DOBSON — Surry Community College’s Board of Trustees heard the latest updates on several new facilities at Monday night’s meeting.

The Pilot Mountain Center for Learning, Education and Retraining has been up and running since June and has already hosted 30 different events as well as some corporate and continuing education classes. The college hopes to offer a couple of curriculum classes when term starts later this month. The community is also working to raise money to add a couple of additional classrooms that were lost from the initial plan. A change in the amount of reconstruction funds caused the project to lose 6,000 square feet.

“We’re trying to maximize what we’ve got over there,” said Sappenfield.

The Elkin CLEAR facility is close to completion as Dr. George Sappenfield, vice president of corporate and continuing education, said the building should have passes inspection by 4 p.m. on Monday. If so, facilitators will receive the keys today and be able to start moving in furniture. The grand opening for the facility is scheduled for Sept. 2 at 12 p.m. On Aug. 2, Sappenfield hopes to start a couple of curriculum classes at the facility with the remaining classes, mainly in corporate and continuing education, starting Sept. 7.

“I think you’ll be very excited because it’s an impressive facility,” said Sappenfield. “We’re excited about these opportunities.

According to Susan Pendergraft, vice president of administrative services, positive progress is being made on the Shelton-Badgett NC Center for Viticulture and Enology. The building now has electricity and the brick work and stone work are in place. Crews are installing the landscaping. A tentative turnover date for state inspection is the second week in September which puts the tentative grand opening in late October or early November.

Marion Venable, executive director of the SCC Foundation and coordinator of grants, gave an update to board members on the foundation. At the annual golf tournament held recently, the foundation raised around $58,000, about 60 percent of which will go to student scholarships. Since its inception in 2006, the tournament has raised $550,000. The college also added 10 new scholarships this past year which and the foundation awarded $129,000 in scholarships to 205 students, the most in recent years.

As this was the first meeting of the new fiscal year, the board held a retreat in July instead of a regular meeting, reappointed and newly appointed board members were sworn in. Deidre Rogers was reappointed by the Surry County Board of Commissioners and was also sworn-in as the board’s new vice president. Betty Kay Vaughn was reappointed to the board by the governor. Candace Dollyhigh joined the board as the students representative. Dollyhigh is the president of the Student Government Association.

Chairman Dan Stone also announced the committee members for the 2010-12 term. The facilities and finance committee are still in place from previous years. However, Stone implemented two new committees, the policy and personnel committee and the institutional affairs committee. The policy and personnel committee will review all policies before the come before the full board and make recommendations for changes and also for board approval.

“I think it’s a good idea to have that committee and it needs to meet real soon,” said Fred Johnson, board attorney, referring to the fact that new General Assembly legislation changes the law regarding state employee records being made available for public disclosure and the necessary changes to college policy to reflect that.

The institutional affairs committee is comprised of Stone, Rogers and the chairs of the other committees. According to Stone, it will deal with issues and crises critical to the school.

“It’s a special group to deal with special problems,” said Stone. “The best thing is for it never to meet.”

In other actions:

n The board approved changes to the college’s mission and values. The change to the college mission was minor, only adding a phrase about the diverse population served by the college. The changes to the college’s values included a reduction in the verbiage to make them more clear.

n The board approved the 2010-11 academic catalog which contains the calendar, policies, programs and fees.

n The Medical Assistant Education Review Board granted re-accreditation to the college’s medical assisting program.

n The board approved holidays for the college for the 2011-12 year. The school will be closed on July 4 for Independence Day, Sept. 5 for Labor Day, Nov. 11 for Veteran’s Day, Nov. 24-25 for Thanksgiving, Dec. 26-27 for Christmas, Jan. 2 for New Year’s Day, Jan. 16 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, April 6 for Good Friday and May 28 for Memorial Day.

Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.