, Sabinal EMS and Alamo Area Ambulance and they all expressed the need for this program,” said Johnny Guzman, dean of the college of applied sciences.
In the president’s report, Dr. Gonzales updated trustees on the current status of the funding bill in the state legislature.
“As it stands it’s a decrease for us, which represents anywhere from $350,000 to $370,000,” said Gonzales. “We’re still actively working on getting the legislators to restore funding to community colleges.”
Gonzales said he was confident that even with the funding decrease the college could absorb the financial loss and not affect operations.
In other matters, board members agreed to have board secretary Dr. Antonio Rivera confer degrees during this year’s graduation ceremony.