The July meeting of the SOCCCD Board of Trustees (guest reported by DD)

“There is nothing reportable from the closed session.”

     See Tere's Board Meeting Highlights.
     In the absence of Roy Bauer tonight (who was doubtless home enjoying the first evening of the Republican National Convention), your guest blogger attempted to take notes during the Board of Trustees meeting. My purpose is to imitate Roy’s style and humor, however inadequately, to convey his sense of boredom at appropriate times, and to give the reader a general sense of what went on.

     6:30 – Board members slowly assemble, taking their seats; Acting Chancellor Debra Fitzsimons takes her place on the dais. The meeting is called to order. Trustee James Wright prays for policemen across the country and for rain. Someone leads the pledge. There’s background drama here, given Roy’s notes on DTB concerning what items might be discussed in closed session. It is, after all, summer, and often times dramatic events occur on college campuses in the summer in the general absence of faculty and students.

     The drama unfolds. Trustee Tim Jemal asks Trustee David Lang to report on what transpired during the closed session. A pause. Then, Lang leans into the microphone and says,

     “There is nothing reportable from the closed session.”

     The drama is, indeed, sucked from the room.

 Dr. Chris McDonald, once Dean of Mathematics, Science and Engineering and lately Assistant VP for Institutional Effectiveness who was recently transferred from Saddleback to IVC. He is described by the first speaker as “the victim of lies being perpetuated by people on this campus” (youch); she states that he is not a bully, and is loved by his colleagues. The second faculty member concurs with the description of Chris, and adds that he is a man of honesty and integrity, a person who can admit his mistakes and apologize for them. He asks the board to carefully reconsider McDonald’s reassignment. The third faculty speaker concurs with the remarks about Chris McDonald’s character, and states that, as assessment time nears, Saddleback has been left “with a dent in our Standard 4.” (That’s assessment talk. I’m withholding the names of the speakers, given the passion of the comments. Of course, you could just watch the video.) The final speaker also compliments outgoing Chancellor Gary Poertner as “a man of integrity, a man who tried to solve problems” and says that the SOCCCD is “a better place because he was here.”

K. Street

   PUBLIC COMMENTS. Sometimes, though, moments of perceived resolution are the best moments for unexpected plot turns. Three Saddleback College faculty members step to the microphone for public comments. Since this is on the public record, here goes. The first two faculty members express support for

     Thus end the public remarks. Board reports follow, brought to you in an extremely abbreviated form. Tim Jemal echoes the previous speakers comments about GP and promises a “transparent search process” for a permanent Chancellor that will look for “the best and brightest across the nation.” (If true, this threatens to upstage the current national political process.) T.J. Prendergast echoes the Poertner comments and says something about his recent appearance on Laguna Woods television. Barbara Jay thanks Poertner and noted her visit to the IVC Foundation retreat. James Wright echoed the GP comments (there’s a lot of that) and spoke at length about a new electric car facility at Saddleback. David Lang departed from the standard Board report remarks to comment about the recent violence against police; he thanked local police and public officials for working hard to address this situation. Marcia Milchiker and Terri Whitt echo the GP comments. Student trustee Johnathan Ford comments on how Poertner always wanted to know more about our students.

T. Huntley

(WARNING: VERY LITTLE DRAMA FOLLOWS…APPARENTLY THERE’S A DRAMA CAP FOR EVERY MEETING, AND WE HIT THAT WITH THE PUBLIC COMMENTS. IT’S HARD TO BE SNARKY IN A DRAMA-FREE ATMOSPHERE…HURRY BACK, ROY.)

     The College Presidents are absent tonight. VP Linda Fontanilla gives the report for IVC, offering a thanks to GP and telling an anecdote about Poertner understanding the importance of student equity. She introduces Lt. John Meyer as a new member of IVC’s campus police, and congratulates Glenn R. on being a keynote speaker at a recent UCI event on cooperation between local businesses and IVC, UCI, and the IUSD.

     Kathy Werle, VP for Instruction at Saddleback, subs for Todd. She states that Saddleback will look forward to working with Debra, notes that Todd is in Sacramento and that Saddleback is receiving a reward for its veterans’ program. She suggests that we have an opportunity to see “Little Shop of Horrors” on the Saddleback campus. (Note: I’m fairly certain that statement has nothing to do with the public comments.) Oh, and they have a busy fall orientation week planned.

     There are no Board requests for reports.

