Speakers plead with WWCC to stay

Mar. 17—Around 140 people attended a Clarkston campus special board meeting for the Walla Walla Community College on Monday, many of whom came to speak urging the board of trustees to work to maintain the Clarkston campus programs.

This comes a week after another special board meeting where trustees were presented options to curtail a $4.3 million funding shortfall.

Three possible financial scenarios have been presented for the Clarkston campus. Not doing anything; eliminating in-person classes in Clarkston except for nursing; or eliminating the Clarkston campus altogether.

Chris Loseth, President and CEO at Potlatch No. 1 Financial Credit Union, told the board he had donated money personally and professionally through P1FCU to the college, and had three children attend Running Start through the school.

The information presented, he told the board, was based on misleading assumptions. Loseth urged the board to reject any of the current scenarios and direct a comprehensive institution-wide analysis by an accredited, independent third party.

“The executive team at Walla Walla Community Colleges materially distorted the financial picture of the Clarkson campus,” he said. “The analysis is incomplete, misleading and fails to meet standards expected for executive leadership at an institution responsible for educating students in accounting, business management and data-driven decision making.”

Debi Schoonover, a nursing program specialist at WWCC, told the Tribune in a separate email after the meeting that some of the information presented to the board about the three scenarios was inaccurate.

Advertisement

This included the salary listed for the assistant dean of nursing, who was listed in the presentation as making more than the dean of nursing. Another slide listed nursing and allied health as available online courses, which Schoonover said is not accurate.

A different slide in the presentation did not list Schoonover’s position in the Clarkston nursing salary costs, while also listing a coordinator position that Schoonover said does not exist and that was stated to cost $30,000 more than her role.

Several speakers said the presentations on projected costs and savings in the different scenarios failed to accurately look at potential revenue that would be lost by cutting Clarkston services.

Chad Miltenberger, dean of the WWCC Clarkston campus, said he believed eliminating the Clarkston campus would worsen the college’s budget problems.

“Scenario three makes no sense when enrollment growth has to be part of the solution,” he said. “To dig out of this, this needs to continue to inspire your questions.”

Don McQuary, a former board of trustees member, described the sudden announcement regarding the potential closure of the Clarkston campus as a “shell game.”

” You need to go deeper. You’re not being shown revenue against expenses,” McQuary said. ” I encourage you to take a step back, (to) not make a decision, until you’ve got all the facts.”

Doug LaMunyan, principal of Clarkston High School, said if WWCC’s Clarkston campus is cut, the college will lose out on enrollment, as well as relationships it’s built with the high school and other partners.

That includes an energy systems technology class the high school developed in partnership with WWCC, he said, as well as a CNA class on the Clarkston High School campus funded by the TriState Health Foundation.

“This campus closes, you’ve lost a revenue source,” he said. “What you’ve also lost is a relationship that’s gained momentum in the last three to four years where you might see a break (with more) student enrollment.”

Lt. Darren Gilbertson, a WWCC Clarkston graduate, said the college helped set him on the path that eventually led him to be the lead investigator to find the murderer of the four University of Idaho students who were stabbed to death in 2022.

He said the campus has helped train nurses, trade workers and other professionals who strengthen the community for generations.

” I understand that the economy is tough right now,” he said. “But to close the campus suddenly after decades of work and dedication that built it, I just think, what would the cost be if it closes? Ultimately, is it ever gonna reopen again? I don’t think it would.”

Several speakers discussed a wide range of community benefits the college provides.

That included its training of many local nurses as the country faces a national nursing shortage, a childcare center located on the Clarkston campus, and a community garden on a plot leased by the college that last year donated over 11,000 pounds of fresh produce to the Asotin County Food Bank.

Speakers described the Clarkston campus as a “lifeline” for students in the area that allowed many to pull themselves out of poverty, and an important bridge for students between high school, higher education and the workforce.

The board did not take any action, tabling the decision on whether to declare a financial emergency.

Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on X @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.