The Community College of Baltimore County is honoring its former Board Chairman Francis Kelly tonight at a gala in Hunt Valley.
The 6 p.m. event at the Marriott Hunt Valley Inn raises funds for the Francis Kelly Jr. Endowed Scholarship Fund and gives the college the opportunity to formally dedicate its newest extension center, Francis Kelly Hunt Valley Center.
The Community College of Baltimore County moved its Hunt Valley Center this year to a new, 20,000-square-foot facility at 11101 McCormick Road.
“The Hunt Valley Center has been renovated and expanded because of growing enrollment in the northwest and middle parts of the county,” said CCBC Chancellor Sandra Kurtinitis. “Frank Kelly spearheaded the creation of the Community College of Baltimore County system. He?s brought real energy to the board and the college for the past 10 years.”
Kelly, a Maryland state senator from 1979 to 1991, was community college board chair from 1997-2000 and helped guide the separate Catonsville, Essex and Dundalk colleges into a single, multicampus institution in 1998. He helped consolidate the different colleges into one financial, administrative and enrollment structure while seeking accreditation for the new, larger institution.
“We needed to become more efficient,” Kelly said. “And with a limited amount of resources, we needed to target where we could invest in specialized programs.”
Kelly left the board in June after being named to the University System of Maryland board of regents by Gov. Robert Ehrlich.
“The community colleges are the best bargains in higher education,” Kelly said, adding he took real estate and insurance licensing classes 30 years ago at Baltimore County community colleges. “High school students take classes, lots of seniors, and lots of business people take certification classes though the system ? 70,000 people use it every year.”
