Brief Summary of the June 3, 2025 Regular Meeting of the Board of Trustees
Published on Jun 3 2025I want to provide a quick summary of the June 3, 2025 Regular Meeting. I only touched on a few items. I refer you to the minutes of this meeting if you want to know the details of each specific agenda item.
Before I begin the summary, I want to congratulate Dalila Shelton-Vandergrift for her election, and subsequent swearing in today, as our new student trustee for the upcoming academic year.
Consent Calendar Action Items
The Trustees approved my recommendation to hire Shiela Hall as our new Manager of Counseling & Advising. Sheila’s compensation will be borne by grant funds. The Board also supported the reclassification of Jordan Kauffman from Account Clerk III to Account Clerk IV and Amador Renteria from Technology Specialist I to Technology Specialist II.
I want to acknowledge the employee change of status of seven of our colleagues: Michelle August from Payroll Technician to Senior Payroll Technician, Ryan Bisio from Assistant Director of Athletics, to Interim Director of Athletics, Nicole Bryant Lescher from Director of Pathways to Professor of English, Anna Duffy from Senior Enrollment Services Operations Analyst to Manager of Financial Aid, Katelynn Towns from Administrative Office Coordinator –Dual Enrollment to Administrative Office Coordinator – Maintenance/Facilities, Gustavo Vasquez from Learning Technology to Instructional Technologist, and Rachel Warze from Administrative Office Coordinator – Academic Affairs to Administrative Office Coordinator – Fire Technology.
The pre-retirement workload reduction for Professor of Life Science Dr. Karen Reiss to 50 percent effective in the next academic year was also supported.
Consent Calendar Action Items
The Board approved our Tentative Budget at this meeting. Our 2025-26 Final Budget will be presented to the Board on September 2, 2025 once the Legislature and the Governor reach agreement on the final State budget.
Here is some background:
· We based the Tentative Budget on the assumptions presented in the Governor’s May Revised Budget.
· At the time the Governor’s May Revise was released revenues for the State were coming in higher than expected for 2023-24 and 2024-25. However, 2025-26 revenues are anticipated to be lower than the estimates that were included in the January Budget proposal resulting in a $12 billion state budget deficit for the budget year.
· While the revenue outlook continues to look uncertain moving forward given the current economic environment, the May Revise budget proposal includes no major reductions for Community Colleges and a 2.3% COLA for the Student-Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) and for select Categorical Programs, 2.35% for SCFF Growth, and a few one-time categorical dollars. To help balance out the impact of the potential underperforming revenues, the May Revise also reflects a conservative budgeting approach on the part of the Governor.
· Due to the decline in enrollment during the pandemic, we chose to participate in the Chancellor's Office Emergency Conditions Allowance for FTES that allowed us to use 2019-20 FTES for 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 in the SCFF calculation. So, set the 2019-20 FTES as a goal for 2024-25.
· We implemented several strategies to restore FTES, including outreach and recruitment efforts, strategic enrollment management, the return of Football, and the addition of Wrestling and Rodeo to the Athletics program. I am very pleased to report that, because of these efforts, our current 2024-25 FTES is 3,862, which surpasses the target of 3,781 by 81 FTES.
· We will do everything we can to ensure that the District’s enrollment continue to grow in 2026-27 and into the near future. This includes continued outreach, recruitment, and retention efforts as well as the launching of new and expansion of existing academic programs. The operationalization of new facilities such as the new Eureka Student Housing project, Physical Education Gym and Fieldhouse, the Del Norte Healthcare Education Training Center, finishing the community stadium project, and building home baseball and softball fields on the Eureka Campus are also considered important contributors for growth in enrollment.
· The Business Office and Institutional Research have been working closely to finetune enrollment projections/targets to better support strategic enrollment management. As a result, we now have FTES projections/targets through 2028-29 by location and FTES category. The next step will be to assign FTES targets to each academic division.
