Thirteen-year-old Colton Chamberlain said he would be “speechless” if Arizona State University occupied his middle school one day.

“I grew up and I went to middle school and I’ve had a lot of good memories,” said the Daytona Middle School eighth-grader. “I would never imagine being able to go to college at the place where I went to middle school.”

Chamberlain said he had heard “a little bit about” Arizona’s largest university’s potential for starting a four-year college in Lake Havasu City in fall 2011, but he “didn’t know if it was actually going to be legit.”

But the possibility of the university coming here could make Chamberlain’s plans to major in architecture in college much easier.

“I would love it because I wanted to go to ASU, but if they do come here it would be, like, way more convenient,” he said.

The Lake Havasu City Council, the Lake Havasu Unified School District and the Havasu Foundation for Higher Education are all expected to vote on an agreement with ASU Tuesday. If approved, the agreement would launch a 45-day study to determine if the area would support an ASU campus at Daytona Middle School — which is within walking distance of the city’s downtown. The middle school will close July 1 to save the school district money.

But Chamberlain said the end of one education era would be easier to handle with the dawn of a new one.

And he’s not the only one who feels that way.

MCC, NAU

“This is huge. I don’t see this as competition at all,” said Mohave Community College President Michael Kearns. “It’s similar as to when a young couple has one child and then their second child. They don’t split their love.”

Mohave Community College started in 1971 in Kingman and now has four campuses throughout the county — including one in Lake Havasu City.

The unofficial student count in fall 2009 was 8,171 students across all campuses.

Kearns said the majority of the students are part-time, working parents who mainly take classes in the evenings.

He said MCC started working with ASU during the summer 2009 to ensure a smoother transition between the two colleges for students who do transfer to the Tempe-based university.

“We are all excited about this,” he said. “Anything we can do to get more baccalaureate degrees in our county is a huge economic (benefit).”

He said during the study ASU officials will examine MCC’s science laboratories to determine if they can “handle all the students that they project coming over.”

Kearns said it was “coincidental” that ASU highlighted business and education courses as possible programs here because those were the programs MCC was working on last summer for smoother transition.

The MCC president also said he doesn’t think ASU’s presence would affect Northern Arizona University’s partnership with MCC.

NAU, based in Flagstaff, started offering MCC students a chance to stay in Lake Havasu City and transfer their credits to earn a NAU bachelor’s degree in 1990.

NAU’s main core classes offered here are in education, said NAU spokesman Tom Bower. The university has six part-time faculty teaching six classes in Lake Havasu City. There are about 100 students enrolled in NAU programs here, Bower said.

In 2008, NAU President John Haeger wrote a letter to then-City Manager Richard Kaffenberger stating that NAU felt “that it is premature to consider establishing a residential campus on Lake Havasu,” after talking with the Foundation and conducting studies.

“We would work in collaboration (with ASU), of course,” Bower said. “(Our state governing board encourages) us to serve the community in an efficient manner and not compete by offering similar courses and course offerings. If this were to come about — obviously it is very early in the process — we would be collaborating with them.”

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Gary Kellogg, president and CEO of the Lake Havasu Partnership for Economic Development, said “there are a lot of things that will happen when that announcement is made” if ASU opens a campus here.

One of those things will be the development’s business and industry recruitment.

“I think for the PED, it will be another recruitment tool for businesses looking at our area knowing that it is now reality.”

Kellogg said businesses looking at relocating ask about “the quality of education” here.

“It is certainly not going to hurt you to say we now have a four-year university,” he said.

He said the businesses that are recruited could change depending on the courses and programs offered if ASU operates here.

“I think it all goes hand-in-hand,” Kellogg said. “Would we change who we look at and what we do? Maybe.”

The organization is donating $25,000 for the ASU feasibility study, said Mayor Mark Nexsen. ASU asked for a donation for the study, but funding was not to come from a public entity, according to Nexsen and the agreement.

Kellogg said the community has yet to figure out what the trickle down economic effects would be of a campus opening here including providing janitorial supplies to grounds upkeep to the restaurant business.

“To what extent? We don’t know yet,” he said.

Terry Carman, owner of Pretty Things Boutique at 2127 McCulloch Blvd. – walking distance from Daytona Middle School — said she said she might “tweak” her business needs to “whatever” ASU students would want.

“It can only be good for Havasu,” she said. “How can it be bad?”

PARENTS, TEACHERS

Brad Chamberlain jokes that he was looking forward to his son, Colton, graduating high school and “getting the heck out of the house.”

“If there is a college here, of course, we are going to promote him staying here,” he said, adding that he could always set up a travel trailer in the side yard for Colton to live in.

“That’s the only downfall I see,” he said, laughing. “I think the influx of kids would definitely help the community — the financial aspect of it, maybe retired people won’t like it as much.”

Chamberlain said he works at the London Bridge Resort and the spring breakers are “driving him crazy” right now.

“(But) from a monetary standpoint, it is good for the city … (from) the empty apartment buildings and it goes from there. It would be all the way around. Where they would work is another story. I’m all for it.”

Niki Schafer, a mother of three children in the school district, said she thinks ASU’s operation here “would be a wonderful idea.”

“It would be great. It would be a great resource to bring more jobs to this community,” she said. “Having a four-year university here would be great for kids. It’s a great city. It’s great for families. I think it would be great, obviously, for my kids if they chose (to go). I think this community would be lucky. That is a big deal to have a four-year university to want to be in our city.”

And a couple of teachers said they didn’t see how a four-year college here wouldn’t help attract students who otherwise might not even think about obtaining a higher education.

“There would be the option for some kids to remain home and not have to pay for a dorm and an apartment,” said Lake Havasu High School teacher Brian Aranguena. “Those who struggle in school could have an opportunity to (dedicate) more time to their studies (without having to be employed). There is an added expense of going out of town to go to school.”

Aranguena, who teaches architectural drafting and heads one of the school’s largest and most successful after-school academic teams, said he would be “curious” to see what kind of programs would be offered.

“I think it would be a wonderful opportunity not only for Lake Havasu City, but for other surrounding cities and communities that have graduates who can’t afford to go out of town, but can stay closer to town.”

Kevin Bangsund, a Jamaica Elementary School art teacher, said the university would be “very beneficial of brining in another employment-based business into the community.”

“If we can get a university, hopefully there will be some businesses moving here having people employed with degrees, having businesses that are more higher-educated people,” he said.

Bangsund commented that Lake Havasu City is known as a “vacation spot” and any effort to build a tax base would help the city “succeed.”

“If there is a campus here, you will be able to see people in the community who are going to college and maybe a lot of people would go back to college who are living here and employed full time.”

‘IN THE HISTORY’

Nexsen said he can feel the excitement buzz when he talks to local residents.

“When I talk to people about the university and I indicate that the (agreements) will be on the council agenda, you see them go ‘You’re kidding! You mean this might really be real?’ Everybody goes ‘I cannot believe what a big plus that will be to Lake Havasu City.’ Frankly, it will mean jobs.

“I believe it will be the largest economic development project in the history of Lake Havasu.”

You may contact the reporter at jleatherman@havasunews.com