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Published on 10/3/2023.

Comments/Board Business

Land Acknowledgement:  President of the Board Biggin read the District’s revised statement recognizing our area’s Indigenous Peoples as the original stewards of the land that College of the Redwoods occupies. 

We acknowledge that the land on which we are gathered today is unceded territory of the Wiyot, Hupa, Karuk, Mattole, Tolowa, Wailaki, and Yurok. We honor them and all neighboring tribes by our ongoing commitment to developing trusting, reciprocal, and long-lasting partnerships.

Member Comments: Trustees Biggin and Dr. Mullery mentioned that they attended the recent police academy graduation and were impressed with the ceremony. Trustee Biggin gave a “shout out” to Academy Coordinator Watson.

Board Committee Reports: Trustee Dorn noted that the Board Evaluation Ad Hoc Committee met and agreed to meet again to discuss the Board goals.

Approve President/Superintendent Employment Agreement: The Board approved a revision of my contract that extended the end date of the contract by 3 months (from June 30, 2026 to September 30, 2026); added a percentage increase equal to the other senior staff administrators (2.4%) and the COLA included in the Governor's State Budget to my compensation; and increased my maximum vacation accrual allowance from 40-45 days. The increase in compensation and change in vacation accrual is the exact same increase that was given to all administrators of the District.

Appoint Board Ad Hoc Committee for the ISER: The District is deep in the accreditation self-evaluation process. At my request, President of the Board Biggin appointed Trustees Dr. Mullery, Kelley and Dr. Robertson to an ad hoc committee tasked with helping the Accreditation Oversight Committee draft the response to Standard IV Governance and Decision-Making related to the Board of Trustees. The specific sub-standards in Standard IV are:

1. The institution has a governing board that has authority over and responsibility for policies to assure the academic quality, integrity, and effectiveness of the student learning programs and services and the financial stability of the institution. (ER 7)
2. The governing board acts as a collective entity. Once the board reaches a decision, all board members act in support of the decision.
3. The governing board adheres to a clearly defined policy for selecting and evaluating the CEO of the college and/or the district/system.
4. The governing board is an independent, policy-making body that reflects the public interest in the institution’s educational quality. It advocates for and defends the institution and protects it from undue influence or political pressure. (ER 7)
5. The governing board establishes policies consistent with the college/district/system mission to ensure the quality, integrity, and improvement of student learning programs and services and the resources necessary to support them. The governing board has ultimate responsibility for educational quality, legal matters, financial integrity, and stability.
6. The institution or the governing board publishes the board bylaws and policies specifying the board’s size, duties, responsibilities, structure, and operating procedures.
7. The governing board acts in a manner consistent with its policies and bylaws. The board regularly assesses its policies and bylaws for their effectiveness in fulfilling the college/district/system mission and revises them as necessary.
8. To ensure the institution is accomplishing its goals for student success, the governing board regularly reviews key indicators of student learning and achievement and institutional plans for improving academic quality.
9. The governing board has an ongoing training program for board development, including new member orientation. It has a mechanism for providing for continuity of board membership and staggered terms of office.
10. Board policies and/or bylaws clearly establish a process for board evaluation. The evaluation assesses the board’s effectiveness in promoting and sustaining academic quality and institutional effectiveness. The governing board regularly evaluates its practices and performance, including full participation in board training, and makes public the results. The results are used to improve board performance, academic quality, and institutional effectiveness.
11. The governing board upholds a code of ethics and conflict of interest policy, and individual board members adhere to the code. The board has a clearly defined policy for dealing with behavior that violates its code and implements it when necessary. A majority of the board members have no employment, family, ownership, or other personal financial interest in the institution. Board member interests are disclosed and do not interfere with the impartiality of governing body members or outweigh the greater duty to secure and ensure the academic and fiscal integrity of the institution. (ER 7)
12. The governing board delegates full responsibility and authority to the CEO to implement and administer board policies without board interference and holds the CEO accountable for the operation of the district/system or college, respectively.
13. The governing board is informed about the Eligibility Requirements, the Accreditation Standards, Commission policies, accreditation processes, and the college’s accredited status, and supports through policy the college’s efforts to improve and excel. The board participates in evaluation of governing board roles and functions in the accreditation process.

