Phase 1 to include classrooms and facilities for police academy program
Published in the November 25 – December 8, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
Big changes are coming to Gavilan Community College as next month it breaks ground for construction of its Coyote Valley Education Center campus and recently its board of trustees began the process of replacing President Steve Kinsella.
The public is invited to the groundbreaking ceremony 9:30 a.m. Dec. 4 to begin Phase I of the Coyote Valley site construction. Located at 560 Bailey Road in San Jose, when finished the site will comprise 28,800 square feet in five single-story modular buildings, and will include classrooms, and specialized facilities for the police academy program.
Funding for the site comes from Bond Measure E which voters passed in 2004 to upgrade the Gilroy campus and to establish future campuses at Coyote Valley, the northern part of the Gavilan College district, and San Benito County, the district’s southern end, where land has also been purchased for a campus.
“The college went through a four-year, rigorous site selection process prior to acquire 55 acres in Coyote Valley in 2006,” said Jan Bernstein Chargin, public information officer for Gavilan. “When completely built out — a 10-to-30 year process, depending upon the availability of state funding — the site could be home to a full-service community college accommodating up to 10,000 students.”
With completion of the first phase of development, the Coyote Valley site will become the location for public safety training for police officer recruits which makes up about 10 percent of Gavilan College’s enrollment and brings in $2.4 million every year in apportionment revenue from the state of California.
Gavilan College is a member of the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, a collaborative of nine community college districts. Since 1994 the consortium’s training facility has been located at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose.
“With the growth in enrollment and changing needs in that district, however, there is a need for a new facility,” Bernstein Chargin said. “The Coyote Valley facility will replace the one at Evergreen Valley and become the hub for regional public safety training.”
College administrators project that the new site will offer evening credit classes in a variety of college subjects, beginning in the fall 2016 semester. It could be a convenient option for district commuters wishing to take an evening class after work, she said.
The site is a “milestone” step in Gavilan’s long-range plans to build new educational centers and eventually a full college campus in both ends of the district, Kinsella said.
“This is just the start of a vibrant new part of what Gavilan has to offer to the community of Morgan Hill,” he said.
As the new Coyote Valley campus is on the way in, Kinsella is on the way out. Last month he notified the Gavilan Board of Trustees that he would end his 13-year tenure and resign effective June 30. The board set up a hiring committee made up of Laura Perry (representing Morgan Hill), Walt Glines (Gilroy), and Kent Child (Hollister). Their immediate job is to select an recruitment agency that will work with the college to search for a new college president.
“The search agency will help us expand our search, advertise the opening and get qualified candidates to apply,” said Gavilan Board Trustee Jonathan Brusco. “The committee will also work on a number of other items such as time-lines for the entire process and its various steps, establishing a committee to evaluate candidates and get feedback from Gavilan faculty, staff, students and community members.”
The sub-committee will report back to the board at each upcoming monthly meetings and the trustees will provide feedback on the various steps of the process. Ultimately the board will evaluate all final candidates and make the final decision.
“Our goal is to keep the process moving ahead quickly and efficiently such that we have the largest pool of applicants to choose from,” Brusco said. “The hiring of a president is our single most important job.”
Gavilan College has an “excellent reputation” in the district for being financially sound and much of this has to do with Kinsella’s leadership, he said.
“Our new president will need to continue the success of our school both fiscally and by supporting some of our new and expansive programs such as water treatment and aviation,” he said.
