Several supporters of the SCILL Center appeared before the Starke County Council members and Starke County Commissioners Monday night to discuss funding the SCILL Center programs.
The SCILL Center offers Auto Technology, Building Trades, Welding Technology, and Automation Robotics and Equipment Management to students in several counties. This fall, the SCILL Center will offer EMT and Fire and Rescue courses.
The county has supported funding SCILL Center programs for about 15 years in the amount of $80,000. According to county representatives, they have asked Starke County Economic Development Foundation officials for about a decade to seek grants or alternate funding to be a self-sustaining entity outside of county funding which has apparently not happened.
Starke County Economic Development Foundation Executive Director Larry Wickert added that the schools involved collectively put in four times as much money as the county does. Money goes to update machinery and pay for instructors among other things.
The commissioners previously suggested that the Starke County Economic Development Foundation use money in CDs to fund the programming until representatives from the commissioners and the foundation can get together to address the changes the commissioners would like to see.
Over the years, the county has asked for certain reports from the Starke County Economic Development and SCILL Director Ron Gifford and the county has not reportedly gotten the information as requested. This has caused county officials to reconsider its funding support and possibly direct it to a grant program for students, although no formal decision has been made.
The SCILL Center welcomes students from four counties to take classes there with tuition from the 10 school corporations involved. Coordinator of Student Services and Programs Jerry Gurrado said the programs are important to shape the large enrollment of students with specialized skills.
Gurrado explained, “Ten years ago we had 35 students in our automotive program and we were getting $80,000 from the county. Last school year we had like 182 kids where it involved automotive where there were 71 kids instead 35, it involved 40 welding kids, and it involved the only robotics program that is a total industrial maintenance program in the entire state of Indiana. All of those programs have been added, plus the adult welding program. None of those programs existed 10 years ago and it was the same $80,000.”
Starke County Council President Dave Pearman made it clear that the county is proud of the SCILL Center and its accomplishments since its inception and proud of its students.
“It’s not our intent to try to present that we’re not all about SCILL and the other things that charter economic development,” said Pearman. “We want economic development and we want to see things grow. Again, back to the original thing, the commissioners asked for some specific things originally and they weren’t delivered.”
The Starke County Commissioners will meet with Starke County Economic Development Foundation representatives soon to negotiate the contract and partnership between the entities. As previously stated, the commissioners suggested earlier this month that the funding for SCILL Center programs come from CDs from the Foundation until a resolution can be found regarding changes the commissioners would like to see.
