KALISPELL – Flathead Valley Community College has been in around for 51-years thanks to its visionary founders and as their vision continues to serve more students and the community.. the college is expanding.
Dirt was turned on a new Library and Learning Commons at Flathead Valley Community College on Monday.
FVCC President Jane Karas says the college is critical in meeting the needs of education for many local high school students that a four-year school is financially out of reach.
"It brings a whole new level of learning and opportunity here to the college and to the community," Karas said. "We will have a little coffee bar in there, a quiet study area, a makers-space that our students and the community will be able to use, a virtual-reality learning lab for people to try, a recording area and media space."
The groundbreaking comes just five months after a two year privately funded campaign to expand the campus launched. The 12,000 square-foot Library and Learning Commons will be an addition to the Rebecca Chaney Broussard Center for Nursing & Health Science.
The addition is thanks to a lead $2.5 million pledge on its $3 million construction cost from the Broussard family in memory of their mother, Rebecca Broussard.
"I think that this is going to be a wonderful addition to the college as well as to the community and I think it will really help the people here in the community that are looking to go into the healthcare services field," Sarah Broussard said.
The Library & Learning Commons is expected to be ready by spring of 2019 and represents Phase one of the ONE Campaign. The second phase two of the ONE Campaign begins spring of 2019 with plans to build an outdoor amphitheater and reception hall that will serve as the home of the Glacier Symphony.
The College Center is expected to be ready in the fall of 2020.
