January 24, 2014 Meeting
Agenda
TAFT COLLEGE
Governance Council
January 24, 2014 12:10 pm – 2:00 pm
Cougar Room
Facilitator: Bruce Ferguson
Recorder: Kanoe Bandy
Timekeeper: Brandy Cramer
Minutes: Debbie Hegeman
1. Grants Update (led by Agnes Eguaras) 30 minutes
2. Report on the Governor’s Budget for 2014-15 20 minutes
and Budget Committee Report (led by Brock McMurray)
3. Report from the Strategic Planning Committee (led by Eric Berube ) 15 minutes
4. Legislation and Policy News (led by Dena) 15 minutes
5. Developments with the Student Success and Access Committees 20 minutes
(led by Darcy Bogle and Mark Williams)
6. Discussion regarding meeting schedule for Spring Term 10 minutes
(led by Tony Thompson)
Next Meeting: TBD (the Second Friday of February is a Holiday)
Call for:
Facilitator
Recorder
Time Keeper
Minutes
Governance Council Minutes January 24, 2014
Members Present: Sheri Black, Darcy Bogle, Kamala Carlson, Brandy Cramer, Greg Golling, Victoria Jacobi, Dena Maloney, Brock McMurray, Velda Peña, Laura Riss, Sonja Swenson and Tony Thompson. Members Absent: Kanoe Bandy, Sharyn Eveland and Bruce Ferguson Guests: Agnes J. Eguaras and Eric Bérubé
| Facilitator: | Tony Thompson |
| Recorder: | Greg Golling |
| Timekeeper: | Brandy Cramer |
| Minutes: | Debbie Hegeman |
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting held January 10, 2014 were approved by consensus.
Agenda item #6 was moved to #1 during the meeting. Meeting Schedule for Spring Term (led by Tony Thompson)
The Governance Council committee currently meets twice a month, the 2nd and 4th Fridays. The question raised is whether or not both meetings are necessary every month. The committee agreed the
2nd
Friday of each month should be the mandatory meeting and the 4th Friday of the month will be scheduled as needed. The committee will be notified in advance if the 4th Friday meeting is not necessary. The committee agreed February 28th would be the mandatory meeting for February since February 14th is a holiday.
We also discussed the topics the council would like discuss between now and the end of the term. Some suggestions were to hear reports from the Safety Committee, the Educational Master Plan Committee, a budget update after the May revise and the Facilities Committee at least twice a year.
A request for clarification on changing the rankings of non-personnel items on the Program Review was made.
Agenda Item #1. Grants Update (led by Agnes Eguaras)
Agnes presented a “Grants at Taft College” power point presentation (attached to official minutes and available on-line). The presentation covered information related to the three Title V HSI Grants we currently have on campus:
- A) Quest for Success Grant (QFS) – 5 year grant (Oct. 1, 2010 to Sept. 30, 2015)
- B) Pathway to STEM Degree Completion Grant (Pathways) – 5 year grant (Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2016)
- C) Pipeline to Computer, Engineering and Energy Degrees STEM Grant (CEED) – 5 year grant (Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2016)
Governance Council Meeting January 24, 2014 Page 2 of 4
The power point covers objectives and accomplishments for each grant. The grants give the opportunity to collect and analyze data to develop successful programs and new programs for the Student Success Act as well as the opportunity to collaborate across campus.
Agnes reported some lessons learned since the grants inception are the need to align programs and services with the grant objectives, develop clear pathways for students toward success, increase faculty and staff professional development opportunities, build stronger partnerships with high schools, universities and the community. She also mentioned strengthening collaboration/communication as well as developing clear process as and procedures for budgeting. Building stronger awareness across campus about roles, the benefits of grants and developing strategic and effective plans for sustaining programs when grant funds are exhausted was also listed.
Agnes stated that sustaining positions which have been created by the grant funds is a challenge. We need to create structure, capacity, and sustainability in the planning stage in order to avoid losing positions after grant funds have been exhausted. For future grants, Agnes proposed creating a team to review the programs first, then go out and get the money to support the program. We need to do the planning up front and to pursue grants when we have a clear goal and shared understanding of what we hope to achieve.
Agenda Item #2. Report on the Governor’s Budget for 2014/2015 and Budget Committee Report (led by Brock McMurray)
Brock and Dena traveled to Sacramento for the Governor’s _udget update. (A detailed report attached to official minutes and on-line) Brock reminded the committee where we were 14 months ago when we were unsure of whether Proposition 30 would pass or not. The budget for 14/15 reflects the most significant increases since the start of the recession. The economy is looking up and the community colleges are very fortunate as the state is now able to re-invest in education.
