ROCKVILLE — With more than 11,000 students walking through its doors this year, Solano Community College offers the county’s students many paths to vocational careers and a solid stepping stone to higher college degrees.
Along with its main campus on Suisun Valley Road, Solano College also has smaller satellite campuses in Vacaville, Vallejo and on Travis Air Force Base.
The college district offers a wide variety of opportunities for its students, such as giving them the ability to earn a certificate, a degree or transfer to a four-year institution. In addition to core academic classes, it offers programs in criminal justice, fire technology, nursing, emergency medical services, cosmetology and horticulture.
Solano College is still a work in progress thanks to the projects spawned by the passage in 2012 of Measure Q, a $348 million facilities bond.
Those projects include new or improved libraries for all three of its campuses in Fairfield, Vacaville and Vallejo, a new performing arts facility about to be built in Fairfield, an auto technology building in Vallejo and biotechnology facilities in Vacaville.
The college recently opened an automotive technology program at an off-campus location in Vallejo and, thanks to a deal with the Jimmy Doolittle Air and Space Museum as well as the amphibious sport airplane company Icon Aircraft to Vacaville, it is planning to build a better aeronautics program at the Nut Tree Airport.
The college partnered with both the Vacaville and Fairfield-Suisun school districts in offering high school students an Early College High School program, giving selected students a tandem high school and college education. The Vacaville program began in the fall of 2013 and the Fairfield program started in 2014. While the programs share a similar name, they are different in nature, with each school district choosing the route they believe best benefits their students.
The passage of a state sales tax increase a few of years ago and the return of summer school two years ago signaled a brighter future after some tough budget cuts in the past years, but throughout this the college has struggled with declining enrollment, which ultimately played havoc with the college’s bottom line.
The community college was originally established in Vallejo in 1945 as Vallejo Junior College and was part of the Vallejo City School District until 1967. The 192-acre main campus on Suisun Valley Road was completed in 1971. The college district also has a 10-acre site in Vallejo, a 60-acre site in Vacaville and a presence on Travis Air Force Base.
Solano Community College at a glance
- Students: 11,000
- Locations: Fairfield campus, 4000 Suisun Valley Road, Rockville (rural Fairfield), 864-7000; Vacaville Center, 2000 N. Village Parkway, Vacaville, 446-2900; Vallejo Center, 545 Columbus Parkway, Vallejo, 642-8188; Travis Air Force Base, 530 Hickam Ave., Building 249, Fairfield, 424-2431
- Website: www.solano.edu
Solano Community College Governing Board
- President: Michael A. Martin, 908-8118 or [email protected]. Area 7 (Vacaville, Dixon, Winters). Elected 2012, current term ends 2016
- Vice President: Rosemary Thurston, 643-2450 or [email protected]. Area 4 (Benicia, Vallejo, Suisun City). Elected 2008, current term ends 2016
- Member: Monica Brown, 816-9701 or [email protected]. Area 5 (Fairfield, Green Valley, Cordelia). Elected 2012, current term ends 2016
- Member: Sarah E. Chapman, 448-0110 or [email protected]. Area 6 (Vacaville). Appointed 2009, current term ends 2018
- Member: Denis Honeychurch, 429-3111 or [email protected]. Area 4 (Fairfield, Vacaville, Travis Air Force Base). Elected 1984, current term ends 2018
- Member: Pam Keith, 864-7112 or Pam.Keith@solano,edu. Area 1 (Vallejo). Elected 1994, current term ends 2018.
- Member: A. Marie Young, 552-6480 or [email protected]. Area 2 (Vallejo). Elected 2006, current term ends 2018
- Superintendent/President: Celia Esposito-Noy, 864-7112 or [email protected]
