CCC&TI-WHS

option growing
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

The Watauga County Board of Commissioners heard about how the community stays in college during Monday night’s regular meeting.

The commissioners heard a report from Caldwell Community College & Technical Institute president Ken Boham. The number of students taking Huskins courses had increased significantly over the last three years, he said.

The Huskins classes allow students to get simultaneous high school and college credit, and 622 students took such courses in 2005-06.

Last year, that number had increased to 888, and the number of class offerings had expanded from 37 to 53 over the same period. In the current year, CCC&TI has budgeted $214,799 for Huskins courses, an increase of more than $100,000.

The county contributed $74,000 for instructional salaries.

Boham said he expects the program to continue expanding due to the reduced time and money it takes for a student to earn a secondary degree, increased course offerings, and the opportunity for students to get early exposure to college.

A new program developed with Watauga High School, Appalachian State University and High Country Home Builders will result in a construction management technology program.

The program will be housed in the occupational building currently under construction on the Watauga CCC&TI campus near Boone. The building’s scheduled completion date is Feb. 11, 2009, and with good weather Boham hopes the building will be complete in time for the spring semester. He also defended a 7-percent requested increase in CCC&TI’s local allocation in next year’s budget, saying repairs were needed and citing other operational needs.

See Friday’s edition for more commissioners’ news.