The Lone Star College System Board of Trustees authorized the sale of $120 million in bond and approved new facilities for its Tomball, Kingwood and Montgomery campuses as well as new satellite center in Atascocita and Aldine.

“It is really energizing,” said Chancellor Richard Carpenter of the Lone Star College System. “It’s palpable and the progress is obvious. The community is seeing fully our commitment...We are not trying to build Taj Mahals, just first class academic environments.”

The latest contracts are part of a $420 million bond issue approved by voter in May 2008, which will double the size of the five-college system.

With more than 62,000 students, the Lone Star College System is now the second largest community college system in the state, lagging only behind the Dallas County Community College District.

“We are doubling in square footage,” said Cindy Gilliam, chief financial officer for the district. “We added 12,000 students this semester. With the average community college enrollment of 5,000 students, we added the equivalent of two and a half community colleges."

The board of trustees approved the sale of $120 million in bonds, the last of the $420 million approved by voters, over the next six month period. It approved several major projects from the bonds Thursday.

At LSC Tomball, the bonds will fund a new health science center adjacent to Tomball Regional Medical Center; a performing arts theater building and a veterinary technology building.

The new facilities are needed to keep up with the growth of students in the medical and vet tech programs. Susan Karr, president of the college, said the facility gets 100 percent placement of graduates from these programs.

“It is to deal with the growth in the high employment fields,” Karr said.

The 60,000-square-foot health science building serves programs in nursing, surgical technicians, pharmacy technicians and occupational technicians. The facility partners with the hospital to provide clinical services.

The 20,000-square-foot vet tech center includes a teaching theater, operating and recovery rooms and kennels for dogs, cats and exotics pets. The program also teaches student to handle cows and horses, Karr said.

The performing arts center will include a 450 seat theater as well as classrooms and labs for drama and music students. The facility also can provide a space for performances for community programs.

At LSC Kingwood, the bond program includes a new 65,000-square-foot student-conference center, an arts & instruction building and renovations to its fine arts center. Kingwood will also get a 60,000 square foot satellite campus in Atascocita.

The new student facility will provide a one-stop shop for services at the Kingwood campus for registration, admission, testing, student activities and food service as well as meeting space for the 44 clubs on site, said Katherine Persson, president of LSC – Kingwood. It will also provide banquet space for up to 375 for campus events or to host events for the community.

The arts and instruction building will provide a rehearsal hall, with seating for 100 choir and instrumental students as well as a piano lab and classroom spaces. The existing fine arts building will be renovated to make room for seven new classrooms and faculty offices.

“As soon as we move into the facility, we’re going to be crowded again soon,” said Persson, saying the classroom will replace trailers on site. “This college easily can accommodate 5,000 students. We now are at 10,000 students.”

A new satellite center will constructed at Atascocita and will include 22 classrooms.

The Humble Independent School District will move its early college program to the new facility. In addition, the center will offer dual credit courses during the day and evening and will be the home of Kingwood’s fire science program.

LSC-Montgomery will get a new central plant to handle its additions, which includes a general academic building, health science center, music hall and new parking garage.

In addition to the projects funded through the $420 million bond, the Board of Trustee also gave approval to begin construction on the Aldine satellite facility for $17 million. The 85,000 square foot facility will handle the Workforce Program, academic transfers and early college programs.

While purchase of the land was included in the $420 million, construction was not. Due to savings in the construction program and a need for the early college program to vacate the Carver Center at Aldine ISD, the schedule was expedited. The district will pay for the facility out of future bonds, Carpenter said.

Because of the growth of the community college district and the needs of the population, the district is opening more satellite centers in communities where first generation college student lives. They act as a grassroot feeder system into the larger college campuses, Carpenter said.

Lone Star College System

The Lone Star College System, the second largest community college in Texas, covers a 1,400 square mile area in Montgomery and Harris counties. Following are the campuses and satellite centers in the system:
LSC – CyFair
LSC – Kingwood
LSC – Montgomery
LSC – North Houston
LSC – Tomball
LSC –Carver Center, Acre Homes Community
LSC – Greenspoint Center, Greater Greenspoint
LSC—EMCID Center, New Caney
LSC – Conroe Center, Conroe
LSC – University Park (formerly Willow Chase)
LSC – Fairbanks Center, Cypress
LSC – University Center at Montgomery
LSC – University Center at University Park
For more information, visit www.lonestar.edu.
Source: Lone Star College System