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Published on 9/30/2018.

Board Business. I presented an off agenda item--CSEA Retirement Incentive--at the beginning of the meeting. Because the Brown Act requires posting of the agenda packet 72 hours prior to the meeting, I was unable to include this particular item in the agenda because budget implication information was not known until the end of day on Monday (October 1).  Additionally, it could not wait until the November meeting because the retirement date for those who accepted the incentive was set, by negotiation, as October 31, 2018  The Board approved adding it to the agenda as agenda item 3.7. All of the Trustees were given a paper copy of the item, and there were additional copies provided for the public.

Public Comments: KTIS student, Elizabeth Campbell, commented on the need to provide food options for students at the KT site.

Member Comments: Trustee Biggin commented on her attendance at the CCCT Board meeting. I’ve attached a document to this blog article that summarizes the information she shared with the Board.

Trustee Kelley commented on his attendance at the Redwoods Regional Housing Summit meeting. He encouraged the Board and the District to implement actions to address student house insecurity.

Board Vice President Emad appointed Trustees Mathews, Biggin, and Deister to the Ad Hoc Committee on Nominations for Board Officers.

Approve/Ratify Personnel Actions.  The Trustees approved or ratified the hiring of nine new classified (CSEA) colleagues. The general fund will fund the compensation for four new classifed employees: Ronald Beldsoe as the Public Safety Officer (Eureka), Heather Hammers and Amy Miller as Account Clerk IIIs (Eureka); and Taryn Whitaker as the new Student Services Specialist II in Financial Aid (Eureka).

Our categorical or auxiliary moneys will fund the salary and benefits for five new classified staff: Emma Cardono as the .86 FTE Student Services Specialist II – Counseling (Eureka); Irene Gonzalez-Herrera as the new Administrative Office Assistant II, Foster Care/Multicultural and Diversity Center (Eureka); Santa Herrera as a new .47 FTE Student Services Specialist I – TRiO (Eureka); Michael Shawn Murphy as the Student Services Specialist II – EOPS (Eureka); and Courtney Wilkinson as a new .48 FTE ECE Assistant I (Eureka).

We welcome 23 new Associate Faculty to our college community:  Diane Caudillo – Counseling (Eureka); Brandon Coborn – Kinesiology (Eureka); Breauna DeMatto – Counseling (Klamath-Trinity); Katie Gourd-Ascencio – Nursing (Eureka); Laurel Jean – English (Eureka);  David Klapheck – Mathematics (Eureka); Kay Lee – Nursing (Eureka); Kimberly Lien – Nursing (Eureka); Erin Long – LVN (Del Norte); Oldooz Mohammadi – Communication Studies (Virtual);  Celene Molina – Nursing (Eureka); Owen Moore – Interdisciplinary Basic Skills: Noncredit (Eureka);  Nora Mounce – Anthropology (Eureka); Terrin Musbach – Interdisciplinary Basic Skills: Noncredit (Del Norte); May Patino – Anthropology (Eureka; Timothy Pearson – Communication Studies (Eureka); Kathryn Reymore – Nursing (Eureka);  Andrew Rix – Interdisciplinary Basic Skills: Noncredit (Eureka); Nicole Ryks – Spanish (Eureka); Silas Sarvinski – Agriculture Production (Eureka); Isadora Sharon – Anthropology (Eureka); Erica Silver – General Studies and Counseling (Del Norte); and Edward Waples – Nursing (Eureka).

Also approved was the change of employee status of Jose Serrano from the Administrative Office Coordinator in Business Services position to the Human Resources Development Analyst position.

The Trustees ratified the resignations of Jorge Herrera from a Public Safety Officer position effective September 28 and Jack Surmani from the Custodian I-Evening position as of October 2, 2018. Also ratified was the retirement of English Professor Susan Nordlof. Professor Nordlof’s last day of employment will be May 18, 2019.

Approve Curriculum Changes. The Board approved the revision/non-substantial changes for 13 courses, the inactivation of 2 courses and the adding 7 new distance education courses to our curriculum inventory. Also approved were three new courses: Colonial Latin American History; Modern Latin American History and Tiny House Construction.  As Dr. Hill noted in her informational report, the Latin American History courses will help expand CR’s multicultural and diversity offerings for students. Additionally, the Tiny House Construction course is a collaboration between the Construction Technology, Art, and Welding departments to teach different aspects of sustainable design centered on tiny houses.

