Cal State San Marcos looks for new home as it grows out of Temecula facility

A steadily growing enrollment at the Cal State San Marcos extended learning facility in Temecula has the center looking for a new home for its classrooms.

Temecula city officials say they want to keep the facility in the city, and university representatives say a move will help them establish permanent status in the community.

The Temecula Valley Unified School District board wants it to stay, too, as it recently approved a move into the Sparkman Alternative Education Center’s lower campus off Margarita Road.

Besides outgrowing its current classrooms at the Paul Goldring Garrett Institute for Higher Learning on Tierra Alta Way, the college will have to start paying rent in January, as its free-rent period is up.

The potential Sparkman site is located within a redevelopment area of the city, and the city council will vote on Nov. 24 whether to approve $2 million in redevelopment funds for renovations and a parking lot at the site.

If the funds are approved by the city, the school district will lease the property to the college for 10 years at virtually no cost.

“They have not lost their lease at their current facility, but it can only handle so many students,” said Tamra Middlecamp, spokeswoman for the city. “This would give them a better opportunity at solidifying their presence in the community.”

Middlecamp said keeping the facility in Temecula is great for economic development.

“If you can educate locally, people will stay here and contribute back into the economy. If they go away, they stay away,” Middlecamp said.

The extended learning facility offers a myriad of programs, including an accelerated bachelor’s in nursing, lifelong learning courses for those over the age of 50 in areas like art history and religious studies, and several certificates in business management and human resources.

“Our current building capacity is 350 full-time students, which will not allow us to grow to the 500 full-time students required for being recognized as an off-campus center,” said Suzanne Lingold, assistant dean of extending learning at the center.

According to Lingold, enrollment has been steady as more and more folks are learning they are here. It also helps alleviate the current budget strains higher level education is facing.

“Our courses are self-supported. The fees collected pay for instructional and operating costs,” Lingold said.

They plan to offer additional degree programs once in the new facility, and Lingold said they aim to build clean and seamless transfer programs with Mt. San Jacinto College for area college students.

The renovated facility at Sparkman would include larger classrooms, a biology wet lab and high-tech nursing equipment. Temecula’s first college graduates will receive their diplomas in May, and Lingold said the center hopes to be in their new facility in time for the fall semester in August.

Maggie Avants is the education editor for SWRNN. Comments or story suggestions can be sent to mavants.swrnn@gmail.com. Follow SWRNNedu on Twitter!

Tags: Cal State San Marcos, Paul Goldring Garrett Institute for Higher Learning, SWRNN, temecula valley unified school district

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 15th, 2009 at 5:43 pm and is filed under Education, Local News, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.