     The main event of the evening seems to be the presentation and unpacking of the Student Success Scorecard for SC and IVC—an event that I’m sure Roy regrets missing, knowing his deep and abiding affection for all things assessment. Unfortunately, as the speakers introduce themselves, horrible microphone static (the result of either divine lightning striking the building or an underperforming audio system) makes the first speaker’s name undecipherable. After a careful internet search however that provided a name and a picture, I was able to identify her as Denice Inciong, District Director, Research, Planning & Data Management. She is joined by Jennifer Klein, Director of Planning, Research and accreditation at Saddleback, and her IVC counterpart Craig Hayward. The scorecard covers six metrics, measuring student progress and completion, and disaggregated by student demographic categories. If you want to see details, go to

http://scorecard.cccco.edu/scorecard.aspx.

The scorecard reports on a number of items for both colleges and for the State of California community college system from 2010 to 2015: completion, momentum (students who complete 30 units…we seem to be edging into physics here), persistence, math remedial progress, English remedial progress, ESL remedial progress, and CTE completion rate. Overall, IVC beats the State of CA rates in 6 of 8 categories and has a completion rate of 62%--15% above the state average! SC beats the State in 7 of 8 categories and has a completion rate of 59%. (Now, wait a minute—we beat the state, but are these good numbers? How happy would we be if we received a 62% on an exam? Or with a cell phone that worked 59% of the time. I mean, really.)

     The most potentially entertaining statistic is a new “skills builder” (!) stat that compares the difference in a student’s wages a year before they took CTE courses and a year after they took CTE courses.

     The Board is all over this with questions. Marcia M wants to know how we get information on wages, and why the State seems to have the information by only shares the summary. Tim Jemal has a rousing conversation with Craig H. that seems to go something like this: “Blah blah blah blah?” “Blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Bob Loblaw’s Law Blog? (Arrested Development reference) Blah Blah, blah blah.

     David Lang, who has been paying attention, asks great questions: It’s great that we’re beating state averages but, given our demographics, how are we doing against comparable colleges? How are we setting our own goals for these numbers, and where are our own goals on the presentation? Why in the world does the State want to track CTE students who take one or two classes—and their salaries? How can we tell that there is any causation between the classes and the salary increases? Why does the counselor to student ratio at Saddleback seem out of whack? Answers: We’re in the top ten in the state in completion metrics. We can do that in more detail. They’re in the annual strategic plan. There’s not a good answer to that one. We need to dig down in our data and explore that issue.

     The consent calendar comes up for a vote…the resolutions (5.2) and three additional items (5.12, 5.13, and 5.14) are pulled and dealt with separately. All are unanimously approved, including: a resolution lauding GP’s years of service to the district, his financial management of SOCCCD, and wishing him a happy second retirement; a resolution expressing sympathy upon the loss of former State Senator Marian Bergeson and applauding her career (http://www.fresnobee.com/news/state/california/article88031202.html)

     First general action item, the SOCCCD 2017-18 Academic Calendar, is unanimously approved (!) and is complimented by Trustee Wright. The crowd begins to thin out as we get to other items and, eventually, I think, on to other reports. So, as Roy would say, I’m outta here!

* * *

"Echoes." That's OC-speak for
"plagiarizes."

Sound familiar? Melania Trump echoes Michelle Obama in Republican Convention speech (OC Reg)

Tommy Vietor, a former national security spokesman for President Barack Obama, said the similarity was "pretty egregious."

SOCCCD Chancellorology: acting, interim, and permanent

     On July 1, just four days after the tense June board meeting (see Awkward), district denizens received a surprising communication that stated that "Chancellor Gary Poertner has announced his retirement effective today...." It went on to explain that "Vice Chancellor Debra Fitzsimons will serve as Acting Chancellor until further notice. A special meeting of the board will be scheduled for next week and more information will follow."
     The special meeting occurred four days later (July 5).
     The next day (July 6), the district sent yet another communication, asserting that “Dr. Debra L. Fitzsimons was appointed to serve as Acting Chancellor last night on a 7-0 vote during a special board meeting....”
     Fitzsimons is not Interim Chancellor, for, at the end of the July 6 communication, we’re told that “She will serve in the acting position until an Interim Chancellor is selected."
     Then, finally, there's this: "The board will initiate a nationwide search for a permanent Chancellor.”
     So, based on these communications, one can glean these factoids:

• Poertner retired on July 1. 
• Fitzsimons was appointed Acting Chancellor on July 5, though she started in that role on July 1. (This suggests that Poertner's resignation came as a surprise.) 
• The district plans to select an “Interim Chancellor” (to replace the "Acting" Chancellor). 
• And the board plans to replace the Interim Chancellor with a “permanent Chancellor.” 
• There'll be a "nationwide search" for the permanent Chancellor.

