Dream teaching building at Haney Technical College closer to reality with $7 million grant from Florida

LYNN HAVEN — When Haney Technical College Director Ann Leonard feels she is having a hard day and is struggling, she said she takes a look at her coffee table by her desk.

Usually, that's where the renderings for her current dream project of a new teaching building lay. Suddenly, she said she feels the motivation to tackle her projects and the day.

Now, her dreams are much closer to becoming a reality with Haney receiving $7 million in state grant funding.

Construction on the two-story teaching building is scheduled to begin soon, with a testing center in Phase 2 to follow close behind.

The $7 million comes from the Florida Legislature during the past two years. The $12 million cost of the two-phase project will be covered by combining the state grant, local capital improvement funding, FEMA funding and money from the county's half-cent sales tax.

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The 28,000-square-foot teaching facility will house a variety of programs, including nursing, cybersecurity, medical and office administration, and massage therapy, as well as offer room for additional expansion for health science and computer system programs.

Four hurricane-damaged buildings have been demolished to make way for the building, with site work underway. Phase 2 has no date for construction but aims to add more offices and additional space for testing.

Building a brighter future with new teaching building

Leonard said she was excited when learning the college received the state funding. Going on her eighth year as director, Leonard said she believes the new facility will ensure a bright future for Haney.

"I just never heard a lot of positive things (when starting at Haney) and so when I took the job at Haney, my goal at that time was for our school to be considered as one of the three post-secondary options in Bay County ... Gulf Coast State College, (Florida State University Panama City) and Haney," Leonard said. "And I feel like we have achieved that, I think with the new building and the new branding, that's only going to grow."

Haney received only $500,000 in grant funding for the building last year, much less than college officials wanted for the technology inside the classrooms and laboratories. For this year's legislative session, Haney officials submitted a proposal for the remaining money to outfit the interior. After submitting their proposal, Superintendent Bill Husfelt had another idea for Leonard.

"We wrote that and submitted that and then Mr. Husfelt called me and said, 'Hey, I think we need to write another one. I think we need to write one for the building,'" Leonard said. "And I said, 'But I've already submitted one to get what we didn't get last year.' He said, 'Oh no, let's do it for the building.'"

Leonard sat down with Lee Walters, Bay District Schools director of facilities, to get writing on another proposal. She thanks Rep. Jay Trumbull and former Sen. George Gainer for Haney receiving the funding.

Michael wiped out building, but not the dream

Haney officials got the idea for the new building after Hurricane Michael ravaged the school in 2018, wiping out a $1 million nursing building that had been open for only a month. While devastated by the loss of the nursing building, Leonard was not about to let her dream die.

"We've had lots and lots of meetings for several years about it. It was just that there was a lack of space every moment to a point where we just needed more space and we wanted programs to grow," Leonard said. "And we didn't necessarily have that kind of room to grow like we needed to."

The grant funding will provide top-of-the-line technology for the various programs in the building. The nursing program will see simulation technology similar to that at the Franklin Center at Gulf Coast.

Between the new construction and the recent name change, Leonard said faculty and students are ecstatic about the upgrades.

"We've had students who graduated years and years ago, who now are calling and saying 'Hey, can you change my certificate to say Haney Technical College instead of Haney Technical Center,'" Leonard said. "We're all happy about it. It's a good positive change going in the right direction.

"I never thought there would be new construction on this campus. ... I think we'll just really make the campus attractive to students in a way that previously hasn't been before."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Haney Technical College gets $7 million in state funds for new building