Discuss Board Evaluation Summary: Board Evaluation Ad Hoc Committee Chair Trustee Dorn discussed six themes the ad hoc committee developed from the board evaluation responses. They could be summed up in the following:

• Minority opinions—handling minority opinions, respecting and considering multiple viewpoints, encouraging robust discussions and debating of issues
• Board recruitment—no Board recruitment process currently exists
• Represent the voice of the community—discussing the role of the Board in representing the community, addressing current community needs, and the role of the Board in planning for the future needs of the community
• Planning process—understanding the educational and legal context in which planning occurs, discuss future direction of the College, and the Board’s role in guiding CR’s future
• President’s job description—reviewing the President’s job description for accuracy and link the review of the job description with the president’s evaluation process
• Innovation—the Board’s role in actively supporting the EMP and encouraging creativity and innovation

Consent Calendar Action Items

Approve/Ratify Personnel Actions: By Board action today, we welcome Jahmira Rosado August (Early Childhood Education Assistant II), Rebecca Stevens (Early Childhood Education Assistant II), and Caitlin Todd (Early Childhood Education Assistant I) to our classified staff service and Michele Schneider as a manager serving as a new Athletic Trainer.

Also, please join me in welcoming Patricia Harris as our new Assistant Professor of Nursing –Maternal/Newborn and Heather Jenkins as an associate faculty member in Adult Education.

The Board ratified my decision to accept the resignations of Daniel Chick (Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, Del Norte/Pelican Bay Scholars Program) and Joseph Hays (Research Analyst, Institutional Research) and the retirement of Elisa Abelleira (Student Services Specialist IV, Financial Aid).

Action/Discussion Items

Approve Monthly Financial Status Report: Our report this month noted that:

• Due to the significant decrease in Prop 30 EPA systemwide, our P2 Apportionment Report included a temporary revenue deficit of 10.827%. It’s anticipated that general fund dollars will be apportioned to fill the deficit. As such, the College’s State Apportionment revenue budget was increased.
• The State Lottery revenues came in higher than anticipated and the budget has been adjusted accordingly.
• Fixed Expenses have slightly surpassed the budgeted amount. The budget has been increased to cover the overage as well as activity that is anticipated for the month of June.
• Salary expenses are still pacing close to budgeted amounts now that all of the retro-active salary increases for faculty have been posted.
• Overall, total revenues and expenses are higher than at this time last year.    
• The $1,057,122 in total transfers out are comprised of $90,000 to the Child Development Center, $67,122 to the Shively Farm, $750,000 to the OPEB fund, and $150,000 to Capital Outlay.
• The monthly financial status report shows a projected 2022-23 Unrestricted General Fund ending fund balance of $7,551,547, or 19.9% of Unrestricted General Fund expenditures.

Approve 2023-24 Revised Facilities Master Plan: The Revised Facilities Master Plan (FMP) was presented to the Board. Facilities master planning is required for accreditation and potential funding for California community colleges. The Board ultimately agreed to table the approval process to give us time to include our current land acknowledgement and language relative to accessibility, security, and safety in the plan. I attached a copy of the FMP that was discussed with the Board to this summary. I encourage you to review the document. As you read it, please remember that purpose of the Facilities Master Plan (FMP) is to provide a roadmap for facilities development to support the Educational Master Plan. The greater value of the FMP is to provide insight to guide the large and small decisions of on-going facilities development.

Informational Reports

Capital Projects Update: We asked Leslie Marshall, our Director of Facilities and Planning, to provide an update to the Board on the capital projects that are in progress or are slated to start in the next few years including the new Creative Arts Building Project, the Community Stadium Upgrade, the proposed Solar Microgrid and Battery Backup Project, and the new PE/Fieldhouse Project. Leslie did a wonderful job! I attached Leslie’s excellent powerpoint to this summary for you.

Certificate of Participation and General Obligation Bond Refunding Update: Thanks to the efforts of Vice President Julia Morrison, Joanna Bowes, KNN Public Finance, Karma Pemba, RBC Capital Markets, and David Casnocha (Bond and Disclosure Counsel) we were able to complete the sale of $7,605,000 Certificates of Participation (COP) and $5.050 million General Obligation Refunding Bonds. Selling the COP and the GO Bond allows us to start the community stadium upgrade project and refund several hundred thousand dollars to taxpayers for Measure Q.

Program Review Committee (PRC) Executive Summary: Our long-standing practice has been to provide a Program Review Committee summary to the Board of Trustees. The PRC highlighted several things in the Program Review Summary document.

