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| Tracy Press, Wednesday, June 5, 2002 |
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| MOUNTAIN HOUSE CAMPUS A MAJOR FOCUS FOR DELTA |
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The explosive growth in south San Joaquin County is forcing the San Joaquin Delta Community College district to keep plans for opening its proposed Mountain House campus in 2007, according to a report presented at Tuesday evening’s board meeting.
San Joaquin Delta College enrolls approximately 19,000 students, with 590 of those coming from Tracy and 1,450 from south county.
Delta projects that by 2040, it will have 46,400 students, with 8,500 from Tracy and 15,150 from the south county region.
“These figures reinforce how this area is growing, and how we have to react to it and do a whole lot of planning as soon as possible,” said district President Greg McCreary.
Comparatively, the southern portion of the county is growing far more quickly than the north. While Stockton is growing at a fast pace, cities like Lodi in the north of the district are growing slowly. This is forcing the district to stick to its Mountain House opening schedule and focus construction efforts in south San Joaquin.
The entire district encompasses more than 2,500 square miles and lies within five counties.
“The Tracy Center is going to be a number-one priority,” McCreary said, “as Tracy has the highest growth rate regionally.”
The district recently bought more than 200 acres of land in the Mountain House area for a new campus.
To build the campus, the district plans to pass a bond in 2004.
According to McCreary, one of the reasons that Delta moved away from plans to open a campus with the Tracy Learning Center charter project was that they needed much more space than the Learning Center.
“You can’t just find something that large in Tracy, at least not at an affordable price,” McCreary said.
Delta’s annex in Tracy is now called the Tracy Center, and the Tracy Learning Center charter school will keep its name.
The classes by Tracy High School will move to the Mountain House campus when it opens, which will be called the Tracy Center.
Delta might still work with the Tracy Learning Center as a way to accept more students from south San Joaquin. McCreary said that this depends on Delta’s incoming president, Raul Rodriguez, who will officially take over on August 1.
“I’m looking forward to a new president,” said McCreary. “He will be able to look five years down the road and plan things.”
McCreary said that Rodriguez will also be able to negotiate any plans far more effectively than the board.
The board also disclosed Rodriguez’ salary — $170,000 plus benefits, annuities and vehicle and expense accounts. McCreary said that the compensation package was not excessive.
“We needed to recruit a CEO, and we had to pay accordingly,” said McCreary |
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