NIACC president visits Charles City ahead of Career Academy completion

By Travis Fischer, tkfischer@charlescitypress.com

NIACC President Dr. Steve Schulz reflected on his career, the future of public education, and the nearly completed NIACC Career Academy during a visit to the Charles City Community Center on Thursday, March 21.

After a decade of serving as the president of North Iowa Area Community College, Schulz has announced he will be retiring this June.

“I’ve been really privileged to serve North Iowa for the last 10 years,” said Schulz.

A life-long education professional who has worked as a teacher, principal, and superintendent in K-12 schools over the course of his career, Schulz has prioritized the promotion of dual-enrollment classes during his time at NIACC, encouraging high school students to get a head start on their college education before they graduate.

“Let’s get kids so engaged with secondary education that they cannot afford to not pursue it,” said Schulz.

To that end, Schulz described the nearly completed NIACC Career Academy in Charles City among the highlights of his career.

Serving seven area school districts, the new NIACC Career Academy will offer college credit courses to students in Charles City, Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock, Riceville, Osage, Nashua-Plainfield, North Butler, and Clarksville.

Along with the participating school districts, the project was made possible through a partnership among NIACC, Northeast Iowa Community College, and Hawkeye Community, along with support from local banks and businesses.

“We’re sharing resources to do something we never could alone,” said Schulz.

Construction began last April, expanding on the existing NIACC Charles City Center at 203 Brantingham St., not just remodeling the existing 6,903 square foot building, but creating a brand new 11,455 square foot expansion that offers space to accommodate programs for nursing students, industrial manufacturing, and more.

“In the last two weeks it’s changed remarkably,” said Schulz, who hopes the building will be ready for staff to start moving back in within the next few weeks.

In recognition of his efforts across his career, Schulz has been nominated by his students to receive the Michael Bennett Lifetime Achievement Award by the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, an internationally recognized honor society for two-year colleges across the world.

Schulz will be recognized next month during the organization’s annual convention in Orlando.

While Schulz is excited about the new possibilities that the career Academy will bring, he also expressed concerns about the state of public education in Iowa.

Schulz explained that per-pupil funding has only increased by $40 since the turn of the century, forcing the school to raise tuition to keep up with increasing costs, which in turn reduces NIACC’s ability to serve as a financially viable alternative to universities.

“At some point the system is going to bend,” said Schulz.

Schulz also expressed frustration with state lawmaker for prioritizing partisan wedge-issues over their legally mandated work. While the state has passed laws regulating the availability of public library books, the Legislature has yet to come to a consensus on education funding even as public schools pass their own deadlines for budget hearings and teacher hiring for the next year.

“We spent three months of the legislative session dealing with these little one-off things and I don’t know what I’m going to have for my budget yet,” said Schulz.

And while the new NIACC Career Academy will offer training for people looking for new careers, Schulz warned that the shortage of workers across every level of employment in rural Iowa can’t be resolved without addressing the area’s stagnant population growth as young people leave the area while older workers age into retirement.

“We don’t have a training problem. We have a people problem,” said Schulz. “When you think about our state government, what are we doing to attract people to Iowa?”