Gila Community College (GCC) is going through a transitional year, the final year of its educational partnership with Eastern Arizona College, as it approaches the goal of becoming an independent community college.

One critical step in the process came in early October, when the Gila Pueblo and Payson campuses hosted site visits from an Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) peer review team.

In January 2025, based on the team's findings and a review of the college's Institutional Self-Evaluation Report, the ACCJC will issue a decision on Gila Community College's candidacy status. There are three possible outcomes: the commission could grant candidacy status, deny candidacy status, or grant initial accreditation.

During a November 13 meeting of the Gila County Provisional Community College District Governing Board meeting, Board President Jan Brocker used a football analogy, saying the District had reached first and goal and hoped for a touchdown.

Meanwhile, GCC continues building the infrastructure to operate as an independent community college – including its own future Nursing program. On November 13 the Board continued to build that program, approving a new curriculum and five new nursing classes. It is hoped that the new curriculum will be in the packet that goes to the Arizona State Board of Nursing in February 2025.

More new classes were also added to the future catalog during that meeting, with Board approval of six art classes, two business classes and a business ethics class, three health and physical education classes, four early childhood education classes, two HCE classes, an Aviation Ground School II class, and a drone pilot certificate preparation course.

Gila Community College Interim President Dr. Janice Lawhorn reported that a student handbook was also being developed.

The Board also approved two part-time custodial contracts, bringing the total number of GCC employees to four, and accepted faculty and administrative salary schedules. GCC Human Resources Specialist Lauri Avila reported that attempts to bring in a small number of Eastern Arizona College employees had met with “some pushback” from EAC. “We are being very cautious in moving forward,” Avila said.

Brocker said it was time to start putting together a budget for the coming fiscal year.

The Board also approved requests for proposal for a library management system and for online tutoring services. “We'd like to find a [library management system] vendor that will give us a five-year contract,” said Lawhorn.