Issue Date: 5/8/06
Changes continue at Escondido Center
By Matt Null
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No new science buildings, but several classrooms have been turned into state-of-the-art "smart" classrooms for non-credit classes. The 5-Star Market is gone and in May the Career Center, located near the new classrooms, will be relocated. The Escondido campus, which has an enrollment of 4,719 students, was originally built in 1979 as a strip mall and was bought by Palomar in the late 1980s.
The new classrooms cannot be used for credit classes because they are not Field-Act approved. The Field Act, which covers grades kindergarten through community college, requires all credit classes to abide by a higher degree of structural integrity with respect to earthquakes, said Director of Facilities and Planning Kelly Hudson-MacIssac. Non-credit classes are not required to adhere to the Field Act.
When the Career Center moves in May, the entire 6.7-acre campus will be used only by Palomar College. Norma Bean, Director of Extended Studies, said the reason for the changes was simple.
"We want this to be a instructional facility," Bean said. "We really want to build this place out to be a college and a model center for the college and we want to show the community we can get it right here, before we go out and do a north and a south site.
Bean said a group of administrators will meet in May to discuss a possible facilities master plan for the center, one similar to the master plan that was adopted by the college in late 2003 for the San Marcos campus.
"I think we will be looking at both the facilities and the instructional program components," Bean said. "We plan to survey the community and see what this immediate community needs and wants from us."
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