The board of the Sierra Joint Community College District – with a main campus in Rocklin and others in Roseville, Grass Valley and Truckee – remains divided 4-3 after the election.
But it has a new board majority. The election of Elaine Rowen, a new board member, marks that shift. Incumbents Aaron Klein and Scott Leslie return to the board.
The task ahead for the board is to find common ground to address growing student demand and aging buildings.
Though Placer and Nevada counties have been two of California's fastest-growing areas, enrollment in the district has been flat at 20,000 over the past five years. Enrollment, however, is expected to grow to 30,000 students by 2015 – if the board can find a way to accommodate it.
Demand is high in the areas of nursing, computer science, mathematics, electronics and early childhood education.
The district has an award-winning "Sierra College Facilities Master Plan: The Vision for 2015" to modernize old buildings and add new classrooms and laboratories for more students.
What's missing is the funding. Without a significant injection of capital funds, Sierra College has no chance to support student growth.
But given voter rejection of two bonds in the last five years, the board will first have to get creative with alternatives – such as more aggressive fundraising of $5 million to $10 million a year by the Sierra College Foundation and possible leasing or sale of 72 acres of land next to the Rocklin campus.
But everyone knows that will not be enough to raise the $34 million that is needed locally to match state aid for a bare-bones $80 million modernization of the Rocklin campus by 2015.
The board needs an aggressive approach to long-range planning – with year-by-year capital fundraising goals – and advocacy in the community for the college.
Sierra College needs to increase its capacity to meet student demand. That's especially true in these hard times.
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