DACC still waiting on barber school

Oct. 3—DANVILLE — Danville Area Community College officials are still waiting to hear about state licensing to open its Barber School at the Village Mall.

According to DACC President Stephen Nacco, they are still waiting, but have gotten "a lead on getting this fixed."

DACC officials initially had hoped the barbering program would start in January, then by the end of March, and then by this fall.

However, approvals with the Illinois Community College Board and Higher Learning Commission and fire marshal inspections have taken longer than expected, officials said.

The classroom space is in the former GNC location in the Village Mall in Danville, in the Burlington wing. Next door was a nail salon DACC will use for the barbering clinic and salon.

The DACC board last week approved a roof replacement for the Technology Center for $485,550 with Sentry Roofing of Covington, Ind.; $250 per-student increase in Middle College fees (effective July 1, 2024); the purchase of new CNC lathe equipment for $60,212 from Haas Factory Outlet of Elk Grove; five-year leases for two 15-passenger minibuses from Midwest Transit Equipment of Kankakee for $1,550 each a month; and a three-year agreement with Ellucian for advisory services from Nov. 1, 2023 to Oct. 31, 2026 for $368,377.

Middle College (MC) is a high-school dropout prevention program with the goal of taking students who are at risk of dropping out and supporting them on their way to high school completion. Since 2009, the cost for a MC student has been $1,500 per semester even though the cost of programming has significantly increased, according to DACC officials.

The average student attending DACC and taking 15 credit hours of classes incurs approximately $3,700 in tuition and fees for the semester. While MC is undeniably worth the expense for DACC, there is still the need to increase the semester cost to $1,750 to offset some additional costs to the institution, according to DACC officials.

In other DACC news, promotions include: Laura Hensgen as assistant vice president, operations; Jonathan Jett as director of financial aid; Kirsten Jurczak, senior coordinator, corporate education; Brittany Woodworth, assistant vice president, operations; and Dawn Nasser as director of enrollment services, student services.

DACC officials also heard about the upcoming production of "To Kill A Mockingbird" by the Jaguar Players Oct. 20-22 at the Bremer Theater.

DACC's proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget that's been on display shows a recommended operational budget of $19,732,000. This is approximately 7.4% higher than the FY2023 operating budget. With the adoption of a FY24 budget at the state level, which resulted in a 9% decrease in DACC's operating and equalization grants, as well as continued increases in local property taxes as a result of an increasing equalized assessed valuation, DACC will be able to move forward by investing in Human Resources to maintain quality instruction and student service, provide training needed to meet the employment demands of the community, cover software increases, improve network infrastructure, maintain the Colleague SIS/ERP system in the cloud, and cover estimated increases in health insurance premiums and utilities, according to the college.

Depending on the fluctuation in the EAV, DACC's tax levy rate is anticipated to be approximately 60.37 cents. The current rate is 60.33 cents.