Cincinnati State Middletown timeline
September 2009: Local businessman and former city councilman Perry Thatcher meets with Cincinnati State's resident chef to cook at the Manchester Inn. A deal to bring a Cincinnati State branch campus begins in earnest.
Oct. 26, 2010: Agreement announced at Cincinnati State board of trustees meeting that the city of Middletown and the technical and community college will negotiate for the city to buy and then sell downtown buildings for a potential branch campus. College officials expressed interest in the CG&E building and the Manchester Inn.
October 2011: The city purchased the former CG&E, Bank One, First National, Masonic Temple buildings for $300,000.
Dec. 21, 2010: City Manager Judy Gilleland announced that Cincinnati State officials are only consider using of the city-purchased buildings: the former CG&E building.
June 28, 2011: An independent market study revealed that there was an adequate base of students to proceed with a downtown Middletown campus.
Aug. 14, 2011: The goal to open in the fall of 2012 is announced.
April 5, 2012: Cincinnati State and Higher Education Partners finalized its contract to bring the county's first community college downtown Middletown. The deal has Higher Education Partners funding the construction and conversion of two buildings into a community college campus for the Clifton-based Cincinnati State. The 20-year deal between the two has four five-year extension options.
April 13, 2012: City Manager Judy Gilleland signs off on selling the former CG&E building for $202,000 and donating the former senior center to Higher Education Partners. Both buildings will play a role in the future downtown Middletown campus of Cincinnati State, though the CG&E building will be the main school's campus in the city.
April 17, 2012: Cincinnati State hires its first Middletown campus employee, Monetta Pennington, to be the director of marketing and community outreach.
May 4, 2012: Interior demolition and construction begins at the Cincinnati State Middletown campus at 1 N. Main St.
Aug. 9, 2012: Cincinnati State names Michael Chikeleze, an associate dean in the college's business technology division, the inaugural director of Cincinnati State Middeltown.
Wednesday: Cincinnati State opens with more than 350 students enrolled to take classes. There are 211 new students that have been admitted into Cincinnati State Middletown and 185 new students that signed up for classes.
Cincinnati State Middletown opened its doors for classes today for the first time to students.
The community college’s opening is a culmination of years of planning and thousands of dollars invested to bring higher education and additional jobs to downtown Middletown.
It’s also a new chapter in the city’s history that school and city officials hope will drive more people to the school’s location at the corner of Central Avenue and North Main Street.
The opening was a dream of the late Perry Thatcher, who inspired efforts to bring Butler County’s first community college to the urban city.
Butler County was the largest county in the state without a community college before Cincinnati State opened today with dozens of students who will start, continue, and in some cases, re-start their college careers.
Thatcher valued education and cherished Middletown, said Sheree Garrett, the oldest daughter of the former city councilman, businessman and philanthropist who died in January 2010.
“It’s just amazing to see how many things he started and he knew would happen,” she said. “It just take times. That’s the one thing I see him saying to me. I know it would happen, it would just take time.”
The city acquired multiple buildings in anticipation of Cincinnati State Technical & Community College making a decision to expand into Butler County, including purchasing the Manchester Inn, and the First National, Temple Arts and CG&E buildings.
In early April, Cincinnati State and Boston-based Higher Education Partners signed a deal to bring Cincinnati State Middletown online in the former CG&E building. The 20-year contract, which has four, five-year extension options, spells out that HEP would fund the construction and renovation of the downtown campus and Cincinnati State would supply the coursework.
The city sold the former CG&E building to Higher Education Partners for $202,000. The deal, when signed in mid-April, included the donation of the former Middletown Area Senior Citizens Center.
The opening comes on the heels of the return of Middletown native and Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison home, which makes this week “a banner week,” said City Manager Judy Gilleland.
“Our downtown has come alive,” she said.
Hundreds of people have been involved on the project in the past three years, Gilleland said, who added she felt “a great sense of pride and accomplishment seeing the doors open (today).”
More than 350 students will take classes this fall at Cincinnati State Middletown, which includes students new to Cincinnati State and enrolled specifically for classes in downtown Middletown. Students from the school’s main campus in Clifton and other programs in the region will also take courses offered at Middletown.
School officials want to have 200 new students admitted and taking classes at the downtown college campus in the first academic year. As of Tuesday, the school has 211 new students admitted, but only 185 students who have registered for classes.
The school’s Workforce Development Center will soon also move certain training classes currently offered in Evendale to Middletown.
Earlier this month, Cincinnati State named Michael Chikeleze, an associate dean in the college’s business technology division, director of Cincinnati State Middletown.
“Given that we’ve had less than six months to open an entirely new campus, I’m very, very pleased,” said Chikeleze. “We’re going to be ready.”
Chikeleze said there may be a few loose ends to tie up when the doors open, “but I’m confident the students will have a terrific experience.”
With the opening of Cincinnati State Middletown, Butler County is on its way to becoming an educational hub. The county is home to Miami University in Oxford, which has regional campuses in Hamilton, Middletown and West Chester Twp., and Butler Tech, a career and technical school for teens and adults.
The renovation of Cincinnati State Middletown is not yet complete. The six-story building will be renovated in phases. In the first phase, the first, third and sixth floors are being used. The renovation of the basement, which is also part of the first phase, is being prepared for use by Cincinnati State’s Workforce Development Center.
Ohio Association of Community Colleges spokesman Jeff Ortega said this will complement the county’s other higher educational opportunities.
“Cincinnati State’s newest campus brings an added educational resource for the community and an additional workforce development resource for employers in the area that will complement existing higher educational opportunities,” he said.
“Similar to situations at other community colleges, like Lorain County Community College and Lakeland Community College in northeast Ohio, here is an example of institutions working together to provide additional educational opportunities for area residents.”
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