MORGANTOWN – The House Education Committee wrapped up its deliberations on the Senate bill to make Pierpont Community and Technical College a division of Fairmont State University – deliberations stretching more than six hours across three days – by passing out a bill that does something entirely different on Monday.
The bill is SB 653. The committee adopted an amendment crafted by three GOP delegates to require FSU to apply to the Council for Community and Technical College Education to transfer Pierpont’s aviation maintenance technology program to FSU.
Based on testimony to the committee, said amendment lead sponsor Heather Tully, R-Nicholas, that would ensure the stability of the important program while not affecting Pierpont’s remaining students and programs,
Committee members had received contradictory testimony regarding Pierpont’s financial viability and on such things as possible tuition hikes and residence requirements for Pierpont students who would become FSU students.
Monday’s conversation focused on the aviation maintenance program, which is located in a hangar at the Robert C. Byrd National Aerospace Education Center at the North Central West Virginia Airport near Bridgeport. Pierpont has about 130 students enrolled in the program.
But it shares the space with FSU’s Professional Flight and Aviation Program, which has about 15 students. Pierpont must vacate the hangar by June 30 and has not been able to find a new site, spelling the end of the program.
Tom O’Neil, executive director of the West Virginia Aerospace Alliance described the importance of the program. Its graduates work for the Alliance’s member companies and there is high demand. The jobs start in the $60,000 range and the market could easily support 500 graduates. “They’re the folks that make it possible for planes to fly.”
And while FSU’s pilot training graduates work elsewhere, Pierpont’s graduates stay in the area, he said.
While several members of the Alliance board are also members of the Pierpont BOG that chose to pursue absorption into FSU, the Alliance hasn’t taken a position on the issue, he said. “What matters to us is that this program survives.”
Dale Bradley, Pierpont’s chief financial officer, asserted again, as he did Saturday, Pierpont is not in financial danger – a view put forth on Saturday by Pierpont Board of Governors President David Hinkle.
He said Federal Aviation Administration rules limit program enrollment based on the size of the facility. With expanded space, and jumping through some FAA certification hoops, it could grow to 200.
When asked, he advocated for allowing the program to go to FSU, which owns the hangar, in order to assure the program remains safe.
The committee adopted the amendment in a roll-call vote, 15-9. Both chair Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, and vice chair Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, voted against it.
The amended bill retains safeguard language from the Senate version that says Fairmont State shall not discontinue the aviation maintenance technology program until three years after providing notice to the Higher Education Policy Commission and the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability of its intent to discontinue the program.
The committee then passed the amended bill in a show of hands, 17-7.
The amended version of the bill has to be adopted by the full House when it reaches second reading. If the House rejects the amended version it would vote on the Senate version for passage. If the House adopts the amendment and passes that version, it will return to the Senate for concurrence.
The Senate passed its version of the bill last week 22-11, with the two Democratic senators who represent the district voting on opposite sides: Mike Caputo voted yes, Bob Beach voted no.
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