July enrollment for Flint Hills Technical College is at its highest level in five years, the college reported Monday.
As of Monday, the school had 336 students signed up for the fall semester. The last time it had this many students this soon was in early July of 2002, just four months after a major layoff at Modine. That year, enrollment hit 371 by July 11.
Technical college President Dean Hollenbeck said he was pleased with the enrollment but thought the college could do still better.
“We’d love to have 450 or 500 students here,” he told the college’s board of trustees Monday afternoon. “But how we get there is by creating new programs, like the dental hygiene complement to our dental assisting program.”
The dental hygiene program will debut in fall 2008 although some “bridge training” will be offered that summer for experienced dental assistants that need to fill in some small skill gaps.
Another new program that’s due to come soon is a welding course, to be offered at Sauder Custom Fabrication. According to Steve Harmon, the college’s director of customized training, the program could start this fall — if a teacher can be found.
“It’s all contingent on getting a quality welding instructor,” Harmon said. “That’s what it boils down to. Everything else is in place.”
As usual, medical programs have filled up the fastest at the college. The nursing and emergency medical technician programs are already full, and both dental assisting and health occupations technology are close to full. Given the programs’ popularity and needs, the college has discussed giving the health courses their own building, similar to the technology building used by several of the nuts-and-bolts classes such as automotive technology and industrial engineering.
If that happens, Hollenbeck said, one possibility might be to have the construction technology program build it. The construction students usually build a house each year, but could potentially take one year off and do this instead, saving the school some labor costs.
Enrollment for the construction technology program is also nearly full. Other courses still have some room, Dean of Students Lisa Kirmer said, and are either at or above last year’s levels at this time.
Classes start Aug. 9. In other news:
F The trustees put off discussing the year-end financial reports since all the paperwork was only just being completed. The college’s fiscal year started this month.
F New board member Angie Schreiber was welcomed. She replaces Jerry Fair as the Emporia school board’s representative. The trustees also thanked board clerk Kathy Glennon for her service. This was the last meeting for Glennon, whose last working day at the college will be Aug. 3.
F Several new employees have been hired by the college. Those announced Monday were: Rocky Cramer, paramedic instructor; Cheryl Bosiljevac, dental hygiene instructor; Brenda Carmichael, registrar; Martha Lanpher, director of accounting; Lannie Lyman, who has joined the adult education program; and Donna Miller, accounts payable clerk.
F This year’s construction technology house sold for $176,000. The price was close to last year’s $176,500.
F Dean of Instructional Services Steve Loewen discussed some of the changes in how the federal Carl Perkins grant program will work in Kansas. Both federal and state authorities have begun calling for more accountability in how the dollars are spent and the college recently had to repay $31,283 of Perkins money that the state disallowed.
F Kent Heermann was re-appointed chairman of the board of trustees. He has held the position since the board was created in July 2004. Brad Kraft was named vice chair, while Lanpher was named board treasurer. Amy Larson will begin serving as board clerk in August.