SATURDAY, SEPT. 29, 2018 • KOKOMO TRIBUNE
BY CARSON GERBER
KOKOMO TRIBUNE
W
hen
Ivy Tech first came
to Kokomo in 1968, it
was called Indiana Vo-
cational Technical Col-
lege, and the entire
campus consisted of a two-story
building on U.S. 31 on the city’s
south side.
Eight years later, it moved to
its current location at 1815 E.
Morgan St. Over the next 40
years, the college acquired a dis-
connected assortment of nearby
manufacturing buildings to ac-
commodate growing enrollment
and new programs fueled by a
demand for vocational training.
But now, the Ivy Tech Kokomo
campus is in the middle of
transforming into something it’s
never been before: a centralized,
cohesive campus where students
can walk to classes, participate
in student life and get services
they need in one location.
Chancellor Dean McCurdy
said the massive, $43-million
renovation and construction
project is the first time the
school has had a chance to re-
configure the campus into a log-
ical, walkable space that actu-
ally feels like a traditional col-
lege.
“We’ve grown so much since
1976,” he said. “ … Now we
have a chance to completely
redo everything. It’s almost like
starting from scratch. Everything
is new.”
The project marks what is
likely the largest, and most ex-
pensive, single project Ivy Tech
has ever undertaken statewide
in its history. It’s also the second
largest state-supported project in
the history of Howard County.
The most expensive publicly
funded project was the
$155-million U.S. 31 bypass that
opened in 2013.
“It’s a game changer for us,”
McCurdy said. “It’s an absolutely
huge project.”
The bulk of the new campus
will entail gutting and renovat-
ing over 200,000 square feet of
current building space into new
classrooms and labs that will
serve the more than 100 pro-
grams offered at the college.
There will be close to 40,000
square feet of new space, Mc-
Curdy said.
Some of the programs seeing
the biggest investment include
$12 million towards health sci-
ences and nursing programs, $7
million towards automotive, die-
sel labs and agriculture pro-
grams, and $8 million towards
technology programs.
But a good portion of the ren-
ovations will also focus on creat-
ing a space that has the look
and feel of a traditional college
campus. That includes $16 mil-
lion in infrastructure upgrades
with lots of greenspace, walk-
ways and sidewalks, and a stu-
dent-commons area sponsored
by Community Howard Re-
gional Health.
McCurdy said the new cam-
pus not only aims to provide the
most up-to-date, high-tech edu-
cational experience to students,
but also aims to be a place stu-
dents enjoy coming to.
“We’re becoming a city that
has nice things and is focusing
on quality of place,” he said.
“We’re doing the same thing
here at Ivy Tech. We’re making it
an attractive place where stu-
dents want to come and stay
and learn and spend time.”
Sue Ellspermann, the presi-
dent of Ivy Tech Community
College, agreed. She said not
only will the campus provide a
better learning experience for
students, it will also improve the
city’s image and quality of life.
“It is about creating a great
community, and we believe that
these efforts improve the city for
current residents and make it
more attractive to the many
more new residents we would
like to bring here,” Ellspermann
said. “ ... This campus will be a
focal point of what will soon be
an important gateway to north-
east Kokomo.”
Today, the campus is a full-on
construction zone as crews work
furiously to complete the project
in the next 18 months. The site
was recently a hive of dump
trucks hauling 200 tons of
gravel every day to lay down for
the parking lots.
In August, a horde of local
and state officials, along with
business leaders from the area,
stood in the middle of that con-
struction for a ceremonial
ground-breaking celebrating the
new campus.
Although construction started
in May, the event was a way to
thank all the people, businesses
and groups who have contrib-
uted to the project’s capital cam-
paign, which aims to raise $3
million in private funding to
supplement the $40 million ap-
propriated last year to the proj-
ect by the state. So far, the cam-
paign has garnered more than
$1.7 million.
McCurdy said at the end of
the day, the new campus is hy-
per-focused on one thing: train-
ing students to meet the work-
force demands in the commu-
nity.
That’s why Ivy Tech asked ex-
ecutives and officials from Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles, St. Vin-
cent Kokomo, Community
Howard Regional Health and
other major employers in the
area to recommend what kinds
of labs, equipment and pro-
grams to offer at the new cam-
pus to fill the specific job needs
at their facilities.
“We’re taking the local work-
force demand and laying our
programs on top of that need,”
he said. “There are so many po-
sitions that are going unfilled
now in this county and region.
We have the workforce. It’s just
a matter of them getting that
level of attainment they need to
go into those jobs.”
Ivy Tech has also set an ag-
gressive goal to get 60 percent
of the area’s workforce a
post-secondary degree or cre-
dential by 2025. Currently, only
28 percent of adults in Howard
County have an associate’s,
bachelor’s or higher degree.
That’s 4 percent below the state
average.
But with the new campus, Mc-
Curdy said, Ivy Tech Kokomo
anticipates doubling its on-cam-
pus student enrollment from
2,000 to well over 4,000. The
college also expects a major
spike in students taking online
classes and other programs that
aren’t available on the Kokomo
campus.
Ellspermann said for decades,
Ivy Tech Community College
has been Indiana’s “workforce
engine.” Now, with a new, high-
tech campus, the Kokomo loca-
tion is set to rev up the local
and regional economy more
than ever.
