STI cuts leave businesses with unanswered questions

Business owners are left with unanswered questions as Southeast Technical Institute dissolves a program focused on workforce development.

The Sioux Falls School Board voted Thursday to approve a tentative budget for the college, which was balanced in part by closing the fund for the Training Solutions Institute.

Many local businesses have relied on the institute's customized training programs for their employees, said Mary Medema, director of workforce development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

STI's outgoing President Jeff Holcomb said customized training will still be available, but he did not specify which other training institute programs will be cut or kept in another part of the college.

"If there's not a request from anyone for that training, it won't be offered," Holcomb said.

Lon Hird, director of the Training Solutions Institute, declined to comment on the fund closure.

Kari Karst, president of BX Civil and Construction in Dell Rapids, is disappointed to see the fund cut. She said business owners need workforce development resources within the community, even beyond what the institute was offering.

The need for a trained workforce is so great in Sioux Falls, Karst said, that companies are finding ways to train employees themselves.

"We have to have a very extensive training program," she said. "So, how much of that should be in-house and how much of that has to be outsourced is where we're kind of struggling."

Karst worked with the Training Solutions Institute to provide her employees with Spanish and English training specific to the construction industry. Cassi Nicolai, HR and safety manager with Gage Brothers also used the institute for those classes.

"We don't really have the resources to just create those kinds of programs from scratch internally," Nicolai said. "It was really important to us to have partners like that within the community."

Parts of the institute confirmed to remain within the college include the commercial drivers license program and the welding program, Vice President of Finance and Operations Rich Kluin told school board members Thursday.

The training institute fund has been losing money for some time.

"It was just getting to the point where fiscally the fund wasn't viable anymore, so we needed to make a change," Kluin said in the meeting.

Within the college's enterprise fund—the umbrella fund for the training institute—STI also created a more than $570,000 fund to include a food court in the college's new building project.

A preliminary budget report showed Southeast Tech facing a $2 million deficit and the possibility of layoffs, but less than a month later the school simultaneously announced a balanced budget and Holcomb's retirement.

District relies on STI for Spanish immersion visas

Other cuts in the budget include reduced spending on travel, classroom supplies and software.

As the Training Solutions Institute goes away, Medema worries that businesses won't know where to go for customized training.

"They were the first contact you made," she said. "Their staff at Training Solutions Institute were the ones that were kind of front line with employers."

Medema hopes the college doesn't wait to tell businesses what the closure of the fund will mean.

"Maybe there's a plan—I haven't heard—to reach out to individual employers who have used (the institute)," Medema said. "Each individual business is going to have a question about that."