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The hideous spectre of
micromamummmmm.... |
(Please see
Board Meeting Highlights.)
From the looks of things (i.e., the agenda), this could be another minimalist meeting, but you never know....
6:00 p.m.: well, I've arrived, and there's no sign of the trustees. I'm lookin' over the room: I count three vividly green union shirts. Not much of a union presence.
6:02: The room is still pretty empty. Way over on the left, I see IVC's Academic Senate Prez (Kathy Schmeidler) conversing with IVC's VPI, Craig J, that notorious fellow.
The drive over here was lovely. A thousand years from now, I suspect I'll still remember these monthly late-Spring and Summer nights, driving to silly old board meetings. Such supererogation as this—covering BOT meetings—entails no pressures and few expectations. And, these days, meetings are short and sweet (well, they're short).
The air is clean and the sun is bright. I love it! Even caught a glimpse of a shimmering Pacific Ocean driving down Santiago Canyon/El Toro Rd. Wowza! As usual, I had great music on the stereo: the Gories, Cat Power, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Band of Horses, Detroit Cobras, the Kills, etc.
There was swoonage.
6:06: still no sign of trustees. I suspect that we won't be seeing Nancy (Padberg) anytime soon. Don't know where Jim Wright's been. I wonder if it will be another skeleton crew tonight?
(You realize, of course, that Nancy P is up for reelection this year—the election is just a few months away. Trustees seem to be hinting that Nancy will be back in the harness soon, but, from what I'm hearing, her recent injury was, well, significant. My mind is abuzz.)
6:11: Aha! David Lang has arrived.
6:14: Three (of the seven) trustees have arrived, including Jim Wright.
It's been a busy afternoon already for the BOT. Earlier, they had a
closed session to evaluate the Chancellor (Gary Poertner). Then they had their usual monthly closed session, where they discussed (I think) the fate of IVC's Director or Student Life,
Helen Locke.
6:16: Board Prez TJ Prendergast has arrived. No sign yet of Bill Jay or Marcia Milchiker. I am assuming that Nancy will be a no-show. (She's recovering from an injury.)
6:17: only four trustees? I guess that's a quorum.
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| T. Wedel |
6:17: They've started the meeting.
Anything to report out of closed session? No. (No actions taken.) (I notice that
Ray Chandos is in the audience. Perhaps he is here to support
Helen Locke, whose fate seemed to be on the closed session agenda. Locke, like Chandos, was a part of the core group of Raghu Mathur supporters back in the day [c. 1997]. Strictly Old Guard.)
Invocation by Lang: he mentions that jet liner that was shot down. Why not, I guess.
Public comments?
Dave Anderson: personal invitation here at SC, performances of
Godspell. Free to the public. Bring a picnic dinner.
That's it.
No resolutions, but two commendations:
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| P. Weekes |
SC's Tod Burnett comes up to recognize two "very very important people" and their pending retirement. Dean Flanagan and
Patti Weekes come up. Yacks about the tutoring center at SC. Gives examples of Patti's accomplishments. "Tremendous passion" for student success. "We're both soulmates," says the Todster. A small token of our appreciation. Applause. Photo op. She says, "I'm going to miss you all so much." Something about the way she says it makes the audience laugh. She's funny, I guess.
Next:
Terry Wedel, Director of College Broadcasting Services, is next. (He's been at SC for six years.) Blah blah blah. The radio station has listeners all over the world. KSBR has received many awards; a top station in its format. "Convergent media" seems to be the buzzword. Congrats! Photo op. He says: "I'm going to miss you too." Notes that it's hard to follow that wag Patti.
Board reports:
David Lang: no report. Uses his time to stand up to give Patti and Terry a standing O. We all do that. (This kinda warm 'n' fuzzy shit doesn't make up for your betrayal, ol' Davey Boy.)
Jim Wright: I'll miss Terry and Patti on campus. Congrats. "It's not so bad," he adds, speaking from experience, I suppose. Brags about an ACCA conference: the great Deans(?) program. How to be an effective dean. Creating successful faculty relations, etc. "I was honored to be there; I was on a panel." I visited Nancy Padberg, who is in Emeritus Senior Living in San Juan Cap. I attended "Hello Dolly," a wonderful production.
