TWIN FALLS — The College of Southern Idaho has identified four programs to expand using new funding from the Idaho Legislature.

The college plans to build capacity in diesel tech, automotive service tech, radiologic tech and the heating, ventilation and air conditioning programs. They all have bottlenecks and waiting lists, said Barry Pate, dean of the career and technical education department at CSI.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here,” Pate told the CSI Board of Trustees on Monday. “It’s not lost on me that we are very, very blessed in CTE.”

The Legislature this year appropriated $2.35 million in new funding to expand capacity in technical programs at the college. President Dean Fisher took several trips to Boise this session to tell lawmakers about the waiting list issues.

The radiologic technology program, for example, has 60 students on the waiting list.

“We’ve just been kind of hanging on by the skin of our teeth,” Pate said.

The new state money, he said, helps solve the third piece of the puzzle.

The college received lots of one-time funding during COVID to purchase equipment and students received financial aid through the Idaho Launch program, but CSI has struggled to find money to hire more personnel.

“We have no excuse anymore,” Pate said. “We have everything we need and we’re very excited about that.”

The state funding will cover new staff and faculty members. Now, the biggest obstacle is finding space for more courses and cohorts.

The college is building a new facility in Jerome, called the LeRoy Craig Jerome Center, and a $15 million, 28,000-square-foot building at the Twin Fall campus, called the Transportation Technology Center.

When it is complete in September, the diesel program and heavy ag technology program will move into the Transportation Technology Center and the automotive service program will move into the current diesel tech space at the Desert Building.

“All of these learning spaces will help us to amplify what we do in terms of serving more students,” Fisher said.