Summary of the July 7, 2026 Board of Trustees Meeting

Published on Jul 7 2026

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that College of the Redwoods is located on the unceded territory of the Wiyot, Hupa, Karuk, Mattole, Tolowa, Wailaki, and Yurok people where they have resided from time immemorial. We encourage all to gain a deeper understanding of their history and thriving culture. As an expression of our gratitude we are genuinely committed to developing trusting, reciprocal, and long lasting partnerships with the Wiyot people as well as all of our neighboring tribes. 

Board Business

Board Vice President Dorn and Trustee Dr. Mullery, along with several of our faculty, staff and manager colleagues, a student, and a local community member have been engaging in the process of identifying my successor as President of College of the Redwoods. I know that hiring a new president is one of the most important decisions a Board of Trustees can make. As one of the longest serving community college presidents in the system and an experienced accreditation team chair having led several peer reviews, I have seen what happens when a community college does not hire a suitable president. 

I believe that the search committee, led by two outstanding Trustees, clearly understands that never has hiring the right person as president been more essential to the District’s collective future. 

I want to thank each member of the applicant review and interview committees for everything they have done. For those of you who have not participated in a presidential selection process, I will tell you that it is much more arduous and time-consuming than any other personnel search process. 

Vice President Dorn and Trustee Dr. Mullery facilitated a transparent discussion with the full Board on the search process and provided an in-person interview schedule.  You can find the schedule in the Board agenda. You can keep informed on the president search process via this link: President/Superintendent Search. 

Consent Calendar Action Items

The Board of Trustees approved 168 personnel-related items. Included in the agenda item was the approval to hire Grace Lacitinola and Jocelyn Ortega-Miranda as our new Early Childhood Education Assistant I staff colleagues. Four new faculty be with us when fall semester begins—Aaron Coyle (Assistant Professor of Counseling EOPS), Katie Woerner (Assistant Professor of Counseling EOPS), Amy Turpin (Assistant Professor of Nursing), and Brad Zwiefelhofer (Assistant Professor of Respiratory Care). 

In addition to welcoming six new faculty and staff colleagues to our college community, I want to acknowledge the reclassification of four classified staff and the employee change of status of four colleagues. Haley Cisneros was reclassified from Student Services Specialist II to Administrative Secretary II, Tamra Hoalton from Administrative Office Assistant to Administrative Secretary II, Theresa Lancaster-Huffman from Student Services Specialist to Administrative Secretary II, and Michael Murphy from Student Services Specialist II to Student Services Specialist III. 

The four colleagues whose employment status were changed are Joseph Glass from Instructional Support Specialist II – Automotive Tech, Range 114, Step 7, .50 FTE to Instructional Support Specialist II – Automotive Tech, Range 114, Step 8, .81 FTE; Bernadette Johnson from Professor of Counseling to Professor of Addiction Studies and Social Work and Human Services; Maria Merezko from Custodian I to Custodian II (Lead Custodian), and Leah Westbrook from Director, TRiO Success – Del Norte .50 FTE to Director, TRiO Success – Del Norte .80 FTE. 

By Board action at this meeting, Yvonne Cabrales will serve as our new associate faculty member in the Student Accessibility Support Services (SASS) department. Sadly, we have to say goodbye to Andrew Manning. Andrew resigned from his Fire Technology tenured track assistant professor position. After consulting with Academic Senate President Riggs, I directed Human Resources to conduct a search for Andrew’s replacement with the goal of the new faculty member hired for Spring 2027. 

The Board approved or ratified twenty-nine contracts, agreements, or MOUs at this meeting (agenda item 8.3). I want to briefly remark on one of the agreements. The Course Recovery Fee MOU between College of the Redwoods and the Humboldt Area Foundation/Wild River Community Foundation (HAF&WRCF) will help us increase enrollment and provide HAF&WRCF and its donors with an opportunity to “buy seats” in strategically critical Del Norte Campus courses which may be cancelled due to low enrollment. Under the MOU CR’s responsibilities include: Providing HAF+WRCF with the current breakeven cost of any course that HAF+WRCF is interested in preventing from being cancelled, along with the estimated amount HAF/WRF would need to pay for the course to continue, and invoicing HAF+WRCF after the course census date with the actual difference between the course cost and the revenue based on census date enrollment counts. HAF+WRCF will be responsible for consulting with the CR Del Norte Advisory Action Committee to make recommendations to HAF+WRCF on those scheduled Del Norte Center courses for which HAF+WRCF would like to receive Course Cost Recovery Fee support. HAF&WRCF will also be responsible for paying the difference between the cost of the course and the estimated revenue as per census day enrollment to prevent a course from being cancelled due to low enrollment. This MOU has the potential to make a significant impact on how we meet the needs of our Del Norte community. It is important to mention that all courses offered via this MOU will remain under the direction of the District. 

