The Gladewater Economic Development Corp., two East Texas colleges, the city of Gladewater and its school district are working to open the doors of a community education center in Gladewater as early as next summer.
 Lon Welton, executive director of GEDCO, said via phone Wednesday that officials made the announcement about the project at a business and industry networking mixer Tuesday night.
Welton said the center will be called the Gladewater Center for Community Education and will be housed in a building that sits on the campus of Gladewater High School.
Kilgore College and Texas State Technical College Marshall will offer courses at the center.
“We just felt it would greatly enhance the community of Gladewater if these opportunities were available,” Welton said. “For a little town like ours of 6,000 people to have a satellite branch where TSTC and Kilgore (College) are working together – it’s quite something.”
Leaders with GEDCO purchased the building and will take ownership of it by the end of the month, Welton said. Then renovations will begin to spruce up and make the building ADA compliant and up to code.
While the renovations may not be complete until summer of fall, some courses could start as early as January and be housed at the high school, official said.
Talks began about two months ago when Welton got a call from Southwestern Bell offering to see the building to GEDCO, he said. Welton said because of the building’s location in front of the high school, officials wanted to be careful of what went there.
GEDCO officials bought the building and contacted the colleges and other involved parties to come for a meeting. “I said, ‘I have a dream. I have a vision. Will it work?’” Welton said. “And everybody said, ‘Well, I don’t know why it won’t, let’s get our heads together.’’ Officials plan to offer courses they believe the community needs, Welton said.
GEDCO has worked to identify those needs through a survey of industries and manufacturers in its community as well as others, including economic development corporations in Kilgore and Longview. The survey asked what skills employers are looking for in employees. The results were similar for each entity questioned, Welton said.
Responses included machine work, welding, computer classes and basic living skills, such as how to dress and prepare for a job interview, how to fill out an application, and once the job is secured, how to report to work on time. These are all possibilities for courses at the center. Also, more dual credit courses likely will be offered for Gladewater High students to receive college credit. Kilgore College faculty members already teach some classes at the school for students to receive dual credit.
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Gladewater ISD Superintendent Guy Yarborough said the center will benefit students by offering these additional courses.
Yarborough said those classed may be more geared toward the technical field. “That’s something we’ve been needing,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty strong vocational department now, but this will be an addition to that.”
Kilgore College and TSTC Marshall will offer courses based on what each college’s expertise is in, Welton said.
Kilgore College President Bill Holda said no specific curriculum has been developed, but the center may address there main areas- economic development/workplace readiness, preparation of high school students for future technical education and continuing education for people in the community. It will take both colleges and the other partners involved to provide those services, he said.
“By having a couple of institutions work together for the good of the region and for the community, we can actually deliver a package that neither one of us could deliver by ourselves,” Holda said.
Gladewater has been in Kilgore College’s taxing district since 1952, and is an important past of the history and future of Kilgore College, he said. “We’re really glad to be delivering more services to them,” he said.
 TSTC Marshall President J. Gary Hendricks also seemed positive about TSTC’s involvement in the project. "We’re always here and anxious to assist with educational opportunities and economic development,” Hendricks said. “And we see this as a local effort that an agency of the state such as TSTC should be involved in.”
Welton said the project will be a success. “It will improve the quality of life for our community because when employees start looking at Gladewater, not only do we have an excellent school system, we have a satellite of two different college campuses,” he said. “Overall, it’s really impossible to put a value on it, except saying it’s great."
SOURCE: Gladewater Developing Education Center Plans By Meagan Middleton – staff writer, Longview News Journal |
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