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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council on Thursday unanimously approved $80,000 to fund a new partnership with Woodland Community College’s Lake County Campus aimed at supporting certain adults returning to college.
The new program, Clearlake Reconnect and Recovery Support, aims to bring adult learners “with some college, no degree” back to school to complete their studies, according to Woodland Community College President Lizette Navarette.
The college’s Lake County Campus is located in Clearlake.
Navarette, who presented the proposal to the City Council, said the program targets a large, underserved group – adults over 24 years old who left college without a degree – rather than recent high school graduates.
About 4,000 Clearlake residents fit that category, Navarette said, calling them “a population that doesn’t have anybody that’s focusing on them.”
Many of them left college due to financial pressures or past disappointment with higher education, Navarette said, adding that 55% of them are “caretakers of children, dependents, elderly parents or relatives.”
Navarette said the new program will replace the College Promise program launched by the city and Woodland Community College in 2021 with $55,000 in approved city funds. That program covers fees for qualified Clearlake residents graduating from any Clearlake high schools and attending one of the community college’s three campuses.
Navarette said the College Promise program has been “underutilized,” with her slide showing only five students awarded since its inception. She attributed the low usage to program duplication.
“There were other state initiatives that had similar criteria,” she said. ”Roughly 83% of our students attend without having to pay any fees.”
Instead of duplicating tuition aid, the new initiative offers free tuition or $300 incentive grants for qualified students, targeted outreach and joint city-college marketing to bring adults back to school, Navarette said.
The program will provide noncredit courses to help with onboarding and refreshing study skills. It will also provide automatic credits for students with past work or military service experience.
Under the program, the college plans to assess all students early to help them identify which public benefit programs they may qualify for, such as CalFresh, CalWORKS, foster youth programs and other supports.
A staff person will also be hired to support students with substance abuse recovery.
According to the proposal document, the $80,000 approved by the council includes $50,000 for hiring a part-time staffer, $20,000 in curriculum development for noncredit modules and $10,000 for outreach.
While the proposal document indicated the dollar amounts listed above, it was not made clear during the council discussion if that amount includes the $300 incentive grants.
The $80,000 is “what they’re requesting right now,” City Manager Alan Flora said in response to Councilmember Russ Cremer’s question on total fiscal impact.
Flora added that the program will be funded through the city’s $500,000 in opioid litigation funds.
“We don't really have general fund dollars that we can put into a program like this as much as we would like to support it,” he said. “That's why the sort of recovery substance use is threaded through that; we do have the proceeds from the opioid litigation …”
Flora mentioned that there had not been a “firm plan” on how to spend the opioid litigation funds. “We'd like for you to approve it and then give direction to me to negotiate a contract with Woodland,” he said.
In addressing potential conflict of interest, Councilmember Mary Wilson said that she is an employee at the college. “But I am funded by a totally different grant, and I oversee adult education,” said Wilson, adding that she was “allowed to vote on this.”
“I'm very happy that we're tweaking this program to get more people to go to college and finish up,” said Mayor Dirk Slooten, referring to the change from the College Promise program.
“Also the way we are able to connect the opioid settlement to this particular program, to me, sounds like a perfect match,” Slooten added.
During public comment, Supervisor Bruno Sabatier expressed his support for the program as an alumni of Yuba College before it became Woodland.
Sabatier shared his experience and stories with people he met at the college, including Nick Walker who later became the finance director for the city of Lakeport. Walker left for Windsor as the financial director last year.
“He came back from a very checkered past making bad decisions, and came through the college and changed his life,” Sabatier said of Walker.
He also mentioned the friendship with a person who came out of San Quentin Rehabilitation Center, who, unfortunately “slid back.”
“I think that having a recovery staff member to help support and provide the resources, an ear and advice and guidance can really help people who we know that in recovery slipping happens,” he said.
All members of the council expressed their support and voted unanimously to approve establishment of the initiative.
Lingzi Chen is a staff reporter at Lake County News and a 2024-2026 California Local News Fellow. Email her at lchen@lakeconews.com.
