Monday, June 22, 2015

June meeting of the SOCCCD board of trustees: just saying "no" to district services relocation

Construction projects: trustees (except Prendergast) deleted #17 on the priority list, i.e., locating district services at a neutral "middle" location. They offered no rationale.

     [See Tere's Board Meeting Highlights.]
     [Meeting agenda available here.]

     6:35 - just arrived. The trustees are gathering. The meeting will start soon.
     Earlier today, the board had a special meeting (3:30) concerning planning the ATEP campus. Evidently, among other things, the first building (for IVC) was discussed. (Agenda available here. See agenda graphic at end.)
     Tere tells me that the agenda looks pretty thick tonight. Dang.

     6:36 - The meeting begins. Actions taken in closed session: 6-0 vote, Padberg absent, approved unpaid leave, part-time classified.
     Lang's invocation refers to the church shooting, etc.
     Recognition: Jacklyn Chasteler, SC hammer throw state champ. Wright reads the res. Jaclyn stands with three others. Applause. Roll call vote. Photo op. J speaks: thanks SC and the coaching staff, et al. Applause. Coaches identified. Yet another photo op.
 
Public comments:
     Jim Leach, the SC foundation guy, who'll be steppin' down. His tenure's almost up. Recites the usual impressive factoids about the SC foundation. Will have $116k available each year in perpetuity. Thanks Burnett, Rickner. Introduces the man who will take his place as Prez, Mike Hamilton, listing achievements, then adding, "and I think he drinks." That got a laugh. Mr. Hamilton steps up, speaks. More blathering of superlatives. "Only two drinks a week," he says. Etc.
     6:46 - Lang speaks. Jim Leach did a "tremendous job" all these years, etc.

Board reports:

     Marcia Milchiker: thanks Jim Leach. Attended commencements. "Incredible." Mentions other ceremonies she attended. SC was ranked #1 in state by some body. IVC has #1 transfer rate in OC and is 2nd in the state.
     James Wright: mentions that Karen Street named teacher of the year. Attended both graduations. Praised both commencement speakers. Appeared on Laguna Woods TV.  Attended celebration of career of a counselor.
     Tim Jemal: Echos praise of SC Foundation crew. "Great job." Both commencements were very well done. Was happy to confer degrees. State budget reflects some moderation. Some one-time money to come into education. Some serious decisions ahead.
     TJ Prendergast: Echos praise. Was sorry to have to miss commencements. Etc.
     Barbara Jay: also attended the graduations. Very impressed. Got a tour with Burnett of Saddleback campus. Also got a tour of district services, 3rd floor. Attended SC scholarships ceremony.
     Dave Lang: best wishes to Mike Hamilton, who will do a great job running the SC foundation. The commencement: this is what it's all about. Attended SC Foundation golf tournament. Attended fiscal update (county organization).
     Student trustee Lemar Momand: welcomes the new college student government presidents.
     Chancellor's report (Gary Poertner): colleges planning for next round of accreditation. This includes a self-study; that'll start in the fall. Then teams will visit the colleges. One part of this that is changing: a much closer looks at district services and the board. They've got a new handbook, sent to trustees.
     IVC Prez Glenn Roquemore: yadda yadda. Introduces new IVC Foundation director(?).
     SC Prez -- substitute guy. Blah blah. Mentions that Hans Vogel just passed away at age 93. He was involved in establishment of the district. [I've described his participation and actions previously.]
     Etc.

     No board requests for reports.

     We've been asked to move 6.1 and 6.2 to earlier in the meeting. (Budget reports.)

