Flint Hills Technical College has the green light to start a dental hygiene program.
President Dean Hollenbeck said today that the Kansas Board of Regents had given its permission for the program. Once it’s in place — probably by fall 2008 — FHTC will be the only school in Kansas to train both dental hygienists and dental assistants.
An instructor has been budgeted for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, along with a teacher for a new welding program. A total of $120,000 has been set aside for new program development next year, though the total cost to establish the dental hygiene program will probably end up being around $179,000.
Dental assistants serve as an extra pair of hands for a dentist and perform basic tasks, while hygienists do more intensive work such as deep cleaning, injections and examining teeth.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, demand for both hygienists and assistants is expected to grow by 36 percent by the end of the decade.
Budget
A first draft of the technical college’s budget was given to the board of trustees on Monday.
The budget is not complete since more than half of its expenses — salaries for staff and faculty — have yet to be decided in contract negotiations. Because of a new “flat rate” tuition of $75 per credit hour, the college will boost its postsecondary tuition collection from $542,233 to $660,675 without an official hike in tuition.
It’s a good thing, too. Tuition from high schools may go down by $50,000 next year. That’s partly due to new graduation requirements, Hollenbeck said, and partly due to transportation costs for the school districts.
Total revenue is projected at nearly $4.7 million. About $2.1 million in expenses have been estimated so far, but salaries are expected to just about zero that out.
“We’ve built this budget for safety,” Hollenbeck said. “It’s pretty conservative. There’s not a lot of extra cash floating around.”
Contract talks
Instructional services dean Steve Loewen said that contract negotiations are nearly finished between the college and its teachers. The major change so far is the salary table, which now sets the base salary level at “technical experience” rather than a bachelor’s degree and adds a pay rate for technical experience plus 15 class hours.
Among other changes, the chart also no longer “tops out” at 20 years’ experience but allows an additional $300 per year after that.
The base salary itself is still being negotiated.
Top techs
The board recognized Byron Yeager and Chris Miller of Emporia for taking third place in the Central Region’s Ultimate Master Tech Challenge at the Kansas Speedway last Thursday.
The contest requires students to spot and fix every defect in a problem-filled car within 90 minutes.
“This year, they had three things that kept it from running, two different light problems, a broken rear trunk latch and a couple of other things,” said instructor Bret Pope. “They had everything done except the trunk latch and they were one of only three teams that could get the car running.”
“The last time I had my car fixed for something like that, it took them two days,” said trustee Jerry Fair.
Each of the two students received five scholarship offers totaling $16,500.
BPA Nationals
Five FHTC students won awards at the Business Professionals of America national competitions. Damon Drake took first place in Visual Basic programming, Lannie Lyman took third in keyboarding, and James Pruitt, Brian Bolen and Tony Ludlam each had top eight finishes — Pruitt in XHTML, Bolen in database, and Ludlam in PC servicing and troubleshooting.