Action/Discussion Items

I recommended that the Board approve new salary schedules for our administrators, managers, and confidential staff, which included the 2.87% statutorily authorized SCFF COLA. I wanted our AMC colleagues to see their step and COLA reflected in their next paychecks. 

As you know, the Governor and the Legislature agreed on a state budget that included a 1.44% discretionary apportionment augmentation or “super COLA” to support AB 65 (Paid Pregnancy Disability Leave). At issue is that: 1) discretionary means that the COLA is not mandated by law; 2) receiving the discretionary or “super” COLA is conditional on the District implementing AB; and 3) the long-term fiscal and contract implications related to the discretionary “super” COLA are too unclear at this point in time. Additionally, I wonder whether the Legislature intended to make the 1.44% discretionary super COLA available for a specific purpose (e.g. to offset the costs of the mandatory 14 weeks of pregnancy disability leave). The trailer bills may provide answers to these questions. 

Informational Reports

Included in the Board’s self-evaluation discussion at their June meeting it was mentioned that the Trustees should discuss broad issues that may impact on the strategic direction of the District. To help the Board address this observation, I intend to include an “Issues in Education” agenda item in future Board meeting agendas. 

I asked Dr. Amy Moffat to be the first out of the gate and look at the math and English preparation of students in our service area. Here is a summary of Dr. Moffat’s findings. I encourage you to look at her report in the board agenda. The graphs tell the story. Here is a brief takeaway from the report.

• Statewide, 56.96% of Grade 11 students met or exceeded the English Language Arts (ELA)/Literacy standard, while 43.04% did not meet the standard. Within the CR service area, all three counties fell below the statewide met/exceeded rate. Humboldt County was closest to the state average, with 48.85% of students meeting or exceeding the standard. Del Norte County followed at 43.59%, while Trinity County had the lowest met/exceeded rate at 37.30%. Conversely, the share of students not meeting the standard was highest in Trinity County at 62.70%, followed by Del Norte County at 56.41% and Humboldt County at 51.16%. Taken together, these results suggest that Grade 11 ELA/Literacy achievement remains an area of need across the CR service area, with the largest gaps appearing in Trinity and Del Norte counties. 
• Statewide, 30.49% of Grade 11 students met or exceeded the mathematics standard, while 69.50% did not meet the standard. Across the CR service area, mathematics performance was below the statewide rate in all three counties. Humboldt County reported the highest percentage of students meeting or exceeding the standard at 23.07%, followed by Trinity County at 21.95% and Del Norte County at 14.39%. Correspondingly, the percentage of students not meeting the standard ranged from 76.93% in Humboldt County to 85.61% in Del Norte County, with Trinity in the middle at 78.05%.
• Compared with English Language Arts/Literacy results, mathematics achievement was substantially lower across both the state and the CR service area. The gap between statewide and county-level performance was most pronounced in Del Norte County, where the share of students meeting or exceeding the standard was less than half of the statewide rate. This indicates that mathematics remains a significant area of need throughout the region, with relatively few Grade 11 students achieving proficiency compared with statewide outcomes. As with other county-level results, differences in cohort size, particularly in Del Norte and Trinity counties, should be considered when interpreting the data.
• Across both subject areas, a consistent pattern emerges showing that socioeconomically disadvantaged students are less likely to meet or exceed state standards than their non-disadvantaged peers. This achievement gap is evident statewide and consistently across each of the service area counties. Mathematics outcomes are particularly concerning, with fewer than one-third of socioeconomically disadvantaged students meeting or exceeding standards statewide and substantially lower rates observed across the service area counties. These findings underscore the significant role that socioeconomic factors continue to play in student achievement and highlight ongoing equity challenges throughout the region. 

Dr. Moffat provided three key observations.