Highlights from the Instructional program reviews this year included:

• The English Composition Program continued to offer a specialized English-Language- Learners-focused 1A course. Coming out of Covid restrictions allowed the class to be offered successfully face to face for the first two times, enhancing the college’s outreach to diverse populations of students representing ESL and 1.5 students from local area high schools.
• The Agriculture Program hired a new full-time faculty member who has engaged during the year in the continuing process of developing new course and revising existing courses to better serve the local agricultural industries.
• The Biological and Environmental Sciences Program faculty, working with forestry, athletics, digital photography, and the maintenance and landscaping department, as well as outside representatives from Cal Poly Humboldt, the Wiyot tribe, and the larger community, initiated the Outdoor Campus Collaborative. This initiative uses learning projects in courses to teach students real skills in natural resource science and sustainable management while restoring and increasing access to the outdoor campus and building relationships across the college and greater community.
• The Physical Sciences Program, in response to an acute need in the Pelican Bay program for incarcerated students, began offering physical science courses to help students complete their associate degree graduation requirements. The classes, ASTRO 10 and ENVSC 12, were offered in a very successful and effective correspondence format during the 21-22 school year (pandemic required). In addition, Astro 10 has also been transitioned effectively into a face-to-face format in the Fall of 2022. There is further discussion about adding additional science classes as well to relieve the back pressure created by the lack of such classes in the past. There have been more graduations at CRPB as a result of these offerings.
• Instructional areas described in detail how their individual programs support the mission of the College. Instructional program reporting of assessment activities and evaluation of previous plans was consistent with last year’s reviews. The consistent quality of Comprehensive Instructional reviews from last year to this year was noteworthy, because they remain overwhelmingly in the Exemplary/Satisfactory range. All programs completing a comprehensive review should be commended for the high quality of submitted work.

Highlights from the Student Services Program Reviews this year included:

• The ASC registered a significant increase in face-to-face faculty and peer tutoring in the 2021-22 academic year, which represents a rebound from Covid.
• EOPS increased the total number of students served over the previous two years, returning to nearly pre-pandemic levels. The program also continued to invest heavily in direct student support this year, purchasing additional student laptops and providing meal assistance cards to eligible students. EOPS also maintained the same level of direct aide as last academic year and received overwhelmingly positive student feedback. The program also recorded a 77% increase in tutoring contact over the previous year.
• TRIO experienced a large increase in contacts made and services provided from 375 contacts in 2020-21 to 1156 contacts in 2021-22. Program authors attributed this increase to an intrusive advising model and the program’s move to the LRC, which allowed students to easily drop-in with no appointment and receive help on the spot.

Highlights from the Administrative Service Program Reviews included:

• The Communications/Marketing/Print Services Program generated excellent outcomes data, showing across the board increases in outreach and general promotion in public media sources. The program put up robust numbers in all areas, especially including news stories, increase in Instagram and Facebook followers, and a large increase in DEI-related promotional materials.
• The VP Instruction Program noted many assessments leading to plans for professional development and other kinds of improvement for the various programs. Additionally, the VP of Instruction described multiple actions leading to a broad array of improvements based on past plans, indicating how clearly the program review process has taken hold and become an active and transparent process for assessment, review, planning and resolution.
• The Dining Services Program implemented an online ordering feature to promote safe food handling and distancing while supporting student success. Additionally, the Student Resource Center provides a safe learning environment for students to gather, study, and eat.
• Administrative reviews showed steady progress in the areas of planning and assessment, which indicates that programs are integrating last year’s recommendations. Scores in the “Evaluation of Previous Plans” and “Program Information” sections decreased slightly overall.

The PRC also identified several overarching themes and recommendations for improvement the Institutional Effectiveness Committee should consider:

Increased collaboration across constituencies:

Multiple new initiatives such as the Caring Campus, the Outdoor Campus Collaborative, the ACUE program, and the interface between IT, Instruction, and Student Services to raise the District’s ability to participate in the CVC-OEI, all point to a flourishing of the campus into a stronger and more interconnected community. This is particularly noteworthy looking back over several semesters of disconnectedness during Covid and considering the effects on an institution that had been so severely disrupted by the global pandemic. Continued increases in enrollment and a greater awareness of the value of community action and group resilience point to an institution that is well prepared to return to active, in-person participation in its community.

Increase in awareness of the value of DEIA:

With the CCCCO emphasizing diversity, equity, inclusion, and access as these concepts relate to student success and the creation of a more equitable system of higher education, across programs with the District the PRC noted many efforts to incorporate these ideas into programmatic missions and initiatives. It’s fair to say that the District doesn’t need to emphasize this since individual employees and members of the CR community across practically all constituencies are responding with authentic care for improving equity and access. From Dining Services, where they have “partnered with the Multicultural and Diversity Center to support holidays and events by providing cultural food specials that will attract diverse student groups to events,” to the mathematics department scheduling professional development opportunities with DEIA specialists, and hiring of a full-time tenure-track position in Ethnic Studies toward creating a new program of study, programs within the college community offer continuous evidence that staff and leadership at College of the Redwoods understand why we choose to focus on issues of DEIA. Programs like CalWORKS, EOPS, TRIO and others show that College of the Redwoods is fully engaged in enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. Solid evidence exists to demonstrate that the college is doing more than merely claiming that issues of equitable treatment matter—College of the Redwoods is creating a more equitable and caring institution through multiple avenues.

