Western Texas College is working on new cooling units for one of the warmest places on its campus — the welding shop.
The price tag of the coolers is near the $50,000 limit which would require the college to go out for bids.
“My understanding is, the evaporative coolers we have in our welding shop are originals, and are on their last legs,” WTC Chief Financial Officer Patricia Claxton told the board. “This is a process that has been going on for several months. The evaporative coolers, we’ve gotten a couple of quotes, and we’re right around the $50,000 mark, which by law requires us to go out for proposals.”
Board member Eddie Peterson questioned whether $50,000 was the correct price for evaporative cooling units.
“For four of them, yes,” Claxton responded. “This is a massive welding shop. That includes installation and electrical work.”
Claxton said the WTC staff considered electrical AC units.
“That, structurally, it’s not ready for, because it’s not wired for AC units, it’s not insulated for AC units,” she said.
Dean of Institutional Research and Effectiveness Britt Canada reported that WTC’s enrollment is declining.
“We’re a little lower than we were last year,” Canada said.
Canada showed a chart indicating that WTC has seen a decline in enrollment from every sector except Scurry County students. Enrollment of local students has increased from 447 in the spring of 2018 to 474 in spring of 2019, to 501 in spring of 2020.
Enrollment from within the college’s service area, except for Scurry County, declined from 625 in spring 2018, to 591 in spring 2019, to 480 in spring 2020.
The number of students from elsewhere in the state has declined from 1,226 in spring 2018, to 1,129 in spring 2019, to 1,083 in 2020.
Enrollment of U.S. students from outside Texas remained the same at 81 from spring 2018 to spring 2019. In spring 2020, that figure dropped to 40.
Enrollment of non-U.S. students dropped from 46 in spring 2018, to 43 in spring 2019, to 40 in spring 2020.
Total enrollment dropped from 2,425 in spring 2018 to 2,318 in spring 2019 to 2,179 in spring 2020.
Board members voted to order the May 2 general election for Place 1 and Place 2 on the board, currently held by Drew Bullard and Mike McWilliams, respectively.
The board ratified Prosperity Bank branch president Sid Medina as a member of the Western Texas College Foundation board, and approved the board’s officers: Jason West, president; Mark McClain, vice-president; and Deborah Boyd, secretary. The board also appointed Bullard as a member of the Scurry County Museum Board and Peterson to the WTC Foundation Board.
Taylor Snow of the Canyon Wind Project LLC spoke to the board about a change to the agreement between Canyon Wind and WTC involving a new wind farm, with three turbines on the WTC Agriculture/Rodeo Complex near Ira.
“There are three turbines that we are planning to put on your property,” Snow told the board. “I know that you guys weren’t expecting to get any turbines out of this, just a royalty, but there are going to be three planned on your property.”
Snow told the board that the college will receive extra money for the turbines on the campus.
“With our lease, everybody gets paid based on their acreage. You could be looking at $8,000 to $10,000 per year, plus the $1,000 per turbine.”
Snow said the wind farm would include 96 turbines producing 260 megawatts per turbine.
The board approved Texas Association of School Board’s investment policy. The approval is an annual requirement, and there was no change to the policy since last year.
The board met in closed session to discuss Beebe’s contract. After they returned to open session, the board voted to extend her contract by a year.
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