HCF Gift Legacy eNewsletter 11/03/21

GRAND OPENING Community Celebrates New Soledad Center

Cutting the ribbon at the close of the Grand Opening Celebration for the Soledad Education Center is Hartnell Governing Board President Erica Padilla Chavez (holding scissors). From left: Randy Bangs, superintendent, Soledad Unified School District (SUSD); Monica Pantoja, SUSD board member; Chris Lopez, Monterey County Supervisor and member of the Hartnell College Foundation Board of Directors; Hartnell Trustee Candi DePauw (rear); Carla Strobridge, Soledad City Council member; former Soledad mayor Frank Ledesma; Hartnell Trustee Alejandra Gonzalez (rear); Anna Velazquez, Soledad Mayor and district director for State Sen. Anna Caballero; Hartnell Interim Superintendent/President Dr. Raul Rodríguez; (Erica Padilla-Chavez); Ivan Ibarra Mora, board member, SUSD; Alejandro Chavez, Soledad City Council member and husband of Padilla-Chavez; Marisela Lara, Soledad City Council member; Hartnell Trustee Irma Lopez; Assemblymember Robert Rivas; Mostafa Ghous, dean of South County Education Services for Hartnell; and Ana Gonzalez, director of the Soledad center.

On October 23, 2021, nearly 300 community members of the greater Soledad area came together to experience and celebrate a source of pride and a transformational new asset for the Salinas Valley – the Hartnell College Soledad Education Center.

The Hartnell Community College District (HCCD) invited residents of all ages to watch as it formally cut the ribbon on the 16,750-square-foot center at 1505 Metz Road, which was completed this spring and began offering classes in August.

Participants were able to tour the building and learn about becoming a student during the upcoming Spring 2022 semester, which starts Jan. 24. The center has a tutoring and study center known as the Panther Learning Lab, wet and dry science labs and three state-of-the-art classrooms.

“This has been such a long time coming,” said Hartnell Governing Board President Erica Padilla-Chavez, who represents Soledad as the district’s Area 6 trustee. “I’ve spoken to so many folks who have lived here all their lives and who dreamed of one day having a Hartnell center right here in Soledad.”

Padilla-Chavez gratefully acknowledged the City of Soledad’s decision to provide 3.7 acres for the center for just one dollar, which allowed Hartnell to stretch its construction funds from the $167 million Measure T bond. Soledad plans to build Orchard Lane Park immediately north of the center within the next couple of years, creating a Wi-Fi-equipped green space right next door.

Soledad Mayor Anna Velazquez accepted an honorary key to the center and said, “I know Hartnell’s motto is putting ‘students first’, and today we see that coming to fruition.”

Hartnell’s Interim Superintendent/President Dr. Raul Rodríguez highlighted the center’s Community Room, which he encouraged local organizations to use.

“It’s for you; it’s for the public,” Dr. Rodríguez said. “Contact the staff to reserve it. We’ve already had Rotary meetings and other organizations meet here, and we want to have many more organizations from the community use this room.”

Prior to the community celebration, the Hartnell College Foundation hosted donors and interested supporters at a breakfast reception inside the center to highlight funders who have helped raise nearly $3.2 million to help pay operating expenses at all three centers. Major donors to the Soledad center include Huntington Farms, Tanimura Family Foundation, Harden Foundation, Sally Hughes Church Foundation, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, the Padilla-Chavez family, and the family of Hartnell Trustee Margaret D’Arrigo-Martin.