{"id":1315923,"date":"2019-10-21T22:04:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T04:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input\/"},"modified":"2019-10-22T06:49:49","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T12:49:49","slug":"cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input\/","title":{"rendered":"CMC candidates: Technical training best informed by community input"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5900900900901\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-989875-549\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent | CMC board of trustee District 6 candidates Bob Hartzell and Christine Whittington at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>CMC board of trustee District 6 candidates Bob Hartzell and Christine Whittington at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.<\/strong><br \/>Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"CMC board of trustee District 6 candidates Bob Hartzell and Christine Whittington at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1-1.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent | District 1 CMC trustee candidates Mary Nelle Axelson and Marianne Virgili at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"9\">\n<p><strong>District 1 CMC trustee candidates Mary Nelle Axelson and Marianne Virgili at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.<\/strong><br \/>Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/10\/ForumCMC-gpi-102219-1-1.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"District 1 CMC trustee candidates Mary Nelle Axelson and Marianne Virgili at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Colorado Mountain College should turn to the individual communities it serves when it comes to expanding technical training opportunities that can benefit local businesses, candidates for the college district\u2019s board of trustees said at a Monday forum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Speaking at the annual Glenwood Springs Chamber Resort Association Issues and Answers Forum, candidates for two contested seats on the CMC board in the Nov. 5 mail ballot election were asked how the college can further grow technical education.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">One way to do that is to stay on top of technological advances in the program areas the college already provides, said <a id=\"N0x1920b60N0x1874ef0:N0x1920b60N0x18d2100\" href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/meet-the-cmc-board-of-trustees-district-2-candidates\/\">District 2<\/a> (eastern Garfield County) candidate Mary Nelle Axelson, who is running against former Glenwood Chamber director Marianne Virgili.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI have been active on the vet-tech advisory board, and that\u2019s one particular area where technology is making a huge breakthrough when it comes to the new kinds of machines that are used to train our vet-techs,\u201d Axelson, a former adjunct faculty member for the college, said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The same is true in the evolving technology for nursing, emergency medical providers and other types of vocational training that CMC offers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe have to make sure as a college that we stay on the cutting edge in what we\u2019re offering for our students, and make sure they are prepared for the challenging work environment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Virgili noted that there are so many emerging trends in education that it\u2019s hard to know what\u2019s on the horizon. But growing the programs that have already been identified as being important by the various communities CMC serves should remain a priority, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cA big role of the board is to keep in touch with the emerging trends in education, health information technology, data analysis, the green energy economy and green building \u2026,\u201d Virgili said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOverall, I believe the degrees need to reflect the communities and the individual campuses, and the people and businesses in those communities, because they are the ones who pay the taxes,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Candidates for the <a id=\"N0x1920b60N0x1875010:N0x1920b60N0x18d2580\" href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/meet-the-cmc-board-of-trustees-district-6-candidates\/\">District 6<\/a> (Lake County) seat on the CMC board \u2014 former college workers Bob Hartzell and Christine Whittington \u2014 also addressed the question of expanding and growing tech training.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Hartzell agreed that the local communities should have input in that. CMC\u2019s Rifle campus, for instance, has seen a downturn in enrollment in engineering programs for oil and gas jobs with the slowdown in Garfield County\u2019s energy economy, Hartzell noted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe need to look at the needs of the local area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Whittington agreed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe have to do outreach in our own communities \u2026 to make sure we know what things they are looking for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">When it comes to maintaining sustainable enrollment growth, candidates said they would turn to the expertise of college staff and to the individual communities to help determine that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI value their assessment of that,\u201d Virgili said. \u201cWe have to look to the community to help determine that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">That will be particularly true if voters in the Salida school district and across the other six CMC counties agree to annex the Salida area into the taxing district, she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\"> Added Axelson, \u201cIt\u2019s also important always to consider marketing\u201d in those communities to help determine what course offering will be most attractive.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe have to take all the information we can get from professionals and plan from that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Voters from throughout the CMC district will decide both contested seats on the board of trustees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"> <a href=\"mailto:jstroud@postindependent.com\">jstroud@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/news\/local\/cmc-candidates-technical-training-best-informed-by-community-input\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CMC board of trustee District 6 candidates Bob Hartzell and Christine Whittington at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at the Glenwood Springs City Hall on Monday evening.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent District 1 CMC trustee candidates Mary Nelle Axelson and Marianne Virgili at the 2019 Fall Issues and Answers Forum held at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 17:03:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1315929,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315923\/revisions\/1315929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}