Informational, Organizational, and Administrative Reports
Kelly O’day, Ryan Bisio, and Bob Brown provided a great overview of our Rodeo Program. As a reminder, we hired local rodeo riders Kelly and his wife, Gianna, as our new head coaches for the Rodeo team. Kelly O'Day is a graduate of Ferndale High School and has deep roots in the local community and a long background in rodeo. At Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Kelly earned both a bachelor’s degree in animal science and a master's degree in Agricultural Education while competing on the university's rodeo team. Known for his skills in steer wrestling, Kelly qualified for the National College Finals twice and began competing professionally during his college years, winning the Brawley Rodeo in 2016 and earning his professional rodeo card the same year. Gianna O'Day grew up in Santa Rosa, where she competed in junior high and high school rodeo before attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. There, she earned a bachelor's degree in BioResource and Agricultural Engineering while competing in all four women's rodeo events. Since graduating, Gianna has been making her mark in professional rodeo, with accomplishments including the 2022 Resistol Rookie Champion, 2022 Redmond Champion, and a 4th place finish in the Average at the 2022 NFR Playoff Series Finale. Gianna has qualified for the California Circuit Finals for the past two years and is looking to bring her expertise to the CR rodeo program.
I recognized Vice President Julia Morrison for her selection to participate in the third annual cohort of California Community College leaders for the Wheelhouse Advancing Leaders Institute. The selection process was very competitive. This cohort group will bring together twenty-eight vice presidents, vice chancellors, and other senior leaders from across California state who aspire to CEO positions or who are CEO-curious. I also recognized Crystal Morse for her selection by the Chancellor’s Office to participate in the Climate Fellows Program. This is a two-year commitment to support statewide level climate work. The fellows will focus on four key areas: community engagement, curriculum development, workforce and campus facilities.
Academic Senate President Erin Wall wrote in her report that the Senate approved College and Career Access Pathways template agreement and Resolution 2025-5 Reaffirming their Commitment to the Educational Master Plan at their last meeting of the academic year. CSEA President Rachel Warze thanked the Management Council for hosting the two classified staff appreciation barbeques and acknowledged the work that went into the graduation and end-of-year celebrations. Management Council President Morgan Solem announced that Leigh Dooley will step into the role of President, Courtney Sousa as Vice President, and Amber Cavanaugh as Secretary in next year.
In my administrative report I mentioned that I received Academic Senate Resolution 2025-5 Reaffirming our Commitment to the Educational Master Plan on Friday, May 16, 2025 and responded to the resolution on May 18, 2025. In my response, I stated that the
Board of Trustees and I agree with the Senate that the entire Education Master Plan and specifically, Initiative 6 is vital the institution. We also stand with the Senate in affirming academic freedom. I have repeatedly stated, both in open session board meetings and in media statements, that the CR Board of Trustees and Administration will resist all political attacks on institutional autonomy and academic freedom and steadfastly stand against any move to abridge the right of faculty to engage in free inquiry and discuss their ideas in the classroom without fear of censorship. Furthermore, we will not allow external political forces to dictate what our faculty—who are trained scholars and disciplinary experts—are permitted to teach, research, or discuss. To do so would be to betray the very mission of higher education, which is to foster critical inquiry, pursue truth, and defend intellectual freedom as essential to a democratic society. Julia Morrison shared that the final work on the track is just about done. The track should be ready for use by July 10. Crystal Morse noted that a Deans Summit for all the instructional deans will be held on July 14-17, 2025. The summit will focus on professional learning, planning for academic years 2025-26 and 2026-27, as well as leadership development and community building. Crystal also mentioned that the College will host an Indigenous Language Institute from August 10-14 on the Eureka campus. In conjunction with the 2025 Live Your Language Alliance (LYLA) conference, a group of local, regional and statewide experts in language revitalization will be invited to share their expertise with community language learners and teachers, as well as language preservation/revitalization professionals. Both the conference and the language institute aim to support ongoing preservation and revitalization of the indigenous languages, cultures, and identities of our surrounding tribal communities. A press release and details about the event is forthcoming. Marty Coelho’s report noted that he is collaborating with a local family to establish a scholarship for nursing students who are heads of households with children and are pursuing nursing as a second career and dental assisting students who are also heads of households. Marty also mentioned that the Northern California Indian Development Council (NCIDC) and the Humboldt County Office of Education (HCOE) are generously supporting CR’s second annual Native American Running Camp with significant financial contributions and the Foundation has purchased a memorial bench in remembrance of Miles Mackey, one of CR’s founding science instructors.
Future Agenda Items
The Board requested that four topics be included in their August workshop agenda: Staying in touch with future needs of the district, maintaining academic freedom and a safe, welcoming environment for all campuses/sites, reflecting on how to remain a non-partisan board, and supporting broader discussions on issues.