“This is so stinking cool. And you can quote me on that,” said Kevin Peck, Eastern Arizona College dean of Business, Computers, ITE and Prison Programs, during a tour of the new EAC Pima campus on Thursday.
The campus, occupying about 12,000 square-feet of the old Pima High School, was opened with a ribbon-cutting Thursday morning.
EAC President Todd Haynie said discussion to use the space was initiated more than a year ago, after it was announced Pima Unified School District was planning to construct a new high school.
“It’s really intended for those GIFT students, those dual-enrollment students that live either here in Pima or in Fort Thomas, that then don’t have to travel all the way into Thatcher — all the way into Thatcher — but also for community members,” Haynie said.
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
Clay Emery, superintendent for Gila Institute for Technology (GIFT), the career technical education system encompassing the area’s public school districts, said he currently has about 600 students enrolled in Graham and Greenlee counties.
“This doubles our existing capacity,” Emery said.
The Eastern Arizona College Pima campus will focus on four curriculums to start — welding, woodworking, upholstery, and lapidary and gem faceting.
Before the ribbon-cutting, in addition to Haynie, Peck and Emery, speakers included retiring Pima School Superintendent Sean Rickert and Pima Vice Mayor Teresa Bailey, who called the opening of the new college campus “A great day for Pima.”
The EAC Pima Campus now gives the college a physical presence in all three incorporated areas of Graham County, with the main campus in Thatcher and the Discovery Park Campus in Safford.
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
