Chris Miller introduced Stacy from the Palomar College Board of Directors. Stacy has organized the annual breakfast events for the Palomar College Foundation for the last 17 years. When the remote learning Covid-19 mandates took effect, Chris credited Stacy for raising the funds to purchase laptops for students that didn’t have the financial means to access them.
Stacy opened by thanking the ESRC for the years of partnering with Palomar College Foundation and attending many of the events. Currently, the college is facing some financial challenges of upgrading and modernizing several campuses. Aging issues are a real concern. Many of the classroom buildings were built in the 1960’s and have not been updated in more than 60 years, and science labs in more than 20 years. For this reason, the governing board is seeking community input and will be holding public forums to discuss placing a local bond measure on the November 2024 ballot. The current bond measure that was passed in 2006 has a sunset clause at will come to an end within these next two years. The importance of this bond measure will directly impact if Palomar College can offer future generations of students with programs such as nursing, welding, technical school degrees, EMT programs and the continuation of providing those in the military and military veterans a free education.
Palomar College is currently seeking to expand their programs through potentially providing a bachelor's degree program. They recently applied for the bachelor’s degree certification with the state. If it is granted, they expect more students will take advantage of the bachelor’s program at Palomar College as it will be more affordable than the UC and SDSU programs.
Stacy concluded by saying the degrees, certifications and trade school opportunities offered at Palomar College are expanding at all their locations. As the cost of attending the University of California and State University systems has become so expensive, and more students are starting their education at community colleges, both the main campus and the 6 satellite campuses have plans on expanding. There are also plans to open more satellite campuses throughout San Diego County and perhaps Riverside County.
