Students hoping to attend professional-technical classes at the new College of Western Idaho could have to wait one more year.
CWI trustees are expected to delay offering these courses for credit until fall 2009.
Some work-force training and GED programs are expected to begin this month - when some early projections said the whole school would be open. Academic classes would begin in January 2009, said Dennis Griffin, CWI's interim president.
Just a month ago, CWI trustees told the Boise City Club that professional-technical classes could be operating by August.
But the trustees appear ready to end negotiations with Boise State University to jointly offer professional-technical classes at CWI's possible cost of $120 per credit hour instead of BSU's rate of $227 per credit hour.
For students enrolled in BSU's Selland College of Applied Technology, the expected decision means they could have to face another year of BSU's higher tuition.
The Selland College still could be transferred to CWI in July 2009, in time to offer classes that fall.
Collaborating with BSU would have cost the community college $2 million - money some trustees say could be better spent to help the school open its doors.
The community college is facing a number of steep costs, including purchasing a computer information system.
BSU was prepared to offer $1 million in staff time and resources, schools officials said.
"I am going to recommend we defer it," said CWI Board Chairman Jerry Hess. A formal board vote is expected Thursday. "There is not a conclusion yet."
But in a Monday e-mail to BSU, Griffin sounded as if the decision already had been made.
"The College of Western Idaho will not be contracting" for professional-technical classes in fall 2008, he wrote to Sona Andrews, BSU provost and vice president for academic affairs.
Hess said he asked Griffin to get with "each of the trustees privately" to review the information in the proposed BSU contract. Griffin wrote the e-mail after he had discussions with board members last week on an "individual basis" and concluded there was "not support for this."
An attorney general's manual on the Idaho Open Meeting law cautions against holding meetings "by having a go-between contact each of the governing body members to ascertain his/her sentiment."
Griffin said he did not set out to contact each board member. He called some and others called him.
Hess said there was no intent to go around the open meetings law.
Voters in Ada and Canyon counties approved creation of College of Western Idaho last May.
Bill Roberts: 377-6408
