Sioux Center, Iowa — Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon has purchased some property in Sioux Center and plans to open a “Career Academy” there.
President of NCC, Dr. John Hartog tells us that in December, the college was awarded a one-million-dollar grant through the Career Academy Incentive Fund. He says NCC was able to use that grant and some additional funding from the Accelerated Career Education Infrastructure Allocation for the State of Iowa to make an offer on the Northwest Area Education Agency (AEA) property in Sioux Center.
Hartog says they are going through with the transaction and the property will become a new Career Academy location. Basically, he says that there are several ways that high school students can take concurrent enrollment classes through NCC. Some of them are available online, some are available through a local instructor at a high school, and some are available on campus at NCC in Sheldon. That arrangement has students attending classes both at their local high school and also at the NCC campus in Sheldon. And that’s what they want to offer in Sioux Center.
Dr. Hartog tells us that doesn’t mean they will be offering fewer opportunities in Sheldon, however.
He says they also won’t be pulling back from their center in Orange City.
Hartog says it may take a while to get things up and running. He also tells us what high school students can hope to study at their Career Academy in Sioux Center.
Dr. Hartog says that the current owner of the property — the Northwest AEA — wanted to scale back how much area they used, but they will also be renting some of the property back from NCC. Hartog calls that a “win-win for northwest Iowa taxpayers.” The building is in northeast Sioux Center, across the street east of the south end of Smithfield Foods, about a block northeast of McDonald’s in Sioux Center.
For more information on the NCC Sioux Center Career Academy, you can call NCC at 800-352-4907, or in Sheldon, call 324-5061. Or check them out online at nwicc.edu
