Photo courtesy of the Tarkio College Alumni Association
By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Tarkio College will dust off the cobwebs and once again offer classes, this time as a vocational-technical school.
The Tarkio Board of Directors has announced the launch of the Tarkio Technology Institute, a post-secondary career and technical school. It will offer degrees in plumbing technology and wind energy technology beginning in January to students in northwest Missouri, southwest Iowa, southeast Nebraska, and northeast Kansas.
The Missouri Department of Higher Education granted certification to the new Career and Technical School, Tarkio Technology Institute today.
Tarkio Tech will offer classroom instruction combined with lab work, worksite exposure, and entrepreneurial training, according to the board.
The revival of the campus in extreme northwest Missouri has been a long time in coming.
Tarkio closed in 1992 after declaring bankruptcy. The Tarkio College Alumni Association has been working for years to bring the college back to life. The alumni association bought the campus from Heartland Educational Institute and then transferred it to Tarkio College Corporation, the key to its revival.
Tarkio Tech interim president John Davis says he kept holding out hope this day would come, though he wondered at times if it would.
“I’ve felt all along and I’ve said many times I believe this is going to happen, because this has to happen for the area,” Davis tells St. Joseph Post. “Not just for Tarkio College’s memory, but for our region. There’s such a dramatic need for people, young people, who not only are trained in these areas where we need these workers, but are young people that want to stay here.”
Tarkio College’s first application to re-certify its 60-acre campus as a post-second school was turned down by the Department of Higher Education. Officials with the state suggested the college apply as a technical school.
Davis says the college hopes to expand its initial offerings, eventually. The college had wanted to offer courses in computer technology. Davis says it has aspirations to become a full-fledge community college.
The college campus has 13 buildings and Davis says the alumni association hopes to save them all, though some have serious roof issues. Under the current structure, it will only need to use two buildings. It will offer diploma and certificate programs in Plumbing Technology and Wind Energy Technology beginning January 6, 2020.
Tarkio College was founded in 1883.