• Key Observation #1: Within-county equity gaps Trinity County shows the largest socioeconomic achievement gap in ELA/Literacy. Among Grade 11 students in Trinity County, 63.63% of non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students met or exceeded ELA standards, compared with just 27.96% of socioeconomically disadvantaged students, a gap of 35.67 percentage points, the largest observed across all counties and statewide comparisons.
• Key Observation #2: Mathematics is the greatest area of need. Mathematics achievement is substantially lower than ELA/Literacy for socioeconomically disadvantaged students Across every geography, socioeconomically disadvantaged students performed considerably worse in Mathematics than in ELA/Literacy. Statewide, only 21.04% of socioeconomically disadvantaged Grade 11 students met or exceeded Mathematics standards, compared with 48.66% in ELA/Literacy. Similar patterns were observed in Del Norte (13.96% vs. 37.91%), Humboldt (17.38% vs. 41.45%), and Trinity (15.73% vs. 27.96%). 
• Key Observation #3: Regional performance challenges extend beyond poverty alone non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the CR service area counties still trail statewide peers Achievement gaps are not limited to socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Even among non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students, the CR service area counties generally perform below statewide levels. The most striking example is Del Norte County mathematics, where 15.21% of non-socioeconomically disadvantaged students met or exceeded standards compared with 46.98% statewide, a difference of 31.77 percentage points.

Organizational and Administrative Reports

In her report, Academic Senate President Wendy Riggs informed the Board that the Academic Senate is continuing to discuss artificial intelligence and test proctoring. Management Council President Leigh Dooley congratulated Amber Cavanaugh and Jordan Walsh for serving as the new Management Council Leadership Team. CSEA President Rachel Warze’s written report spoke to the outstanding work our classified colleagues perform for the District. She also used the opportunity to invite the Board to provide classified employees with the same percentage salary increases as faculty.

I will not comment on Rachel’s invitation to the Board since that may be construed as addressing bargaining matters outside of the established negotiations process. However, I want to state unequivocally that the administration knows that the success of the District is built upon having all classified staff, faculty, managers, and administrators feeling valued for their contributions and working together.

I also want to reiterate again that the administration is very aware that all our employees are experiencing the effects of inflation and rising costs. Every day, my thoughts go to all our employees as we see prices for essential goods and services, durable goods, and perishable goods rise higher compared to pre-pandemic levels. I also recognize that rising costs affect employees and their families in different ways, and that these pressures are felt across the District.

My written administrative report mentioned the Chronicle of Higher Education essay by Mr. Tyler Jagt on June 1, 2026 titled My Students Can’t Read and the article published in The Daily Californian on June 12, 2026 about a UC Berkeley Humanities professor’s struggle with unprepared students The Daily Californian. I included these two articles in my report because they align with the Dr. Amy Moffat’s English and Math Preparation information report showing the challenges facing our school system in preparing students for higher education and to thoughtful critical thinking members of society. The question we must engage in is how the College can enhance support for all our students without leaving students who find themselves not quite ready for the rigors of higher education behind or stuck in the remedial education loop. In my verbal comments, I noted that Dr. Tatum Loso will discuss the work of the artificial intelligence ad hoc committee at the August 4th Board meeting. I also mentioned that I asked Dr. Moffat to create an “onboarding document” for the new president that highlights the accomplishments of the District and lays out the challenges CR will face in the future. The document will be aligned with the accreditation standards.

Marty Coelho’s report noted that the Foundation received a second gift from Dave and Gaby Somerville to support content development for the college's new healthcare programs and secured community partnerships for CR's Mobile Simulation & Healthcare Education Unit. Marty also noted that he recently connected with CR alumnus Mr. Bill Keith, co-founder and former CEO of Perfect Snacks. Bill attended Hoopa Valley High School before enrolling at College of the Redwoods, where he played basketball and studied business. Under 

Bill’s leadership, Perfect Snacks grew into one of the nation's leading nutrition brands. Its flagship product, Perfect Bar, is the No. 1-selling refrigerated protein bar in the United States and is sold in more than 27,000+ retail locations nationwide. Since retiring as CEO following the sale of a majority interest in Perfect Snacks, Bill has remained active as an entrepreneur through his newest venture, Greenfat. The Foundation is exploring opportunities to reconnect Bill with College of the Redwoods and has invited him to visit CR and speak with our students.