Blue Mountain Community College president Travis Kirkland and Terri Meyer (right), coordinator of BMCC's Grant County Center, help new student Cindy Qual of John Day with her financial-aid questions. The Eagle/DAVID CARKHUFF

JOHN DAY – Travis Kirkland appeared relaxed and at ease Oct. 1 as he answered questions for students, met Grant County staff and discussed the programs of Blue Mountain Community College with local leaders.

Kirkland, president of the Pendleton-based college, said this year has offered sweet relief from the brutal budget battles of 2002.

“I spent a lot of time in Salem last year,” Kirkland said ruefully.

The Oregon Legislature’s five special sessions in 2002, spanning from Feb. 8 to Sept. 18, exhausted personnel in the state’s education system. Because of the state’s recession, BMCC lost an estimated $900,000 in funding that year, Kirkland said. This year – after legislators raised income taxes at the end of a record-length session to help pay for education – officials could breathe a little bit easier about their funding situation.

“We are flat,” Kirkland said. “Our funding is flat. Things were so bad last year that flat is like manna from heaven.”

BMCC, which offers classes in Baker City, Boardman, Enterprise, Heppner, Hermiston, John Day, La Grande, Milton-Freewater and Pendleton, opened a new new science and technology facility on the Pendleton campus, which was first occupied in September 2000. In November 1998, the voters of the college’s service district passed a building and technology bond aimed at renewing and expanding existing facilities and building new educational sites.

The Grant County Center is funded through an annual assessment of $8,000. As a “contracted out of district” site, the center does not occupy a tax district. The issue of annexation was brought before the Grant County Court in recent years, but county leaders voiced reluctance to incorporate local taxpayers into a tax district for BMCC. Kirkland said he had no interest in reviving this discussion during his recent trip.

“As I told the Court a couple of hours ago, that died pretty quickly,” he said.

“That is not why I’m here,” Kirkland added.

Instead, Kirkland wanted to meet the public and discuss the services offered by BMCC. In an interview, he said trends on campus and at the satellite centers include heightened class offerings for high school students, a renewed focus on practical training for agricultural producers and a continued commitment to specialized training for workers.

“There’s some interest in what we call dual enrollment, training in GPS, GIS, maybe ag-related training,” he said.

Dual enrollment means high school students take courses in their local classrooms and receive credits through BMCC. In two years, dual enrollment credits in Baker City have surged from 39 to more than 800, Kirkland said. The program is affordable – students pay only $10 per credit. Instructors must meet college criteria, and school districts furnish the books.

GPS and GIS refer to global positioning system and geographic information system technology, respectively. These relatively new technologies generate and process locational data for an array of applications. The global positioning system is a network of 24 satellites monitored by ground stations located worldwide. The satellites transmit signals that can be detected by anyone with a GPS receiver. A geographic information system is a computer system capable of capturing, storing, analyzing and displaying geographical data.

A BMCC specialist knowledgeable about both systems works with local farmers, and demand has increased for classes about the technology, Kirkland said.

Technical training for workers serves a crucial need in Eastern Oregon, although Kirkland acknowledged that such training can be expensive to provide. He encouraged businesses and other interested patrons to contact BMCC with requests for service. The school tries to accommodate the public, he said.

“We’ve got all the flexibility, but first we need to clearly define the needs,” he said.

Kirkland said he enjoyed his trip through Grant County, welcoming the chance to meet with the County Court, John Day Police Chief Kent Wyatt (BMCC offers police recruit training), and Chris Cronin at Eastern Oregon University’s local center (also located in the Grant County Education Service District building, the log cabin located north of Grant Union High School), as well as a get-together with a BMCC advisory committee.

Also, the trip provided a reprieve from budget worries. After losing 46 staff to budget cuts last year, a summer forecast for state revenue encouraged Kirkland.

“With that forecast, we can start looking up to find the horizon again,” he said.

Anyone interested in BMCC programs is encouraged to call Terri Meyer, coordinator of the Grant County Center, at (541) 575-1550.