Board moves to approve automotive program

The district board moved to approve the Automotive Light Repair & Maintenance Program at Wednesday night’s board meeting.

The program is meant to instruct students on basic “light” repairs on vehicles including learning to replace light bulbs, coolant pumps, wheel bearings, engine sensors, spark plugs, etc.

The program is to be launched at the start of winter term 2013.

It will consist of 39 credits of lecture and laboratory classes over the period of three terms and students will receive a certificate upon completion of the program.

The program is expected to generate an average annual increase in revenue over the Associate of Applied Science automotive degrees of approximately $1,800.

The board also recognized the outstanding support staff award recipients at the meeting, awarding them with a plaque and a $500 check.

The recipients include Anita Tucker-McFarland, a workforce development specialist, Eric Manarang, the lead custodian on campus, and Paula Wilson, an administrative assistant at the Bruning Center.

After the support staff awards, Dick Byers, MHCC facilities director, made a JohnsonControls Incorporated (JCI) energy report summary presentation.
MHCC entered into a contract with JCI, is an energy savings group, in summer of 2009.

With the contract, JCI extensively upgraded all energy and water consuming equipment on campus.

MHCC is expected to save $17,699,059 over the next 17 years as a result of the contract with JCI and equipment upgrades, according to the report. The energy savings for the first year total $769,631.

Lastly, a presentation on MHCC’s distance learning program, which runs the school’s online classes, was made, revealing that 8,594 students took an online or hybrid course last year and approximately 150 full-time and part-time teachers teach online and hybrid classes.

As far as revenues are concerned, the distance learning program collected $518,200 in the 2010-11 year, an increase of over $100,000 from $293,735 generated in the 2009-10 year.

The next board meeting will be on March 14, at 6 p.m. in the board meeting room.

Advocate Staff