Rowan-Cabarrus Community College presented its fiscal 2026 operating and capital requests to the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners on April 22, outlining a local operating ask and a renewed push for a large workforce training facility.

Dr. Carol Spalding, who introduced the presentation, described the college's mission "to improve the lives and build community through public higher education and workforce development," and said South Campus is running at capacity as county population and college enrollment have increased.

Tara Schrechsler, chief officer of finance, presented the local operating request: $319,000 (a 6.9% increase) to cover projected salary and benefit cost increases and a $110,000 request to replace aged data servers and hardware. Schrechsler said the college's total Cabarrus County operating request would be approximately $4,900,000.

On capital projects, Jonathan Chamberlain, chief officer of college environment, renewed a request for a Workforce Innovation Center. The college said the item had earlier been approved for $47,000,000 but not funded; the updated estimate with market escalation is $49,000,350. Chamberlain also listed a phased renovation for South Campus building S201 (previously approved at $7,000,000, now estimated at $7,500,000), annual recurring capital of $500,000 for smaller projects, elevator compliance work, and parking-lot repairs. At one point the presentation aggregated those large projects to about $58,200,000; later in the pitch Dr. Spalding cited a final figure of $63,103,500 for the multi-year capital forecast.

The college described programmatic demand behind the request. Spalding and Chamberlain said South Campus serves several thousand FTE students and that the county is the college's largest user. They described short, employer-driven programs that place graduates into manufacturing jobs paying about $45,000 annually. Campus expansion plans include a roughly 23-acre parcel purchased in 2019 near Trinity Church Road and a proposed Workforce Innovation Center to accommodate future workforce training.

Why it matters: College leaders linked the capital ask to county workforce development goals and employer needs, saying increased training capacity would enable residents to obtain higher-paying manufacturing and technical jobs while helping local employers hire locally.

Next steps: Commissioners asked clarifying questions but took no funding action at the meeting. The college reiterated it will continue engaging commissioners and county staff as budget work proceeds.

Ending: College officials invited commissioners to site tours and encouraged support for starting the new building now to avoid further escalation in construction costs.