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De Anza not partnered with Foothill College’s new Sunnyvale educational center

October 26, 2016

A new satellite campus of Foothill College has opened in Sunnyvale, on the site of the former Onizuka Air Force Station.
Onizuka Air Force Station was known for supporting every Space Shuttle mission ever launched until its closure in July 2010, and was named after Ellis Onizuka the first Asian-American in space.
Onizuka was killed in the Challenger explosion in 1986.
“We plan to get artifacts from Onizuka AFS into the building as a way to showcase the history of it,” Craig Gawlick, the campus supervisor for Sunnyvale Center said.
Foothill College had been renting property in Palo Alto for its Middlefield campus since the mid-1980s, but in 2006 a bond measure was passed to help secure a permanent home for a satellite campus that Foothill would own instead of renting.
The money that had been for land and a new building ended up only being used to construct the building.
“The land was given to the school by the Department of Education in February 2013 by a Federal public benefit conveyance,” Gawlick said.
This means that the Federal Government was able to grant the land to the school district to be used for educational purposes.
The new building contains 19 classrooms.
According to Gawlick, one of those classrooms is used by Mission College, giving them the ability to schedule classes at the Sunnyvale location. All rooms in the building are now open to students at Foothill.
“There is a pretty robust morning schedule,” Gawlick said.
A few of the programs highlighted were the morning EMT/Paramedic program and the non-credit ESL program as well.
“There might be another bond. I think the land might be planned for more structures.” Gawlick said.
“We’re really just focused on students in the building. That’s the main concern at the moment.”
It is unclear why the new site is not available to De Anza.
Gawlick referred that question to De Anza College administration.
“It’s possible that at some point De Anza College might become more involved with the Sunnyvale Center,” Associate Vice President of Communications and External Relations Marissa Spatafore said in an email. “At least initially, this was more of Foothill project, particularly given that college’s need to move its off-campus programs from the previous location in Palo Alto.”

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