Some of the state budget key points were: increased revenues of $1.7 billion; additional revenues in current budget year of $2.9 billion; state wide revenues projected to be at $106.1 billion; and stock market primary factors are generating new revenues.
What this means to community colleges is: COLA; Access/Growth, however we are not in line for these funds since we took the small college exemption; Student Success money $100 million; underrepresented students $100 million; Deferred Maintenance of approximately $109,000 and Instructional Equipment of $175 million; Innovation $50 million which is new funds earmarked for higher education; Prop. 39 (our portion approximately $80K, these are energy efficiencies funds; deferrals $592.4 million which will be used to catch up payments to schools on deferrals; rainy day fund;
RD!’s $35.6 million which is redevelopment agency funds (doesn’t affect us); _hancellor’s office $1.1
million for staff and $2.5 million for technical assistance; possible additional funding in the May revise.
Some of the threats and issues to the budget are volatility in the stock market, the state drought, the unfunded liability with STRS and the state debt/state education bonds.
The Budget Committee did not meet for their normal monthly meeting therefore no report at this time.
Governance Council Meeting January 24, 2014 Page 3 of 4
Agenda Item #3. Strategic Planning Report (Let by Eric Bérubé)
The Strategic Planning Committee is scheduled to meet on January 31, 2014. Eric shared his goals for this committee:
- Get the integrated planning model up and running by the end of the 2014 spring semester.
- Comprehensive program review process established.
- Develop and implement performance indicators to monitor the strategic plan.
Eric will continue to provide Strategic Planning Committee updates at the Governance Council meetings.
Agenda Item #4. Legislation and Policy News (Led by Dena Maloney)
Dena distributed a document outlining the legislative update (copy attached to official minutes as well as on-line). She stated the budget doesn’t include big policy changes like last year. As for Adult Education, the proposal does not allocate any additional funding this year however we could see additional funding in the 2015/16 budget. As for growth, multiple task forces have looked at the growth formulas which look mostly at high school graduation rates. The current growth formula is being reviewed and new growth factors are being considered.
The Governor is also committed to a Rainy Day Fund which would allocate funds to the reserve account when capital gains revenues are greater than 6.5% of general fund tax revenues. The funding would only be shifted when there is sufficient funding to cover COLA and growth.
Three bills proposed:
- AB 548 – Repeal a law that allows multi-screening criteria for nursing students – this law will sunset. Bill proposed to extend law. Might affect Dental Hygiene.
- AB 977 – This bill will look at differential funding of CTE programs and the high cost associated with these courses.
- AB 1271 – This bill reviews the possibility of correctional institutions waiving open access requirements. This will allow the BOG to include FTE in classes to be funded at regular credit rate. Classes are currently funded at non-credit rate = paid less.
Agenda Item #5. Developments with the Student Success and Access Committees (Led by Darcy Bogle and Mark Williams)
Darcy reported the Student Success Committee had a good turnout for their first meeting during in-service. The committee consists of the former Matriculation Steering group. They reviewed the new student success program standards and expectations of what needs to be done from now to 2016. Darcy’s goal is to have a small working group that pulls in other resources as needed with the larger committee meeting twice a year during in-service.
The goal of the Student Success program is to ensure all students complete college courses, promote open access, student equity and achievement, support open access, students reaching their educational goals and enhance success.
Governance Council Meeting January 24, 2014 Page 4 of 4
The program is due to begin during October 2014. Darcy has been working with the Access Committee looking at enrollment as well as what courses are needed and how many sections. She is working to link the instructional side with the student services side and looking at data is part of this. The plan is to mesh the Student Equity Plan with the Student Success Program. This will drive our funding. We do not have a charter yet. As for funding, Darcy is working with all areas to make sure we capitalize where we can. She has met with Sherry Anderson to review reports which could give us some idea on where we might be with funding however we haven’t captured all the necessary data in Banner to date. We will update the MIS form and have a better idea when that is done. The funding should not be significantly less but she is reviewing our core services to see how we can document those and capitalize on funding for them.
The question was raised about WESTEC and if we can capitalize on the services provided there. Darcy shared they did classroom visits last semester. We need a tracking system so our numbers are accurate as well as computerized orientation to track information. There is a workshop coming up that will hopefully shed some light on agreements with programs similar to WESTEC. Exemptions are another piece that can be looked at for WESTEC. Pre-enrollment services have not been reviewed.
Next Meeting: February 28, 2014 Time: 12 noon to 2 p.m. Where: Cougar Room
Facilitator Vicki Jacobi Recorder Darcy Bogle Time Keeper Brandi Cramer
Respectfully submitted by:
Debbie Hegeman