Hutto, Taylor to make proposals for site of higher education center
Hutto, Taylor to make proposals for site of higher education center
Written by Kara Vaught Friday, 07 September 2007
In the past legislative session, House Bill 2074 approved the creation of an East Williamson County Higher Education Center. It did not, however, fund it.
The cities of Hutto and Taylor are now working on separate proposals outlining how each would finance the building to house the EWCHEC. The center already exists as an entity and operates one program, the Legacy Early College High School, out of Temple College at Taylor.
“Temple College doesn’t have a taxing district down here,” said Dr. Chuck McCarter, executive director of the EWCHEC. “All we have is student tuition dollars, and there’s no way you could build a building with student tuition dollars — I don’t think the state would allow it anyway. So it’s going to be up to each community.”
McCarter said he expects to receive each city’s proposal by the end of September. Neither city would reveal details of the plans, but confirmed the proposed sites, which lie just four miles apart. Hutto’s plan includes a campus on FM 3348 near Frame Switch, which is an unincorporated area near the Taylor city limits. Taylor’s site is southeast of the intersection of Loop 397 and FM 973.
“Wherever it goes, it’s going to be a great boon to this side of the county and people who live here in terms of education opportunities,” said John Nelson, executive director of the Taylor Economic Development Corporation.
Partners in education
EWCHEC is a partnership of Temple College at Taylor and Texas State Technical College-Waco. The center’s goal, McCarter said, is to provide a portfolio of education and workforce training options to traditional and non-traditional students.
Other universities, including Texas Tech, Texas A&M and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, could become partners as well, but McCarter said no duplication of programs will be allowed. TCAT offers core classes, electives and licensed vocational nurse training, while TSTC-Waco plans to offer career and technology courses in biomedical equipment, RV maintenance, automotive, construction and welding.
Economic boost
Once proposals from each city are received, Temple College will pick the plan that best fits EWCHEC’s needs.
“We’re not trying to play each city against each other, but they are competing for this. The Texas Comptroller’s office says that for every dollar spent to educate youth past high school, $5.50 is returned to the Texas economy,” McCarter said. “So if one of the communities invested $5 million in getting a building built, then you can multiply that by $5.50 and that’s the return in terms of economic development.”
McCarter said he expects that ground will break on the chosen site as early as this spring. EWCHEC would be built in phases, the first being a 30,000 sq. ft. building composed of classrooms, labs, an auditorium and administrative offices. In the interim, he said classes may be held in alternate locations yet to be determined.
“If we have to teach out of industry shops when they’re not using them, we’ll do that. If someone will loan us space, we’ll do that,” said Bill Segura, TSTC system chancellor.
Two new educational opportunities give high school students more options
Early college high school
Fifty-six Hutto and Taylor Independent School District freshmen have the opportunity to earn 60 hours of college credit during the next four years, each saving approximately $20,000 in university tuition.
The Legacy Early College High School, a partnership of Temple College and Hutto and Taylor ISDs, offers students high school curriculum combined with dual-credit courses transferable to many colleges and universities.
“Early college high school is primarily focused on kids who are bright, but never thought about college as part of their future,” said Chuck McCarter, executive director of the East Williamson County Higher Education Center, under which Legacy operates. “This is their opportunity to get exposure to college, and the research indicates this will rescue them from dropping out.”
During morning hours, Legacy students take elective classes at their respective home campus, after which they are bused to Temple College at Taylor for an afternoon of core courses taught by Hutto and Taylor ISD teachers. Dual-credit college courses taught by TCAT professors will begin in the spring.
EWCHEC received a grant of $600,000 from the Texas Education Agency last December to cover Legacy’s costs for the first two years of operation. Hutto and Taylor ISDs contribute $2,000 per student. Each year, Legacy will take a freshman class of no more than 100 students.
“We got notification of our grant late, so it was April before we began recruiting this year,” McCarter said. “We are really ahead of the game now and will start recruiting in October.”
More information about Legacy Early College High School as well as an application are available at www.ewchec.com/earlycollege.html.
Middle college
A grant application is pending to fund East Williamson County Higher Education Center’s middle college program, in which high school juniors and seniors could take college classes, McCarter said.
“This is our first partnership endeavor with Texas State Technical College-Waco. The program is about is giving students the opportunity as a technician to work on the sophisticated equipment hospitals use,” he said.
More programs in other fields would be added as interest and funding permits.
“We’re starting with the biomedical equipment technology because TEA put out a request for innovative career technology grant proposals. We think this is innovative because we have not only TSTC-Waco and Temple College as partners, we also have an industry partner who will provide internships and hire the graduates,” McCarter said.
TriMedx is a national clinical engineering company that contracts with hospitals to maintain, repair and calibrate equipment from microscopes to MRI machines.
“It’s a great job,” McCarter said. “By the time these middle college kids graduate from high school, they’ll already have 20-25 hours college credit out of the way. That will jump start them through TSTC-Waco’s biomedical equipment technology program and TriMedx can then hire them with a starting salary around $40,000 a year.”
McCarter said the goal is to begin the middle college program in Spring 2008. If EWCHEC wins the $350,000 TEA grant, the Taylor Economic Development Corporation has promised to contribute $100,000 toward middle college.
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