LAURINBURG – Scotland County Board of Commissioners voted to commit $125,000 a year in new funding to allow Richmond Community College to expand its foot-print in Laurinburg.
Dale McInnis, RCC president, spoke to the Scotland County Board of Commissioners Monday night to request formal backing to expand the school’s Laurinburg site to a full campus. The F. Diane Honeycutt Center on McLean Street is designated as a satellite for RCC’s main campus, but the college wants to expand to a full campus designation in Laurinburg, McInnis said.
“Right now we have minimal staff in a single building which is operating at full capacity by adding this additional space and acquiring full campus and the funding that goes with it we’d be able to operate a library, provide financial aid staffing and counseling, admissions and registration staff a cashier and scale the same services that you would find on our main campus,” McInnis said.
RCC would need to go through a legislative process to qualify for $526,000 in state funding for as a multi-campus school.
RCC trustees will present its plan for expansion to the state board today. If approved, the request will go to the General Assembly.
One requirement to achieve campus status is that the college must have adequate financial backing for maintenance and operations from the designated county.
If approved, the county would spend a total of $490,000 on the Honeycutt Center and the SEarCH program.
Benefits
Expansion would also allow RCC to offer all classes needed to earn a fully transferable Associates of Arts and Associates of Science degree, according to McInnis.
The Honeycutt Center currently offers an associate degree in Heating and Air and a diploma program in Licensed Practical Nursing.
“We have a huge demand from local companies in welding, industrial maintenance, robotics and automation,” McInnis said. “Having this capacity would help us meet that need.”
McInnis also told the board that enrollment in Scotland High School’s dual enrollment program had grown significantly along with enrollment from Scotland County residents in credit classes.
The obtain the designation, RCC would also need to maintain at least 300 full-time students attend the site in Laurinburg. RCC in Hamlet and Laurinburg currently has 324 full-time students from Scotland County.
“The Sandhills prosperity zone is seeing a high percentage of jobs that require a certificate or post-secondary education,” McInnis said. “There’s a lot of benefits to having this campus designation for the county and for economic development … high demand, high salary jobs are going unfilled because we can’t find local people.”
County Manager Kevin Patterson wanted to know how much of the salary the county would be expected to pay for added teachers. The school expects to gain eight new positions.
McInnis said that faculty and support staff were paid for with state funds.
RCC hopes to have the full campus in place by the 2018/19 school year.
In other business, the board heard an update from County Manager Kevin Patterson on his budget proposal. Patterson reminded commissioners that his current budget of $40.3 million left the tax rate a $1.02 per $100 valuation and included a cost of living raise and incentive payments to county employees and gave an additional five percent raise to sworn law enforcement officers in the sheriff’s office.
The increase would not extend to jailers and officers acting in other capacities with the Sheriff’s Office.
Commissioners urged Patterson to look for a way to cut $200,000 from the budget in order to pass a one cent tax rate cut on to residents.
“It’s my desire that we look at trying to get another $200,000 out of the budget so we can reduce the rate by at least a penny,” McCook said. “I know that’s not a significant amount, but I think it continues the effort that we made last year to try to return at least some of the increases that we’ve seen over the last several years … It’s a step in the right direction.”
Patterson promised the board that he would reexamine the budget and consider ways that it might be done before the public hearing on the budget planned for June 12 at 7 p.m. at the Emergency Operations Center at 1403 West Blvd.
Also on Monday, the board voted to:
— Approve a sheriff’s office request to retire K-9 officer Cido.
— Transfer $145,000 to a capital reserve account from fund balance for a communications equipment storage facility.
— Approve an EMS request to surplus the chassis from two vehicles.
— Approve the receipt Medicaid Cost Settlement Funds for 2016 totaling $172,021.00 and authorized the finance officer to make the necessary arrangements to receive and expend the money. No County dollars were used.