Yavapai Community College announced internally on April 28 that it has closed the culinary school at its Sedona Center campus.

“The college is relocating the academic culinary program to the Prescott campus for the fall term,” the internal announcement stated. “Sedona School of Culinary is closed. Recreational cooking classes will no longer be offered. If the public wants to move their questions forward, they should directly contact John Morgan, career and technical educational dean and Irina Del Genio, Clarkdale campus dean.”

While the college made this announcement internally on April 28, no press release or announcement to that effect appeared on the YCC website or the YCC Clarkdale Campus and Sedona Center Facebook page as of May 7. The Sedona School of Culinary website was no longer active as of that date. Its official Facebook page has not had an update since October.

“I learned through my constituents of this closure when the YCC public announcement came out as a press release,” said YCC Governing Board member Toby Payne, who represents District 3, including Sedona, Cottonwood and Camp Verde. “The board has not had any presentation or discussion on this. There has not been any presentation or discussion on the possibility of selling the Sedona Center or shutting down the facility. My understanding is that $5 million of taxpayers’ money was spent to create the culinary kitchens at this facility.”

“I personally am disappointed and feel this is a great loss for the Verde Valley and Sedona,” Payne added.

District 1 board member Bill Kiel, who represents Prescott, likewise stated that he received no advance notice of the decision and that it was not discussed by the board.

“I don’t recall that being on any agenda,” Kiel said. “I don’t know who made the decision … I don’t feel that the people on the other side of the mountain are getting adequate fairness in how much money we spend there versus how much money we spend on this side of the mountain.”

Morgan, to whom the college directed inquiries regarding the closure, did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the closure, nor did he provide the school’s enrollment figures in recent years.

“Enrollment was not strong, and a culinary certification does not lead to a living wage,” YCC Associate Vice President Tyler Rumsey later stated via email on May 14. “The Sedona School of Culinary non-credit cooking classes had run for two years. One hundred and five classes were offered, and a total of 1,279 students attended. The unduplicated headcount of credit students in culinary classes in FY25 was 20.”

The 10,000-square-foot Sedona Center was constructed in 2000 as part of the larger development of the Sedona Cultural Park. The center housed the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking from 2000 to 2011. Dan Gordon, the founder, later moved ZGI to Liberty University in Virginia.

Following the departure of the film school, which former board member Bob Oliphant attributed to YCC administrators’ unwillingness to share control of the school with its founder and director as contractually required, then-President Penelope Wills proposed selling the Sedona Center, but withdrew the proposal after public opposition. YCC then opened its own Sedona Film School in the space, which closed in 2014, and later installed the Sedona School of Culinary in the Sedona Center in fall 2017, which experienced full enrollment during its first semester.

Rumsey said that YCC “is not exploring selling the Sedona Center” and that “new programs that will fit the culture of Sedona” will be scheduled at the center at an unspecified time in the future.