$13 Million Construction Project Nearing Completion at Howard College

Two new buildings are nearing completion on the Howard College campus at the West Texas Training Center, which will offer the college more classroom space and a new home for the school’s student services.

The project has been in the works for roughly two years now and was designed based on a need for space that has proven to be a limitation and an inconvenience to staff and students since the college moved to the center several years back.

One of the buildings, the academic classroom building, will span 25,440 square feet and house 17 faculty offices, two dean offices, three AEL (Adult Education and Literacy) classrooms, four AEL administration offices and one distance learning classroom.

“This [distance learning classroom] has interactive TV capability,” announced John Parsons, District Chief Facilities Operations Officer at the Chamber Luncheon on Tuesday. “That means that an instructor for the Big Spring campus or Lamesa can broadcast a course here to San Angelo or an instructor here in San Angelo can broadcast a course to Big Spring or Lamesa.”

The building will also feature a computer lab, a large lecture hall, six general classrooms and a conference room, Parsons said.

“One of the biggest obstacles we had two years ago that kept us from growing was lack of space,” Parsons explained the motivation behind the building. “We didn’t have enough classrooms. We realize the other building needed to give us more classroom space. There were certain times of the day where we could have put more classes in, we just didn’t have the space.”

Although enrollment has dipped recently as job-seekers take advantage of a flourishing economy, Parsons is confident that the enrollment rates will be restored and notes the importance of having the space to accommodate a growing class 

The second structure, a student services building, was really just a no-brainer, Parsons said. Back in the day Howard College use to occupy a small building on Executive Drive, miles apart from the school’s current location. When the college began transitioning over to the West Texas Training Center, the student services were left behind due to a lack of space.

Temporary fixes including putting up partitions in one of the largest training center rooms to form a makeshift student services center, however six years later, that temporary home is still in place, Parsons said. Some of the “walls” set up don’t even reach the ceiling.

“We told student services—all the personnel—‘this is a temporary home’,” Parsons said. “It’s been about six years since we did that, so obviously we need to give them a permanent home.”

Spread across 17,014 square feet, the student services building will include testing and GED testing rooms, a business office, financial aid, records, admissions and academic advising. A new library and a conference room will also be housed in the building.

“The current library is very small,” Parsons said. “This was an opportunity to have a big open area for our students to be able to study.”

The roughly $13 million project is being managed out of Lubbock, with Construction Manager at Risk Lee Louis heading up the project and architectural firm Parkhill, Smith and Cooper completing the design. Funding for the expansion is largely being subsidized by revenue bonds, however the San Angelo Health Foundation and the Howard College San Angelo Foundation have also offered financial support.

“We are giving the general public the opportunity to support this project,” Parsons added. “We’re selling two types of pavers. We’ve got a lot of people who have either attended Howard College or have loved ones who have attended Howard College.”

The pavers will form part of the sidewalk connecting the training center to the two new buildings and are available in two sizes: a 4X8 paver runs $70 and an 8X8 paver runs $150. The price of the smaller pavers is significant, Parsons said.

“That’s because next year the Howard County Junior College District is celebrating its 70th Anniversary,” he explained.

So far, neither of the buildings have been named, and a dedication/ribbon-cutting ceremony is in the works. To learn more about Howard College or about the pavers, call them at 325-942-2800