Kentucky Community and Technical College System's President Jay Box was in Maysville on Tuesday (March 31) to learn more about what community leaders, staff, faculty and students need from the KCTCS system in the future.
Box has been conducting his listening tour across the state and will visit all 16 colleges in the KCTCS system by the end of April. The purpose, he said, is to get input on the local level for the system's 2016-2022 strategic plan.
"This feedback is the primary source of information for the plan," he said.
Each college will develop its own strategic plan and deliver to Box by June 1. The plans will be compiled into a statewide plan that will be released in June 2016.
Information shared with Box from community leaders is the need to look at future programs at Maysville Community and Technical College that will provide job skills to drive the local economy.
From internal sources of staff and faculty, there is a need to connect with students earlier than at the high school level. The needs, he said, are to reach children and parents at a younger school age, to get them into the mind set that MCTC can be the first choice for college.
In regard to how the MCTC can serve students who are attending STEM classes, science, technology, engineering and math, in high school, Box said KCTCS colleges provides many of the programs that lead students into those fields, eliminating the requirement to go to a university right out of high school.
Box was asked if the expansion of the Rowan campus, which is part of MCTC, can be considered as a model for KCTCS colleges in the future.
Box said the project is being accomplished through partnerships and sharing of resources with a local university (Morehead) and public school system and yes, this could be considered a model for future campuses.
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