$1 million grant kickstarts SWCC project

Southwestern Community College now has the go-ahead for their skilled trades facility, thanks to a $1 million grant from the Iowa Department of Education.

SWCC announced Feb. 27 that they were one of four Iowa community colleges receiving a $1 million grant through the state’s Career Academy Incentive Fund. According to SWCC’s website, “the grants support partnerships between community colleges, schools, industry and community stakeholders to empower more students with multiple pathways to postsecondary success.”

Governor Kim Reynolds shared her views on the grant in a release in February.

“Iowa is investing in its future through the Career Academy Incentive Fund. High school students across the state gain valuable experience, skills and credentials that will not only help shape their futures, but will also build the next generation of workers in our communities,” Reynolds said. “I applaud Iowa Central Community College, Northwest Iowa Community College, Southwestern Community College and Western Iowa Tech Community College for their continued work to grow career academies that prepare students for in-demand careers here in Iowa.”

SWCC’s Career Academy program is offered to area high school students as a way to complete a year of college while still in high school, attending both college and high school classes during the day. Southwestern currently offers seven career academies: auto collision repair/refinish, automotive repair technology, carpentry and building trades, computer networking and information technology, electrical technology, nurse assisting and welding technology.

“Through the critical work-based learning infrastructure these grants support, learners across Iowa are attaining industry-recognized credentials and college credit while in high school,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said. “We commend these secondary, postsecondary and industry partners for their leadership in connecting the classroom to the workplace, empowering all students with multiple pathways to high-wage and public-good careers.”

Currently, the ag building hosts part of the electrical technology, carpentry and building trades programs, including spaces for the career academy. With the new CDL program joining the ag building, the space will no longer be able to accommodate all the programs.

The college will be adding a new 14,500 square-foot building to house carpentry and electrical programs, accommodating both classroom and lab needs. The facility will be east of the existing Tech Center II building.

“It would feature several larger size labs for carpentry and electrical, a few classrooms, and then also a big bay for the EMS program’s ambulance,” Southwestern President Lindsay Stoaks said at an earlier meeting. “It would also feature a storage yard with some screening that would allow for our trades programs to park and protect the carpentry truck, job site trailers, electrical vans, along with materials and supplies, and then that also would help us with some curbside appeal to the east end of the campus, which is highly visible to the public.”

The feasibility of the project was resting on the $1 million grant. Now that this has been received, Southwestern can continue working on the new facility, with the other $4 million needed to fund the project coming from ACE Infrastructure funds and Fund 7 Physical Plan funds.

“Tonight we’re taking a look at the approval recommendation for the Shive-Hattery architectural engineering firm for some of their fees for the design of the facility itself and going through the schematic design phase and putting all the language together for that,” SWCC Vice President of Economic Development Wayne Pantini said at Tuesday’s SWCC board meeting. Shive-Hattery also provided the probably cost of the facility at a previous date.

The board approved the agreement with Shive-Hattery for $33,500, as well as an agreement with Garden & Associates for a total of $74,500. Garden & Associates will do a preliminary survey, the final design, the bidding phase, the staking and the administration for a new parking lot, yard and drive for the facility.

While the project itself will not go out to bid until late this fall, Pantini said the goal was to stay ahead of the project.

“The idea here is to get started on the design part over the next several months,” Pantini said. “That way we can start that bidding process, so construction would begin in spring of 2026, and then the construction would end at the end of 2027. Just trying to plan accordingly, thinking ahead.”

In other board news...

The board approved an agreement with CM Bulk Fluid LLC of Bedford and Altec Industries, Inc. in Osceola for the Iowa New Jobs Training Program. The college will work with both companies to develop training plans and reimburse education payments. CM Bulk Fluid has pledged to create 10 new jobs in the region and will receive an amount not to exceed $115,000. Altec Industries has pledged to create 150 jobs for the region and will receive an amount not to exceed $2,175,000.

Two new transfer majors were approved for SWCC students. The Iowa Department of Education has approved 28 transfer majors in partnership between Iowa community colleges and larger institutions. Southwestern offers 17 of these transfer majors, now adding fine arts and mathematics to the list.

The proposed fiscal year 2026 budget was approved by the board. The total proposed levy rate moved from $1.02568 to $1.07216, for a total of 4.53%, or about 4.5 cents. The total proposed spending authority is $36.23 million. A public hearing regarding this budget will be held at 5:30 p.m. April 8 at the regular monthly board meeting.

Commencement will take place Friday, May 9, with the LPN and associate degree of nursing ceremonies at 4 p.m. and the career and technical education and arts and science commencement ceremonies at 7 p.m. Graduates from the fall 2024, spring 2025 and summer 2025 will be recognized during these ceremonies.