Approve Contracts/Agreements/MOUs. The Trustees approved several contracts and agreements. I want to highlight five of the contracts:

• Chancellor of the California Community Colleges: The Chancellor’s Office will act on behalf of the District for the purpose of collecting outstanding student financial aid and proper non-financial aid obligations owed to the District. We’ll give 25% of the money collected to the Chancellor’s Office.
• Dr. Barbara Stroud: Dr. Barbara Stroud will provide the Child Development Center staff with training on topics including culture and diversity, self-reflection and trauma impact, and dyadic interventions for children ages 0-5. The $2,500 fee for the traiing will be paid the EHS-CCP Grant.
• Condensed Curriculum International (CCI): This contract is for CCI to provide health care training, books and materials for the instruction in the areas of Pharmacy Technician (50 hours) and Medical Billing and Coding (80 hours). Dates, times, and other class details will be determined later. The $25,000 cost will be borne by State block grants.
• Dean Davison, Fortuna Technical Solutions, LLC: This is a limited service agreement with Dean Davison (July 1, 2018-October 30, 2018) to close out several Measure Q and Prop 38 facilities related projects.
• Opal Productions: This is a professional service agreement for Opal Productions to provide Social Media Management on two social platforms (Facebook and Instagram) with the goal of increasing student engagement on those platforms. State block grant, Strong Workforce Regional YR2 funds will pay the $6,000.00 fee.
• Wells Commercial Real Estate & Investment: This is an agreement for the exclusive right for Dave Wells to represent CR for sale or lease of the Life Science Building and Physical Science Building. Dave Wells will get 6% of cumulative value of a lease agreement.

Trustees Dorn and Kelley asked questions related to the Woods Pest Control, Mr. Jack Flynn, Wells Commercial Real Estate, and the City of Eureka contracts. I committed to follow-up on their questions.

First Read of Board Policy. The Trustees executed a first read on Board Policy 2520. A small non-substantial revision was made to the original Board Policy. California Code of Regulations Section 53206 was added as a reference.

Monthly Financial Status Report. The Monthly Financial Status Report covered the period of uly 1, 2018 to August 31, 2018 and showed a projected 2018-19 ending fund balance of 6.3%.  Our planned transfers include:

• $  90,000 Child Development Center
• $  95,762 Shively Farm
• $250,000 OPEB fund
• $435,762 Total

Approve Six-month Report on equivalencies to Minimum Qualifications.  The Board ratified the equivalency of Carole Lewis for the Yurok Language discipline.

Accreditation Update. Dr. Hill, as our Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO), updated the Trustees on the progress we’re making on our Follow-Up Report. She noted that the Follow-Up report, due to the ACCJC on March 1, 2019, has been drafted. She wrote that although additional evidence will be added to the draft prior to March, enough evidence already exists to adequately address the one compliance recommendation.

Institutional Effectiveness Report. The Institutional Effectiveness Report was presented to the Board for discussion. The report documented the status of the action items from the 2017-2018 Annual Plan. The 2018-2019 Annual Plan was also included in the report. Special thanks to Paul Chown, our Director of Institutional Research, for putting this report together.

Trustee Kelley asked a question related to a non-credit student orientation (see the fourth paragraph on page 3 of the Report). I committed to look into this issue.

Approve The Early Retirement Incentive Program. The Trustees approved the recommendation to extend the early retirement to the six employees. Based on the number of employees (five classified staff and one manager) who had requested to participate in this early retirement incentive, we were satisfied that the program would be economically feasible. The retirements would result in approximately $538,158.64 in savings to the District without considering replacements.  The estimated replace cost is $362,066.97, for an expected overall savings to the District of about $176,091. The names of the employees will be disseminated in a public setting in November.

Organizational Report: STUDENT TRUSTEE.  Student Trustee Phillips reported that ASCR is going to allocate $3,000 for the KT food pantry project and are considering funding a Del Norte food pantry.

Administrative Report: President/Superintendent Report.  My written comments consisted of a reprinted September 16, 2018 Times Standard article titled "With few tuition fees, College of the Redwoods students breathe easy" that focused on CR's tuition access program. 

I asked Melissa Ruiz to speak to the work being conducted by our colleagues at the KT site. She commented that her grant was renewed for five years. She also extended an invitation to the Trustees to attend the mid-semester celebration on October 30.

Administrative Report: Vice President of Instruction Report. Angelina’s administrative report drew the Trustees attention to the three new courses—Colonial Latin American History, Modern Latin American History, and Tiny House Construction—recently approved by the Academic Senate.  Angelina also spoke to the task force that will assess the bookstore operations and make recommendations for improvement, the planning for the new Creative Arts Building, and the points associated with different parts of the new funding formula.

Administrative Report: Vice President of Administrative Services Report. Julia’s report commented on the work of the Budget Planning Revision Task Force, the Budget Open Forums and upcoming Business Office trainings.

Administrative Report: Vice President of Student Development Report. Joe’s report spoke to the September 20 transfer day and the September 28 Native American Day Celebration. Both events were held on the Eureka Campus.  Pictures of Transfer Day can be viewed at this link:  https://www.times-standard.com/2018/09/20/cr-students-explore-transfer-possibilities/ and video at this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcf5V9wBKdg.

He also informed the Trustees of the October 31 Halloween Talent Showcase sponsored by the Multicultural Center and the Del Norte and Eureka TRiO program’s October 4-6 visit San Francisco State, CSU East Bay, and UC Berkeley. 

Administrative Report: Director of Human Resources. Wendy’s report noted the increase in the number of professional development opportunities offered.

 Approve a Trustee Request to Place an item on a Future Agenda. The Trustees reiterated their desire for an update on the Del Norte science lab project.