6.1 SOCCCD 2015-6 tentative budget (See)
     Deb Fitz. comes up to yammer. Fiscal year begins on July 1. The state has passed a budget since first drafting this. Will have more info in August.
     Goes over goals, guidelines. Reserve, etc. We don't allow "deficit financing."
     Total all funds: $711 million
     Based on Gov's budget back in January. Goes over generally rosy points about tentative budget assumptions.
     7.5% reserve for economic uncertainties: %12.2 million, etc.
     Available basic aid funds: balance of 22.9 million.
Total available FY 2014-2015: $61,352,000
     Basic aid expenses. Funding for BAARC allocation = 61.4 million.
     Budget trends: district-wide personnel costs make up an avaerage of 85% of total unrestricted general fund budget. Etc.
     PERS/STRS rate and cost increases. Annual increase over 14-15 9.2 million
     Looking ahead. Final state budget info will be included in the "adopted budget."
     Any questions?
     Milchiker: given our basic aid funding, growth funding? A: Follow DRAC model. Not from state
     Jemal: enrollments are flat, and yet this is the biggest budget ever. Explain. A: Our capital money is growing. Retiree trust fund is growing. Etc. J: around 90% (actual figure for personnel costs). A concern for us to be at that level? Blah blah blah. Jemal alludes to deletion of term "one-time" re basic aid.
     Lang: this was created before "May revise" (state). Will we get info prior to final budget? Fitz: we can certainly do that. L: didn't we fund for enrollment growth? Funded to level that we would have gotten from the state were we not a basic aid district? Yep. Still true. When you broke down the expenditures of two colleges and district--surprised by how much for district. A: [I didn't understand the answer]
     They approve the tentative budget. Unanimous.

     Prendergast: turns out we did have a board request for a report (all trustees). Request concerning listing sessions. They approve unanimously.

     6.2 - Tentative budgets for SC and IVC student government (See)
     SC kid speaks. Thanks people.
     Budget anticipates decreased funding from bookstore, cafeteria. Otherwise mostly unchanged from one year ago.
     Highlights: blah blah blah. Accomplishments. (This kid is pretty slick.) More tutors available. Big success, evidently. Blah blah blah.
     Any questions?
     Lang: some suggested changes for final budget. You refer to ASB "sticker sales" then "stamp revenue." A disconnect there. Etc. Kid thanks Lang for suggestions.
     Jemal: one quick note. Mentions plan of turning to an "opt out" system (student opting out of paying student fee, I guess). Chosen because it promises to increase these fees. Jemal: Expect reaction. Harsh feedback. OK
     Wright: why sales down in bookstore, etc? Competition with online book sales, etc.
     Prendergast: how do you expect to increase sales of stamps? A: blah blah blah
     Etc.

     Next: IVC SG tentative budget. Linda Fontanilla speaks. Praises student government leadership. Lots of great activities. Kid (Adam) takes over.
     Very similar to last year. $575,537. Goes over "highlights." Events. Accomplishments.
     Mentions our co-curricular programs: speech and debate, IVC Model UN, etc.
     Questions?
     Jemal: praises report. There's a 200,000 difference between SC and IVC. How come? Fontanilla: blah blah blah. Jemal: so the difference is because of co-curricular funds? A: blah blah blah.
     I found this hard to follow, but it seems that the IVC kids have decided to maintain having a say and being very involved in deciding how to use these funds. SC SG has gone another way.
     Wright: IVC is doing much better than SC re cafeteria and bookstore income. How come? Fontanilla steps in. Says "blah blah blah." Refers to talent show, etc. Prendergast wonders aloud if a video is available. Yuk yuk. (Fontanilla appears to be the "den mother" kind of supervisor to these kids. Clueless mother hen. She thinks bringing cookies to local businesses is good outreach.)
     Lang: excellent presentation. Explanation re budget makes no sense though. Lang says something about different arrangements between SC and IVC re bookstore contracts. Brit gal steps up to explain that all revenue goes straight to student gov at IVC, but only a portion at SC. Lang: that makes sense. Fontanilla: our faculty has a long-standing great relationship with student government. Blah blah blah. She emphasizes students' tremendous involvement in governance and decision-making, a point later emphasized by the Ac. Senate Prez.
     IVC Ac Senate prez notes that SC's model was investigated at IVC. Faculty and students chose not to change our way of doing things. The two colleges are quite different. Our model seems to work well for us. (This seems to be about co-curricular activities, which are expensive. IVC students are very involved in that.)
     Two budgets approved unanimously.

7:49 - back to consent calendar. Anything to pull? Lang: 5.12, 5.18, 5.27. Jemal: 5.23, 5.30. Prendergast: 5.2, 5.5. They vote on the balance: unanimous approval.

