PVCC Puma Press: October 2003

The Maricopa County College District is gearing up for a bond election that could bring $951 million into its coffers.

According to Jane Saldaña, dean of administrative services at PVCC, the school would receive $55.8 million, $9 million more than originally projected. However, the governing board has not yet decided whether it will go forward with a bond election in 2004.

"The board has asked us to put together a capital development program," says Saldaña. The capital development program is a detailed plan of how the school will use the bond money. The document must be finalized and submitted before the board will consider a bond election.

"We submitted the first draft on July 31," says Saldaña. "Now that we have faculty back, we have people trying to meet the Sept. 26 deadline for the finalized program." Some of the proposed plans include two new classroom buildings, an addition and some remodeling to the B-building and new science labs.

The school is also proposing a new child-care center, a multi-purpose center and 689 new parking spaces. They will also submit a technology replacement program, a plan that explains how much bond money will be used to keep up with growing technology. There are also plans to install a new central technology network.

According to Saldaña, the earliest any construction could begin would be January 2006.

The district goes for a bond election about every 10 years; the last bond election was in 1992 and construction started in 1994. PVCC received $35 million of the $385 million granted the district then.

"We are at the end of the 1994 bond cycle," says Saldana. " The M-building came out of the bond as well as some remodeling of the E-building."

According to a March 2002 article in the Puma Press by former Editor-In-Chief Frank Spink, the money was not nearly enough to fund the construction needed to meet the growth of the student population.

Even in November 2000, the school was starting to feel the pressure of rising enrollment.

"There is probably no question that this campus is starting to feel the pinch," said then interim PVCC president, Dr. Gina Kranitz, in a November 2000 article by former Puma Press editors Jennifer Orlando and Sandy Beasly. "We are at capacity."

As the student population continues to increase in 2003, the school needs a bond election and passing votes from the community more than ever.