Former Mayor Promotes Community College For Bastrop

Greetings!

For those of you who do not know me, my name is Tom Scott.  I served for some time as Mayor of Bastrop and Chair of the Bastrop Economic Development Corporation, spent the latter part of my professional career with The University of Texas System, and have been engaged in a number of groups and civic activities while in Bastrop (over the last 23+ years).  Much of my local time has been spent with some of our local scholarship groups and with the Bastrop Education Foundation.

Over the last year and a half, I have worked with an informal group of people from throughout our county examining the prospects for enhancing higher education opportunities for residents of Bastrop County; this group has morphed into one now known as the Bastrop County Friends of Higher Education.  Our goal is: To significantly enhance post-secondary education and training opportunities for Bastrop County residents, in order to significantly increase educational attainment levels within the county.   My local co-chairs are businesswomen familiar to many of you, Lori Tuggle and Kay Wesson .

We believe that the more our citizens take advantage of post-secondary education and training opportunities, whether their objectives are to pursue an academic degree or certification in a particular trade, the better positioned our local workforce will be for rewarding jobs and a more enjoyable quality of life, and the more attractive our community will be for business and industry (read: investment and jobs).

We believe that our joining the Austin Community College district is a way to make those post-secondary education and training opportunities accessible and affordable for many in our community.

Because of your commitment to our community, I know you care about educational outcomes in Bastrop.
I am writing to invite you to join the Bastrop County Friends’ of Higher Education effort to make this wonderful college opportunity a reality.   (We have dubbed the new campus that would be built here, ACC-Lost Pines College.)

I am attaching a brochure we have used to good effect, most recently at the College Night activities at Bastrop High School; I am also including a link to the Friends’ website, which has much more information and data about our situation in Bastrop County.

We are having an orientation/training session for those who want to immediately engage in our effort to kick-off our petition efforts (which are required to get the issue on the ballot for the November 2010 election), next Thursday, November 5.  These sessions will last for one hour; there will be one at 11:00 a.m. and another in the evening at 6:30 p.m.  — so if you are so inclined, pick a meeting time that is convenient for you!  The sessions will be held at the Kerr Community Center, 1308 Walnut St., in Bastrop.

For those who are only now learning of this effort and want to hear more before deciding to become engaged, please let me know.  I believe that Mike Vega is trying to arrange a session at which I could present our initiative and address your questions.

We need your involvement, the sooner the better.  We are kicking-off our petition campaign on November 14, 2009.

Tom Scott
The Friends’ address is: http://bastropcountyfhe.org/home