{"id":28495,"date":"2024-03-28T19:46:30","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T01:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pueblo-community-college-bayfield-site-to-close-this-summer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:30:47","slug":"pueblo-community-college-bayfield-site-to-close-this-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pueblo-community-college-bayfield-site-to-close-this-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Pueblo Community College Bayfield site to close this summer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Instructor
Instructor James Martin guides students through an American Sign Language lesson at PCC Southwest in Bayfield. The site opened enrollment this fall and offers a variety of general education and technical classes.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Pueblo Community College has said it will vacate its Bayfield location on June 30.<\/p>\n

In an interview Thursday, PCC President Patty Erjavec said the COVID-19 pandemic never allowed the site to reach its full enrollment potential.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great plan and framework in place, and then COVID hit,\u201d she said. \u201cWe lost a lot of the momentum and then as we came out of COVID, we lost a lot of students.\u201d<\/p>\n

The site, located at the former Bayfield Primary School, opened in 2019. It offers classes for high school students interested in college classes and adults furthering their education. It was developed to further build a workforce pipeline in the rural areas near Bayfield and east of Durango.<\/p>\n

But Erjavec said Bayfield School District also struggled to fill enrollment necessary to make the location financially viable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the value proposition of higher ed has been under terrible scrutiny since the pandemic and so there are a lot of individuals who have switched to online or remote synchronous (learning),\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Many potential students are questioning whether a degree is worth the cost compared to the starting salaries for positions that don\u2019t require a college degree, Erjavec said. Despite the college\u2019s attempts to educate potential students about the benefits of earning a degree, some industries have become desperate for workers and won\u2019t require a degree for employment, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth the Bayfield School District and PCC went into this venture with the best of intentions,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd unfortunately, when COVID hit, we lost the momentum. And everything changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The closure will result in the elimination of one full-time staff position. The PCC Southwest campus in Mancos and its Durango site will not be affected, according to a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish to express our sincere appreciation for PCC\u2019s efforts in Bayfield, recognizing the challenging decision to vacate the site,\u201d said PCC Southwest Executive Dean Lisa Snyder in the release.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain optimistic about the future, inspired by PCC\u2019s dedication and innovative spirit,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile the closure is regrettable, it encourages us to seek alternative ways to serve our communities effectively. We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring that all students have access to the education and opportunities they need to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n

tbrown@durangoherald.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Location terminated after just five years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,2766,155,28,1231,572],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-28495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-bayfield-school-district","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-pine-river-times","tag-pueblo-community-college"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80435,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28495\/revisions\/80435"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28495"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=28495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}