Gavilan superintendent speaks on SBC campus

On Nov. 10 BenitoLink sat down with Gavilan Superintendent Pedro Avila to talk about the San Benito County campus planned on Fairview Road and Hwy 25. The Gavilan Joint Community College District appointed Avila to the leadership position July 18. Our first interview with Avila is here.

BenitoLink: What is the plan for the new San Benito campus wastewater if Hollister has a new mayor? 

Avila: To connect to the city sewage would be an additional project. We would have to create the infrastructure of the sewage connection to our site. And this we cannot pay through our bond.

We have to move forward with a very small septic tank similar in size to what you would find in a residential home. That would allow us to stay on track and meet our deadline to be able to deliver a site by 2024. 

We’re all hoping that eventually the campus will grow and at that point we would have to go with the city’s infrastructure. 

The number one goal is to deliver a campus for students and we don’t want to delay that.

There was a video put out recently that said if we didn’t break ground by December of this year that we would lose that bond money. Could you tell me if that’s correct?

That is incorrect. The money has been allocated to that and it’s not moving to any other project. We’re expecting to break ground early next year. At this moment we are just waiting for final approval from the state architect division and as soon as we get their approval, then we will be ready to break ground. 

Do you have any idea when that might be?

Most likely January of next year and so groundbreaking maybe in February of next year.

As soon as we get it we will quickly move into groundbreaking. And we hope to have a community open forum before the groundbreaking. 

The A Kennedy Group is no longer the management group for the bond. Who’s going to take that over, and will there be any glitches as it moves to the new management group?

The group that’s helping us right now transition from the Kennedy group. It’s the Volz Group. They are a similar type of group; they do consulting for project management. We have a six-month contract with them just to help us transition from the Kennedy group.

We’re also in the process of hiring an in-house director of capital projects. They would be responsible for managing other construction projects on behalf of the college as an employee of the college.

They would be an employee through the bond; the same funds that the Kennedy Group was being paid. Many colleges prefer going this route where they have an internal person manage their projects.

What kinds of classes will be held at the new campus? What are you looking at as to the curriculum?

We have a total of eight classrooms, four of them are dedicated to STEM [science, technology, engineering, math] with labs. So definitely, there’s going to be a huge emphasis in science. And then the other four classrooms are going to be dedicated to general education. We already have one full-time English instructor. That is dedicated to Hollister. We’re in the process of hiring six new faculty and some of those new instructors will be anchored in Hollister. We’re also looking at adding additional staffing for student services and also maintenance, custodial security. We’re doing all that planning right now to make sure that when we open we are ready to go. 

Will you still be using the Briggs Building, which is owned by the city of Hollister?

No. Classes will be transferred to the new campus. 

Will there be any kind of transportation to and from the campus?

We were having some conversations about the type of transportation that we can offer and there’s nothing to report at this time. 

Is there anything you would like to add?

We’re in the process of establishing a dual enrollment agreement with Hollister high school. It’ll be the first of its kind for us. We’ll be doing a pilot with them in the spring. To teach college classes during their school day. 

There’s a lot of potential once we have our campus to do more with Hollister High School. We have been visiting with their principal and their team and we’re looking at ways to offer more college courses for the students at Hollister High School.

I clearly understand how important this project is for the Hollister community and I am doing everything I can to make sure that projects move and that it stays on track.

It’s symbolic to the community. We owe it to San Benito County.

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