Blinn Faces an Uncertain Future In Schulenburg
As the Blinn College Schulenburg campus approaches the 25th anniversary of its opening this fall, a pair of recent developments continues to cloud its future.
On Jan. 18, the Blinn College Board of Trustees held a workshop as they continue to debate the viability of the Blinn campuses in both Schulenburg and Sealy – while at the same time considering a massive new campus in Waller County.
During that meeting, even amidst the challenges facing the Schulenburg campus (declining enrollment, costly repairs needed), the trustees lauded the community support shown the campus in the form of Economic Development Funds that have totaled over $3 million over the past 25 years.
But Monday, the Schulenburg City Council unanimously voted to terminate that agreement with Blinn that guaranteed the campus some of that EDC money.
Schulenburg EDC President Paddy Magliolo told the Schulenburg Sticker after the meeting: “Over the years, it was a great investment for the community. But things changed. With online learning, there’s fewer kids on campus and we want to changes to put funds to other things, like attracting new businesses as well as helping those that have been here.”
The percentage of the sales tax revenues going to Blinn had already been reduced from 75-percent to 25-percent in Nov. 2019 by the city council
Here’s what those payments from the Schulenburg EDC to Blinn have equated to over the last few years (as shared at the Jan. 18 Blinn workshop):
2019: $77,300
2020: $87,600
2021: $29,5000
Not counting those funds, the Blinn campus has remained modestly profitable – with a $65,000 gain in 2019 and an $64,000 in 2020, according to information presented at the workshop.
Additionally, the trustees were told that as of 2019, the Schulenburg campus resulted in a $4.7 million annual economic impact for Fayette County.
But since 2019, online courses account for 79.6-percent of the all courses offered at Schulenburg.
In 2011 the Schulenburg enrollment was 248.
The Fall 2019 headcount of in-person students at the Schulenburg campus was 128.
In the fall of 2020 it was 95.
In the fall of 2021 it was 68.
That number elicited an audible ‘wow’ from one of the trustees during the live broadcast of the workshop meeting.
But the Jan. 18 workshop included encouraging information about the variety and popularity of Schulenburg’s workforce development and leisure learning offerings, which include classes varying from electrical apprenticeship, Czech language to watercolor.
As presented at the Jan. 18 meeting was information that the Schulenburg campus has $5 million in needed facilities improvements (roof, heating and air conditioning, and parking lot) withing the next five years.
The trustees have been presented with three choices for both the Schulenburg and Sealy campus: status quo, evolve or closure.
In Sealy, Blinn rents in a strip center along I-10, with a leases that ends in August 2022 and has an even smaller enrollment that Schulenburg, with just 38 in the Fall of 2021
Even if closure is the decision, it would not happen immediately at the Schulenburg and/or the Sealy campus.
According to information presented at the Jan. 18 meeting, closing a campus would require The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges approval.
The Blinn board would have to decide to close a campus one year prior to the planned closure date, and then that closure date refers to the date when new students will cease to be admitted. But then a closed campus remains in operation until a “teach-out” plan completed for pre-existing students there.
The workshop closed with questions from some of the trustees:
• “If we turn attention to doing something in Waller, does having these satellite campuses take away from our potential ability to focus on that growth area, or can we still continue to have small pockets. These are things we have to think about.”
• “Even if the population doesn’t grow, the need is still there (in Schulenburg).”
• “If not Blinn, who?”