TJ Prendergast: congrats to retirees. "I don't know what that word 'retire' means." Laughter (TJ can be funny). Haven't had a chance to visit Nancy, but will do so. Mentions that, owing to the presence of 4 out of 7 trustees, the board
does indeed have a quorum. He mentions his status as a "government" teacher.
Tim Jemal: Terry and Patti, congrats. Very impressive what you've been able to do here. I also saw Nancy, and she looks great. We are looking forward to seeing her back here on the podium; we miss her dearly. Retreat last week at the "Duck Club": blah blah blah.
IVC #1 transfer rate in CA. Foundation laid down some ambitious goals. Will require sustained and significant leadership [well, in that case, we're in trouble, at least at IVC]. Gonna take a monumental effort; you'll want to be a part of that.
Student trustee Carillo: attended retreat. I do believe that these goals can be met. I will be joining triple CT(?) in San Francisco. I'll try to win the elections. Wish me luck. Hope for speedy recovery for Nancy P. (Garsh, what a self-important kid; yet another "resumé commando"?)
Chancellor's report (Gary Poertner): Chancellor's opening session is coming soon (Aug 12, a Tuesday). Featured speaker will be state chancellor
Bryce Harris, a wonderful speaker. Following that session will be a groundbraking ceremony for the A400 building (at IVC). We'll have a presentation from Student Success Taskforce today.
IVC VP Craig Justice (gives IVC report cuz Rocky is absent): nothing to add but congrats to Terry and Patti. "When you retire, you never get a day off," said Craig's father, evidently. Laughter.
SC's Todd Burnett: we're all entering our crunch time, beginning of new school year. Meeting our enrollment targets won't be easy. Want them back up to where they were. "Professional development week." Prez's faculty breakfast, etc. One more week left for "Hello Dolly."
...Miscellaneous further reports....
Board requests for reports:
Approval for requests. Lang comments: he alludes to some desire to make sure these requests are not "onerous" to staff, et al. Poertner says something, but I didn't listen. Motion for approval: unanimous (4 yes votes).
Discussion item 4.1: student success scorecard:
Denice Inciong, District Dir, Research, Planning &DataMgmt, speaks (with Caroline Durdella and Craig Hayward)
Discusses "new scorecard" and its "four layers."
See
Student Success Scorecard
Blah blah blah (and I mean that).
We're going to be looking at 5-years trends.
Student/counselor ratio. IVC:
1,004: 1, SC:
705: 1
Statewide:
719: 1. (And so IVC isn't doing so hot, I guess.)
Craig Hayward comes up to go over "metrics." (Planning and Accred guy at IVC.)
First metric:
overall completion rate. Consistent trend at both colleges. We're well above state averages.
State: 67%
IVC: 74%
SC: 74.6%
Overall persistence rates. State:
70.5% IVC: 71.7% SC: 76.2%
Math remedial progress rate (Caroline comes up):
Math remedial progress rate: state 30.6% SC: 40.4% IVC: 39.1%
Both SC and IVC perform above state average.
English remedial progress rate: State: 43.6 IVC: 53.5 SC: 62.4
ESL remedial progress rate: State 27.1 IVC: 20.1 SC: 19.2
Overall
CTE completion rate: State: 53.9 IVC: 54.3 SC: 53.8
(Def: Completed at least 8 units within a single CTE discipline.)
Overall: both colleges perform above state in 6 to 7 "metrics."
QUESTIONS?
Jemal: student counseling ratio. He has a couple of questions about IVC, etc.
IVC is 4th in the state re SPAR(?)[overall completion rate?]; SC is in the top 10. A question about writing 180/280 at IVC. Evidently, changes in these courses skewed the data in some way. Still trying to make sense of it.
Prendergast: who compiles the data? A: We have a system of reporting, everyone is required to use it, across the state. No further questions.
Next: Consent calendar items: anything to pull? Jemal: 5.7 and 5.9. Wright: 5.11. No other pulls. They vote to accept: unanimous (4 votes).