     Is that about it?

* * *

     Presumably, the "acting Chancellor" position is a mere stopgap—a temporary and brief state of affairs until something more official is put into place.
      So be looking for the announcement of the selection of an "Interm Chancellor."
      I bet they'll go with a rent-an-administrator. Someone nice and uncontroversial. A reassuring benign smilester.
      What do you think?
      The next board meeting will be on July 18.

* * *

• Special Board meeting: Fitz as Acting Chance is rubber-stamped (July 5)
• Agenda for tonight's special meeting of the board (re Chancellor) (July 5)
• Awkward: discussion of IVC's budget at the June 27 meeting (July 4)
• Access to streaming video of the June 27 board meeting (July 4)
• Shite hits fan? Poertner's out (July 1)
• Monday's SOCCCD Board Meeting: $62 million for proposed Saddleback Stadium project! (June 29)

ON THE OTHER HAND, see AGENDA, which suggests that the board will opt out of chosing an Interim Chance, making Fitz Acting Chance from July to December.
ON YET ANOTHER HAND, see recently issued job announcement for the Interim position.

Special Board meeting: Fitz as Acting Chance is rubber-stamped

     [Looking back, this post seems to me to be overly snarky toward Mr. BB. I like his playing. Like his musical choices. OK? Pace BB.]
     TUESDAY EVENING, 7:29 - Just got here. Only six people be lurkin' in Ronnie Reagan Hall—all administrators, ceptin' for me. We're just waiting for the board to emerge from closed session and announce—whatever. The Prez of Saddleback is on the agenda. So is the Chancellor gig.
     Obviously, there's no tellin' when the trustees will finish their deliberations and come out to announce their decisions. Back atcha after a while. (Administrators, left to right: BB, DB, DF, [and, over at the right] GR & LF, murmuring.)

* * *

     7:50 - Suddenly, board prez Tim Jemal emerges, stage left, and says, "Debra Fitzsimons, can I talk to you a minute?" She follows him through the door.
     8:00 - no sign of Fitz. They got her!
     Just now, BB went out to his car to get his ax. He's playin' it, unplugged, with LF & DB in his apparent thrall. Little Wing, eh? —Meanwhile, GR is way off to the right, playin' his Rickenbacker iPhone.
     8:18 - Just as things and shapes slowly become visible in the darkness, BB's unplugged guitar noodlings have slowly become a racket in my head in this empty hall. His watery strumming almost prevents my reading—about Pythagoras, Descartes, Heraclitus, and about similar such (in Nicholas Rescher's "Anecdotes").

* * *

     8:23 - All beings, it seems, either are or are very close to being, some version of Gregor Samsa—a cockroach, or a double clutch transmission, or something even more horrible.

     Me, I seem to myself at times to have become a hideous, subhuman, memoryless biped, i.e., one who can be told, very clearly, "X, Y, & Z"—only to find oneself, seconds later, unsure whether Y was included in this telling, or whether X was denied or affirmed. —Whether, indeed, anything was said by anyone at all.
     Dang! I'd rather be a cockroach.
     Yesterday, a friend called me, and we discussed district issues. As he spoke, I thought of an important question. It was damned important. When he at long last ceased speaking, I started to raise my question, but it was already gone. Huh? It was no use tryin' to fish it back neither.
     "My mind," I said to him, "is a sieve."

* * *

     That danged BB: he's off in his unplugged little musical world. Now he's singing! Meanwhile LF and DB ignore him, deep in conversation, but I ain't listening. Nope. Don't wanna know.
     I think BB's doing "Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom" (John Lee Hooker).
     8:42 - Suddenly, as if to counter BB's caterwauling, LF starts playing some pop song on her iPhone. I can't place it. It's odd somehow. Eventually, she turns it off, causing BB to launch into further solipsistic warble und strum. He's ignored by all—except me, I guess—but he's happy, like some little kid with his toy car.

