Colleges move ahead with growth plans
$485 million in system-wide bond funds help Tomball and University Park expand
Since the Lone Star College System passed a $485 million bond in 2014, expansion projects have started across the system.
LSC-Tomball and LSC-University Park are two of the system’s six colleges undergoing expansion with bond funds.
Though the first phase of the bond started in February 2015, the two colleges have only recently made headway in completing projects in the first phase.
For LSC-Tomball, the first few projects are the 20,000-square-foot build-out on the third floor of the Health Science Building, which is about 3 miles southeast of the main campus, and acquiring an oil rig for its new off-campus LSC-Oil and Gas Training Center.
The three-story Health Science Building was first completed in 2011, but only two of its three stories were built out. The intention was to complete the building with funds from a future bond. With the pas-
sage of the 2014 bond, the college is able to complete the building, which houses LSC-Tomball’s surgical technology, occupational therapy assistant, nursing and pharmacy technology programs.
The third-floor buildout will provide more instructional space and allow popular programs like pharmacy technology to expand and move to the third floor.
“They’re in desperate need of expansion,” said LSC-Tomball President Lee Ann Nutt of the pharmacy technology program. “The domino effect of the pharmacy program moving up to the third floor allows for the reconfiguration of the second floor.”
The move is expected to free up space for the surgical technology program, which is another growing health science program, to expand on the second floor.
The board of trustees approved the cost of the build-out during its regular board meeting in March.
While the build-out is of an existing structure, LSC-Tomball is working on developing curriculums and a new facility to house its oil and gas workforce programs on an old 18-acre oil field near the college. The site is off N. Humble Lake Road near Texas 249. Currently, the college is in talks to acquire a working oil rig through a corporate donation and has a five-person team inspecting potential rigs for the college. Even if the rig is donated, the college has to assess the cost of transporting the rig, too.
“There’s always cost associated with accepting donations,” Nutt said.
Lone Star College System set aside about $4.5 million of its 2014 bond for the creation of the steel tower and platforms at LSC-Tomball. New students and those in existing programs to become floorhand roustabouts, field service technicians, oil and gas drilling, etc. will be able to gain firsthand experience on a rig.
Along with the rig, the college plans to construct a 30-seat classroom to complement the field training. Students will be exposed to courses on electrical technology, commercial wiring, engineering, pneumatics and hydraulics among other topics.
The oil and gas training center comes at a time of global consolidation and layoffs in the industry, which has shed more than 250,000 jobs between 2014 and late 2015. The most recent impact of low oil prices is The Woodlands-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp., which laid off employees in March for the first time since oil began its steep drop in mid2014. The company laid off nearly 20 percent of its company-wide workforce, and some of those laid off were at its headquarters of The Woodlands Waterway.
But Nutt isn’t too concerned about the current downturn. She’s seen the industry cycle down and back up before and believes that once the program opens, which could happen as early as the fall of 2017, the oil and gas industry will be bouncing back and in need of skilled labor.
“The answer is resoundingly that the timing is perfect,” Nutt said. “One of the reasons is it’s a win-win for the college and for the companies from the donation perspective because they can donate equipment and get tax benefit for that. ... Secondly, it’s actually if our timing works out just right, if we’re smart with our timing and planning, we’ll be able to time the opening and operation of our center around the time that people suspect (the industry) will come back.”
Job openings for roustabouts are expected to grow by more than 27 percent from 2012 to 2022 in the Gulf Coast region, according to data from the Houston-Galveston Area Council.
LSC-Tomball nudges up against LSC-University Park, right across from the former Compaq campus off Texas 249, and it, too, is expanding. Projects underway at the college include a 50,000-squarefoot instructional science building, a 25,000-squarefoot build-out of the workforce certification assessment center and 55,000-square feet of campus-wide renovations. Construction is expected to be complete in the spring of 2017.
The instructional science building will offer laboratory space for chemistry, biology and physics. The campus has reached critical capacity for lab space, and the new building will provide muchneeded space for students.
University Park is a new campus that opened in 2010. Since then enrollment has boomed, even increasing by 20 percent in 2015 over 2014 with 11,000 students enrolled last fall, according to Lone Star College.
Though phase one is on track, funding for phases two and three for systemwide expansion plans may be delayed. Lone Star College System delayed its second round of bond sales, which was scheduled for this spring, with the hope of selling in the summer. The delay comes as property appraisal values across the college’s taxable area — greater north Houston and Montgomery County — is expected to fall. To ensure the college keeps its promise to taxpayers of not raising its tax rate to fund the bond, the college is watching the economy closely and could further delay bond sales and projects.
“Lone Star College understands the need to be held accountable to taxpayers. We closely monitor real estate assessed value and develop several budget projections based on different scenarios,” said Chancellor Steve Head, who oversees the college system, adding that the sale and use of bonds will depend on the economy.