Continuous improvement in effectiveness for online courses:

The District has added distance education support positions and increased professional development opportunities for faculty teaching online, and these efforts are bearing fruit across many programs. It is reasonable to expect the College will become a successful participant should it achieve the desired Teaching College designation from the CVC/OEI.

An ongoing need for expanded professional development within and across constituencies:

Based on the number of requests for professional development opportunities across programs, as well as many noted successful professional development initiatives over the recent past, the Program Review Committee believes professional development opportunities that engage participation across constituencies and programs would continue to build on a spirit of forward-thinking, interdisciplinarity, and a holistic sense of community generating overall improvement of the college and of our students’ educational experiences.

A more data-driven and informed use of survey results:

Across the District’s programs, the staff and faculty continue to connect data and survey results to interpret programmatic assessments and improvement. Going forward, the Program Review Committee will continue to highlight examples of meaningful and productive interpretation of data in order to keep this trend at the fore of the College’s practices focused on generating improvement.

Continuing need for PRC assistance with authors:

Though the program review process is now effective and well understood by most people across all constituencies districtwide, pockets exist where a greater effort by the Program Review Committee to assist review authors in preparing reports could improve the College’s overall use of data, interpretation, and reflection in planning. A proactive approach, beginning with an overview of the process and a discussion about how to develop and assess outcomes in non-instructional programs, would benefit the college and move our community toward full implementation of program assessment and improvement based on review and interpretation of data.

Committee Recommendations and Process Revisions:

Though most programs put serious effort into the program review process, a few persist in only partially reviewing their outcomes assessments and reflecting on their program over time. As with previous years of the Program Review Committee recommendations for revision, the committee this year has concluded that some system of responsibility and notification should be enacted to promote more thorough use of the process throughout the District’s various constituencies. The shift to outcomes assessment in instruction over the past 15 to 20 years helps explain why the Program Review Process has, essentially, achieved a fairly high level of robust and meaningful reflection within Instruction prior to other parts of the District. Even so, plenty of excellent examples of non-instructional programs using the process show up in the templates.

Some kind of formal system of assistance for authors seeking to improve their submissions should be developed. Although a narrative had developed claiming that the Program Review forms were somehow faulty for use in non-instructional programs, the evidence points more toward a need for developing assistance for authors rather than changing the forms or processes. Though turnover in the committee and changes in the committee’s leadership, as well as a decreased participation from broader constituencies, made it difficult to engage in the sort of analysis and revision of the process proposed at the start of the academic year, the committee believes that a major overhaul of the process is not warranted at this time.

The program plan ranking process may be the exception and some clarifying analysis of timelines, flow of information, and use of rankings generated by the PRC would probably benefit the college’s planning process generally. Drift over time may have led to less transparency and clarity regarding the roles various planning committees play in the ranking, decision-making and funding processes. Since this process is at the heart of resource allocation, it would behoove the college if some review of the flow of information from program review through resource requests to ranking and allocations were undertaken.

A deeper understanding across the entire college community, and spread throughout all constituencies, of how outcomes assessment should be used to plan and allocate resources would also benefit the institution. The PRC believes closer work with the Assessment Committee, as well as other relevant groups over the next year should advance this work.

There were also several programs that simply did not respond to the need to perform a review, and the college will need to determine how best to address this issue. In some instances, the lack of a review may have been due to changes in employment conditions and leadership and the like. But for whatever reason, some kind of protocol should be in place to promote serious effort to engage in the Program Review process. It seems unreasonable to simply give a pass to two or three programs when the other 40 or more are all engaging in a rigorous and proven process.

Organizational Reports

Management Council: Erik Sorenson thanked everyone for the opportunity to be President of the Management Council for the past two years and introduced Ericka Barber as President, Morgan Solem as President Elect, and Leigh Dooley as Secretary for the 2023-2024 Session. His report also noted the following information:

• CR Cares (formally Caring Campus) attended the meeting to discuss name tags for employees. Name tags are not required but are encouraged to help students and new staff members who is a CR employee.
• CSEA BBQ was held outside of the PE building on the Eureka campus on May 25th. Between 120-150 employees were present. I was happy to see a large group of volunteers and attendees. I was told by many that they enjoyed the event and I believe it was a success. I appreciate all who were involved in making this happen and want to give a couple of extra shout-outs:

• Thank you to Marty Coelho and the Foundation for the generous monetary support.  
• Thank you to Anthony Finck and the kitchen staff for preparing the condiments and for making sure the food was cooked.
• Thank you to Morgan Solem for organizing and purchasing items for the event.
• Thank you to the team (Leslie Marshall, Colin Trujillo, Leigh Dooley, Heidi Bareilles) that made the trip to Del Norte for their event.
• Thank you to Johanna Helzer for providing food for the night crew.
• New Management Council Leadership.