     5.2 Question about Spanish program, credit by exam, etc. High School courses count? Werle: students must achieve scores on tests of competency. --Approved unanimously.
     5.5 Sailboat surplus - disposal. Prendergast: really? we're tossing these yachts in the trash? Brandye: an assessment was performed. They are unusable. --Approved unanimously.
     5.12 Radioactive waste removal - increase of contract. What's this about? Brandye: this radioactive stuff has been at the science building since 1968. Pendergast: When there was a bid, did we not know about this stuff (the need to remove it)? Somehow, Brandye gave a satisfactory answer. --Unanimous approval.
     5.18 Increase of $30K for work on A400 building. Unforeseen issues. Prendergast: hey, didn't you say that when we adopt the design/build approach, this wouldn't happen as much? Brandye: yes, we've had some challenges in this case. She seems to focus on an unfortunate assumption made by the contractor. "We were forced to do more babysitting than anticipated." Design/build hasn't worked out in this case. But, in other cases, this approach will work, says Brandye. --Approved unanimously
     5.23 Security guard services at ATEP. [Gosh. What are they protecting? Rubble?] Jemal: what are we paying currently? F: This contractor is the same as what we have now, same rate. --Approved unanimously.
     5.27 Lang: (something about storm sewer system). A typo. Another one. A third correction. Prendergast notes another typo. Another issue: language is "loose" somewhere. "I will make those corrections," says Brandye. --Approved unanimously.
     5.30 Jemal: real estate advisory services at ATEP, $35k. What type of services? What are they doing for us at ATEP? Fitz answers. But I didn't get it. Jemal seems satisfied though. --Approved unanimously. (Lang is temporarily? absent.)


6.3 SC Techo and Appl Sciences building swing space project, architec. Services agreement. --Approved.
6.4 Change order on same project. --Approved.
6.5 SC Photo/radio/TV renovation project, change order. --Approved.
6.6 Same project, notice of completion, Approved.
6.7 IVC dean, reorg of Behavioral Sciences and Reorg of Liberal Arts [?]. Approved.
6.8 IVC renaming of A400 --Approved.
Etc.
6.10 - pay for absent trustee (Padberg). --Approved, natch.
6.11 - contract with Neudesic -- approved.
6.12 Contract with Blackboard. Approved.
6.13 ATEP utilities and infrastracture project. Approved.
6.14 Five year plan revision. Lang: has a problem with item 17, I guess. District relocation. Lang wants to amend the motion (namely, he wants to delete district relocation as among district plans, priority list).  Only Prendergast votes "no" to the amended item. [I think that the trustees, except Prendergast, are rejecting faculty insistence that district relocation--to a neutral middle point--is important. See Item 4.1: Lang and others carp about district offices relocation idea]
     [Note that the need for locating district offices in between the two campuses came up in the Climate Survey. Evidently, trustees are unimpressed. Could it be we're entering a new era of board disregard of faculty opinion? Sheesh.]
6.15 approved unanimously
6.16 Board Policy revision, personal leave. Jemal: is all this language necessary? Eliminating a redundancy, evidently. --Unanimous yes.
6.17 Initial proposal to CSEA (California School Employees Assocation - classified union). Open public hearing.
   Public comments? No? Public hearing is now closed. Further discussion? No. Concluded. Turns out, don't need to vote, since just a public hearing.
6.18 Academic Personnel actions. No changes. Jemal: wants aggregate amount for faculty stipends. A big figure, he says. Bugay: we can do that. They vote on item: --unanimous.
6.19 Classified personnel actions. No discussion. --Unanimous approval.
6.20 Sabbatical revision and rescind. --Unanimous approval.

7.0 Reports
7.1 nada
7.2 annual accreditation report.
7.3
7.4 no changes
7.5
7.6
7.7

8.0 Reports from administration and governance groups
(8:33 p.m.) I'm outta here.


From agenda of the "special meeting"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The ATEP presentation was well done!

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

  This ran in the Sunday December 24, 2023 edition of the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register : July 14, 1955 - November 20, 2...