The Board held its annual start of fall semester workshop today. It was made clear again today that we are extremely lucky to have these seven trustees as strategic partners with us as we work on long term planning issues and short-term crises management. 

I come away from every Board meeting extremely impressed of how high functioning and effective our Board is. Each trustee brings his or her own unique and individual gifts and thoughts to Board discussions. Our trustees ask great questions, demonstrate a clear understanding of the Board/CEO roles and responsibilities, and is fully engaged in the right ways. 

Here’s a brief summary of the meeting today.

The discussion of our budget forecast was pulled from the agenda. A discussion of the budget forecast will be included in the final budget document that I will recommend to the Board for approval at its September 1 meeting. It’s critically important that we understand that our budget is very uncertain because the budget outlook for the state is uncertain. The assumptions we've relied on the build our budgets in the past are very fluid today.

I want to thank Dr. Angelina Hill and Ms. Cathy Cox for facilitating the discussion of the Open Education Resources (OER) Initiative. They did a fabulous job educating the trustees on the nuances of the OER and highlighting the great work our faculty have done to make educational materials readily available to our students.

The Trustees had a very robust discussion about their 2019-21 goals. In the end, the Board agreed to: 1) add language to their goals relative to reviewing all of the board policies and administrative procedures in the 1000 and 2000 sections through the lens of equity and inclusiveness; and 2) revise some of the language under the fiscal solvency goal. The final goals will be included in the minutes found under the consent section in the September board meeting.

The final item today was a discussion of how we can address the problem of structural racism.  I am extremely proud that our trustees are willing to stand together to address this insidious problem and to help us employ a more diverse staff and faculty. Our Board knows that the lack of diversity at the college is antithetical to our central mission. They know that students of color benefit from exposure to faculty who share similar characteristics, such as race or ethnicity.  Furthermore, they also understand that the institution as a whole will benefit from the broader perspectives that a diverse faculty brings to the district.

In closing I want to share with the entire college community that I could see, from our discussion today, that our Board of Trustees have a sense of common purpose.