5.7 -
A400 development project (at IVC, Hum and Social Science Bldg.)(Design-build contract, our first.) Jemal: tell us rational for increase in dollar amount. Brandye D: yes, our first d-b project. We're learning some lessons. Items that were outside the original request/proposal. We need to define early in the process what is required of the contractor. Being our 1st experience, "there are some holes in it." We were not clear about aesthetic desires: adding brick, office doors, etc. Upgrading the roof would bring us to 30 year warranty (not just 20). At the end of the day, we'll have a better "value" (if this is approved). You'll see our per-square-foot price is
wonderful. This really is a best value approach. --No other requests to speak. Motion to approve. Vote: unanimous.
5.9 -
Institutional Memberships. Jemal: yes, really important. But let's make sure we're not paying "multiple dues" if we don't have to. It's not clear from this document if that's the case. Todd Burnett comments. We try to coordinate with the district, but we could do this "more precisely." Jemal is satisfied. Lang: some memberships can only occur "per college," so there will be some "natural overlap." They vote: unanimous approval.
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| Nurses rule |
5.11 -
Academic Calendar. Jim Wright: I have some concerns, in the spring 2016. We start after MLK B-day. Grad on May 24. How does this affect the vets,
nurses? I still worry about that. Burnett: blah blah blah. IVC's VP Justice speaks. He explains. Final exam days count as days of instruction. With regard to nursing issues, SC prevailed. SC Academic Senate: yes, those were key concerns. We've minimized impacts on those two programs. They can work with this. They advocated this approach. Wright: wouldn't starting a week earlier solve the problems? IVC Ac. Senate Prez: 1st, this went through extensive conversation with all parties. We followed the district policies with the relevant constituencies. Very collaborative. IVC has somewhat diff concerns. This was a compromise calendar. We had real problems with early start dates. We had interest in offering short courses in January. This is the minimal amount of time to try these projects. This is the compromise.
[Here we have a case of micromanagement. Groups are trying to tell Wright that all of his worries were very carefully considered; you're making us rethink what was already thought out very carefully, responsibly. Wright just isn't getting it.] Wright continues to be "concerned." SC's Werle is asked to speak: nursing needs to start earlier. Adjustments are being made; as result, some folks will work two weeks longer than the rest. TJ Prendergast: this is the third year of "making this shift (a new calendar)" He asks if things are working out. Schmeidler (of IVC): yes, we've had some issues, last two years. This "version" addressed those issues. IVC still had interest in a possible January session. Etc. No further requests to speak. They vote: unanimous.
5.11 - approved
6.2 - approved
6.3 - approved (air unit replacement)
6.4 - approved (lighting retrofit, IVC)
6.5 - approved (realignment, two schools at IVC)
6.6 - approved ("Fine arts" at IVC to "School of Arts")
6.7 - approved (board policy review - for discussion)
6.8 - approved (paying Padberg for missed meeting)
6.9 - approved (this time for Wright's absence last time) - Wright abstains, that counts as a "yes." "Thanks for playing," says TJ.
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| "Concerned" |
6.10 - approved (parking fees for Admin Classified). Wright: concerned, fee increased four-fold. Lang: my only concern, is under negotiation in contracts. Could create a disparity between groups. Must it be approved tonight? TJ loses track of what's been moved. So, must this be approved tonight? Burnett: the parking situation is "ongoing." We've been below average on parking fees for a long time. We've worked two years to get to this point. Students very involved in this, most supportive. Faculty are exempt because these fees are negotiated. My personal view: students shouldn't pay more than admins and managers. B: "It's not a lot of money": moving from $20 to $80. But, no, does not have to be decided tonight. But if we table, won't apply to Fall 2015. Student trustee: let's have additional report. I'm against students paying more than staff. I'd like a more thorough report. [
Micromanagement again?] Motion on table is to approve. (Jemal: if not accepted this evening, then put off until January? Burnett: no, will be put off for a year.) At both colleges, correct inclusive process was involved. The students have passed on this. Three yes, one no. Wright voted against it. They think about what the vote means: first, they decide that the motion fails; but no, they decide that the item PASSES. So the fee hike is in. Whew.
6.11 - no discussion. Passes unanimously.
6.12 - Academic Personnel Actions. Unanimous.
6.13 - Classified Personnal Actions. Unanimous.
Reports:
7.1 - "student trustee member election." Student trustee, a pompous fellow, comments.
7.2
7.3
7.4
7.5 - no comments.
Reports from admin. and governance groups:
7:33 - Blah, blah, blah.
—
I'm outa here.
Unconcerned