Administrative Reports

President/Superintendent's Report: I shared three articles with the Board. One article discussed the fear LGBTQ+ students have on rural community college campuses.  The other two articles highlighted the recruitment of student-athletes for our new men’s and women's wrestling program. Del Norte High School's four-time league champion Adenne Schaad committed to compete for College of the Redwoods' inaugural women's wrestling team. Also committed to the women's team are two Eureka High School wrestlers: Maize Fugate and Kelli Johnson. The CR men's wrestling team will include three former local wrestlers and some from the Ukiah High program. Arcata High School's Dakota Sanders and Isaac Weaver will join the team, along with McKinleyville’s Willie Baumgarten.  The articles have been included in this summary.

I commented on the fact that we’re moving forward with developing the College’s accreditation self-evaluation report. I recognized Molly Blakemore, Peter Blakemore, Nicole BryantLescher, Amber Buntin, Leigh Dooley, Mike Haley, Rory Johnson, Philip Mancus, Kerry Mayer, Crystal Morse, Augusta Solem, Sean Thomas, Colin Trujillo, Rachel Warze, and Julie Gilbride for their willingness to serve on the Accreditation Oversight Committee.

Vice President of Instruction Report:  Lisa’s written report mentioned that CR is now fully integrated with CVC-OEI's Course Finder system and we will begin the process of becoming a Teaching College in September. She also noted that the faculty searches for this year have been very successful and the District is pleased with the talent that will be joining CR's faculty ranks.

Vice President of Administrative Services Report: CR received a significant amount of Federal funds through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds (HEERF) as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Julia’s written report explained that our HEERF allocation was comprised of three separate Institutional allocations: Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) in the amount of $1,252,244; Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Agreement (CRRSAA) in the amount of $4,337,580; American Rescue Plan Act (ARP) in the amount of $4,810,785. Initially, the Federal Funding Period was through June 30, 2022; however, all institutions were provided with a zero-cost extension through June 30, 2023. We have 120 days after June 30, 2023 to draw funds down. As of July 11, 2023, we had expensed all but about $ 40,000 and will have no problem expending the remainder before the liquidation period is over.

Interim Vice President of Student Services Report: In her written report, Crystal noted that CR hosted a Block Party at Eureka’s Friday Night Market on June 30 and under the leadership of Katy Keyser (Director, TRiO & Upward Bound) and Heidi Bareilles (Manager, Upward Bound), the 4-week Upward Bound Summer Program is on site.

Interim Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives: Kerry noted that she and Assistant Professor of Forestry Valerie Elder are representing College of the Redwoods on the Humboldt Bay Trail Planning Advisory Committee which is charged with providing input and advice on the planning process for the continuation of the Humboldt Bay Trail southwards to College of the Redwoods and she is continuing to work with colleagues from Cal Poly Humboldt on the design phase of the Health Care Education Hub which will become the primary instructional home for CR's Nursing and Allied Health care program. Kerry also noted that CR has been invited to participate as a partner in Oregon State University's proposed Coordinated Agricultural Project titled: Hemp-based Fiber Materials, Technology, and Commerce as Drivers for Northwest American Indian Tribal Economic Development that is being submitted to the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture AFRI, Sustainable Agricultural Systems Program. The project spans six Northwestern states and involves the partnership of fourteen tribal nations, including the Yurok Reservation, Big Lagoon Rancheria, Trinidad Rancheria, and the Hoopa Tribe. College of the Redwoods is the sole community college partner represented in the project. The intent of this project is to create a tribal-private-public partnership which will focus on four primary objectives relative to hemp-based fiber materials and technology: education and workforce development, business development, materials/engineering, and plant breeding/agronomy.

Kerry’s verbal comments included an update on the scope and potential impact that the wind energy project will have on our community and college.

Executive Director of College Advancement and the Foundation: Marty wrote the Foundation held a special finance committee meeting and a special board meeting in June, as part of the ongoing Foundation audit process, to close a list of accounts that have been inactive since 2015 and to make whole accounts that were in deficit.