TCAT Plans for Growth in County
A plan to seek a taxing district for Temple College at Taylor could be in the future, according to Temple College President Marc Nigliazzo.

“Things are going well over there,” he said. “As enrollment numbers continue to increase, our challenge is to continue to provide the significant educational resources for the growing number of students and that's where we will have to start talking about a tax base.”

Nigliazzo said although the college has considered the idea of a taxing district for TCAT, it is not something that will happen overnight.

“First we need to decide what kind of vehicle will we need in the future to provide for quality education in East Williamson County,” he said. “Obviously creating a tax district isn't something you just do. It's done school district by school district, so we would have to come before the people who reside in Taylor and surrounding school districts and find out if the support is there.”

Nigliazzo said Temple College will not consider creating a taxing district unless TCAT continues to expand.

“I don't see us exploring it unless our expansion continues and we continue to accelerate our development,” he said. “I don't think people would support it if nothing changed and we offered the same programs and classes we are offering now.”

Another factor is the East Williamson County Higher Education Center concept, he said.

“That is still in the early stages,” he said. “The (Temple College) Board of Trustees really likes the concept but the question is how do we get there? Right now there's just been a lot of discussion.”

Since it's inception, several area school districts and post-secondary institutions have expressed interest in joining the EWCHEC, which would provide a high school, early college environment allowing juniors and seniors in high school to take courses for which they would receive college credit.

So far more than $2 million in grants has been committed to the EWCHEC, including a preliminary award of about $750,000 by the Texas Education Agency.

The money is from an Early College High School Grant Program and would be given to Temple College, with primary partners being the Taylor and Hutto school districts.

The three year grant - $250,000 allocated each year - would be used for planning, curriculum development, hiring and site selection the first year and for maintenance and operations the subsequent years.

“How do you go from enhancing a high school program to looking at the possibility of a university coming in and offering courses at a junior and senior level?” he said. “What we've tried to do up front rather than saying this is what we would like to see happen, is to go in with community leaders to get grass roots support and find out what the people in the county would like to see happen.”

Nigliazzo said one alternative to a school district tax would be approaching the cities of Taylor and Hutto as well as other cities in the eastern part of the county with the possibility of a maintenance tax for TCAT, Nigliazzo said.

“They would not be fully joining our taxing district and only have to pay one to five cents instead of the full rate,” he said. “It's a common thing for some community colleges to do.”

Nigliazzo said he plans to organize a meeting in Taylor in the near future between the Temple College Board of Trustees and Taylor residents to discuss several concepts.

“After that we will decide where to go from there,” he said.