“One of goals is to put more
community into community col-
lege,” she said. “That’s really
what this project does. It re-
sponds to the needs of the com-
munity.”
A MAJOR TRANSFORMATION
NEW $43 MILLION IVY TECH CAMPUS SET TO REDEFINE AREA’S VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
EDUCATION
SPOTLIGHT
SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE
T
hanks to a grant an-
nounced in January,
Howard County is working
its way toward more pre-
school spots for families in
need.
Early Learning Indiana, a
nonprofit dedicated to child-
hood education in the state,
announced a $100,000 grant for
the Kokomo School Corpora-
tion to expand and create new
preschool classrooms.
The grant will allow the
school district to create two new
preschool programs and expand
existing programs at three ele-
mentary schools.
The Kokomo School Corpora-
tion has preschool classrooms
at Boulevard, Lafayette Park, El-
wood Haynes and Pettit Park el-
ementary schools. The district
will increase seats at Boulevard,
create a full-day program at El-
wood Haynes and Pettit Park
and add classrooms for the first
time to Bon Air and Sycamore
elementary schools.
The program at Lafayatte
Park Elementary will not
change because it is already a
full-day program and a level 3
Paths to Quality, meaning it is
considered high-quality. Wallace
Elementary will be the only ele-
mentary school in the district
that will not offer a preschool
program.
Dorothea Irwin, assistant su-
perintendent of elementary for
the Kokomo School Corpora-
tion, said it typically costs about
$20,000 to start a new preschool
class. The grant is an opportu-
nity for the district to provide
not only new classrooms and
spots, but furniture and sup-
plies for those classes.
“It’s a huge boost for organi-
zations to have these grants
from Lilly,” Irwin said. “This is
so supportive of early childhood
education.”
Irwin said the district is espe-
cially excited about some of the
ways they’ll be able to expand
and add new programs, such as
Kindermusik, a program de-
signed to help children learn
using music.
At Boulevard Elementary, the
district will expand spots and
provide new equipment for the
school’s outdoor preschool, in
which children play outside ev-
ery school day. Irwin said she’s
particularly excited about this
kind of expansion because it
will allow more of their schools
to use classrooms as a sort of
teacher, following an educa-
tional philosophy known as the
Reggio Approach.
“The Reggio influence gives
teachers a whole different way
of looking at their classrooms
as being the third teacher,” she
said. “The classroom environ-
ment is actually a teacher. The
way you have your classroom
set up, the way you encourage
collaboration … all of those
pieces and parts are really
thought out.”
The grant comes in the midst
of a push to expand and im-
prove early learning options for
families, including for low-in-
come households. The United
Way of Howard County, backed
by a team of community part-
ners, is continuing its campaign
goal of ensuring that by 2022,
75 percent of incoming kinder-
garteners are prepared for kin-
dergarten.
The county was also included
last year in the state’s preschool
pilot program, On My Way
Pre-K, which provides preschool
grants to eligible families.
The Early Learning Indiana
grant will not cover personnel
costs or tuition for any of the
new or existing Kokomo pre-
school spots, Irwin said. How-
ever, all of the district’s pre-
schools are either already able
to or will be able to accept On
My Way Pre-K eligible families.
The grant will allow for the
creation of 86 new spots in to-
tal. According to data from the
Indiana Early Learning Advi-
sory Committee, in 2016 there
were more than 6,000 children
between the ages of 0 and 5 in
Howard County. Seventy per-
cent of these children were liv-
ing in homes where all parents
worked, yet only 1,756 of these
children were enrolled in
known early childhood educa-
tion programs.
The Early Learning Advisory
Committee lists several studies
showing the importance of
early learning programs. These
programs can help expose chil-
dren, especially those from
low-income families, to a wider
vocabulary and better brain de-
velopment, and, according to a
2006 study, these programs
yield a high return on invest-
ment, helping to stimulate the
economy by allowing parents
with young children to work
and adding new jobs.
Abbie Smith, president of the
United Way of Howard County,
said the new spots will be a ben-
efit for Howard County families.
“This is really good news,”
Smith said. “The more kids we
can get into these environ-
ments, the better off they are in
the long term, which may at
first glance be difficult to pic-
ture, but 18 years go by faster
than we think it does, especially
with a changing workforce and
a changing skill set required for
a workforce. The earlier we in-
vest in our kids, the better off
we’ll be.”
MEETING THE NEED
KOKOMO SCHOOLS TO EXPAND PRESCHOOL SPOTS USING GRANT
FUN TIMES:
Elwood Haynes
preschool students play in the
kitchen of their classroom.
(Tim Bath | Kokomo Tribune)
FUTURE GOAL:
This is a rendering of the transformation of Ivy
Tech Kokomo.
(Rendering provided)
CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY:
Construction started on the campus of Ivy Tech on Aug. 20, 2018.
Here, drainage tiles are installed by Atlas Contracting a subcontractor of Hagerman Construction.
(Tim Bath | Kokomo Tribune)
GROUNDBREAKING:
Ivy Tech Community College held a
groundbreaking celebration in Kokomo on Aug. 23, 2018. Here,
guest speaker Sue Ellspermann, Ivy Tech Community College
President, addresses the crowd.
(Tim Bath | Kokomo Tribune)
