Copyright 2010 Archuleta County Education Center - All Rights Reserved Making a Difference            Call 970-264-2835 to get started today! Archuleta County Ed Center Pagosa Springs, Colorado “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” Strategic Initiatives Comprehensive Learning and Enterprise Campus The Education Center, in an effort to broaden its service base and impact on human and economic development, is seeking strategic partnerships to establish a Comprehensive Learning and Enterprise Campus. With a recent $180,000 Department of Local Affairs grant, the Education Center has installed high definition video conferencing technology creating three broadcast/receive classrooms. This will give Archuleta County a window to the world that will encourage economic diversity; enable the engagement of global markets; and, at the same time, expand access to education and training programming that will support and sustain comprehensive workforce development requirements. Additionally, the Education Center will seek to expand job training programming through the use of virtual simulation training tools. The goal is to enrich the learning experience for all levels of learners and to satisfy the “content” needs of the customer on a real-time basis. Through these technologies, and with the availability of high capacity broadband services, global commerce becomes a reality for rural America. It also provides access to a growing menu of quality education and training programs and services, now provided by both the public and private sectors via this technology, all essential resources needed to create and sustain jobs. The Comprehensive Learning and Enterprise Campus becomes a key infrastructure asset for Archuleta County that maximizes human potential, maintains economic health, and helps globalize the area’s economic base. Southwest Colorado Community College - SCCC Southwest Colorado Community College is an extension of Pueblo Community College (PCC) that serves Southwest Colorado. The physical campus locations of SCCC are in Durango and Cortez/Mancos. Currently, there are no on-site programs and few classes offered in Archuleta County. Discussions are ongoing regarding those programs, both certificate and degree, that are currently offered exclusively at the PCC Pueblo campus and have value in SW Colorado or those designed around unique technologies in Archuleta County. These unique programs could be offered through the Education Center as the Archuleta or East Campus of SCCC. Enrollments would be augmented through regional, state, national, and international enrollments via the Comprehensive Learning and Enterprise Campus. Region 9 Beanpole II Project The Town of Pagosa Springs, in collaboration with Archuleta County and the Education Center, has been awarded a $900,000 grant as part of a Region 9 Economic Development district and Southwestern Colorado Council of Governments collaborative grant award of $3,000,000. The grant was awarded by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA). These grant resources will finalize the fiber infrastructure installed by the initial Beanpole Project. This Grant will extend the broadband infrastructure and/or create a more pervasive wireless infrastructure that would support a community-wide WiFi Network in the Pagosa Springs Downtown area that has secured three HD Video/Teleconferencing Broadcast/Receive Classroom systems for the Comprehensive Learning and Enterprise Campus. The premise of the DOLA grant is to create regional smart communities in rural Colorado enabling improved commerce, economic diversity and competitiveness, and workforce development and sustainability.