     8:46 - Can't seem to read my book. I hear: "Soul Man" (Steve Cropper). Then "Listen to the Music" (Doobie Brothers?!). Now "El Paso" (Marty Robbins). Then "Over the Hills and Far Away" (Led Zep). Meanwhile LF murmurs and Glenn surfs.

     9:00 - It's 9:00 p.m., and we're useless. We have all turned into, not pumpkins, but drooling zombies or worse. No sign of Fitz. No sign of Jemal. No sign of life. What the hell are we doing here, anyway? It's some kinda hell, as usual. At least they aren't handing out prizes like they always do. That stuff is Rod Serling meets the well-meaning-yet-hideous Den Mothers and their hungry Weblos.
     9:10 - Nothing, really, is at stake for me tonight. I only wish to learn what will be. But, for these others, I think, it matters plenty. Are they vultures? Hopefuls? Dutiful underlings?...

     9:11 — AT LONG LAST, THE TRUSTEES EMERGE.
     Prendergast, Poertner, Jemal and Wright climb back into their seats. Kinsler, the lawyer, is leaving. He waves amiably, despite his lawyerosity. Some gal—another lawyer?—is also leaving. (I spotted her Merc out in the parking lot. Vroom.) Lang is on the phone with Jemal.
     OK, what next?
     9:13 - Whitt and Milchiker join the others, taking their seats. Lang is on his phone in Iowa, countin' beans in his head.
     JEMAL: reconvening from closed session. Wright will read out actions taken by the board:
     Wright: one action, 7-0 vote, approved appointment of Debra Fitzsimons as Acting Chancellor, subject to approval of mutually agreeable contract. 
     Nothing else to report.
     —Good grief! That's it? Could they have done less? I don't see how! Maybe they shoulda reaffirmed Gary's retirement while they were at it!
     Wait! Did this episode really happen?
     I'm so outta here.

Shite hits fan? Poertner's out

Roquemore: handin' out
promotions lately,
violating process

     I’m told that the shite really hit the fan at Monday’s board meeting—a meeting that lasted until way past 11:00 p.m. (In recent years, the meeting has seldom gone much past 9:00.)
     Things heated up in particular during the discussion of Irvine Valley College's tentative budget. (See summary report.) Evidently, there are structural factors pointing to a severe budget shortfall at IVC, a fact that has been known, at least to budget guy Davit K, for some time; but, somehow, nobody listened to, or heard from, the fellow, and the upshot seems to be that the board was sans clue about all this during the recent board deliberations concerning raises. (See transcript of actual exchange between Davit, Lang, and Fitzsimons.)

     Lang’s questions were especially pointed, I’m told. (I’ll be looking at the video. See transcript.)

     There’s other trouble afoot at the colleges and at the district, I’m told. I keep hearing that Saddleback's Tod Burnett is up shite creek, not sure why. And that certain administrators at one college have been badmouthing certain other administrators at the other college, and it's been nasty. 

    There’s a sense that something’s gonna break. Maybe there’ll be a shake up.

* * *

    And then, today, we got this message from the district:

Chancellor Poertner Retires
     Chancellor Gary Poertner has announced his retirement effective today, July 1, 2016. He joined South Orange County Community College District in 1999 as Deputy Chancellor and retired in June of 2010. In December 2010 he returned to the district to serve as Chancellor. Vice Chancellor Debra Fitzsimons will serve as Acting Chancellor until further notice. A special meeting of the board will be scheduled for next week and more information will follow.

     Sheesh. Why would Gary "retire" so suddenly? Is his exit related to the obvious tensions exhibited at the last board meeting? Is a shakeup afoot?
     What's it all mean?
     (Supposedly, one can access the "streaming video" for the June 27 board meeting here. The link doesn't work for me. Could be a Mac vs. Windows issue. But if you get to the streaming video page,  click on the video for June 27, and then jump to item 6.1. The agenda language can be found here.)

P.S.:
ON THE OTHER HAND...
     A good friend and member of the district community tells me that it's like this: Saddleback College gets to spend its money the way it wants to and IVC gets to spend its money the way it wants to. And if Saddlebackians decide that building a Stadium 2.0 is the thing to do, well, then that's swell. "Live and let live," says the friend.
     I guess that makes sense.
     I still say that certain trustees constantly exhibit Saddlebackcentrism. But I hereby no longer object to Saddlebackians seeking to build a Stadium 2.0. That's their business, I guess. None of my business.
     Live and let live.