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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.

General Public Comments:

Member Comments:

Board Committee Reports:

Consent Calendar Action Items

Approve/Ratify Personnel Actions: By Board action, we welcome four new classified staff to our community: Morrigan Burke-Martin, Communications and Marketing Coordinator; Amy Chase, Administrative Office Coordinator – Maintenance and Facilities; Tammy Hoalton, Administrative Office Assistant II – Dental; and Stephanie Saunderson, Administrative Secretary I.

Jessica Howard is now our permanent Director of Nursing. Jessica’s background includes service as a tenured faculty member our nursing department, a nursing navigator and staff nurse with St. Joseph Hospital, and a RN case manage with ResolutionCare. She also has Registered Nurse and Public Health Nurse licenses in California.

Also, please join me in congratulating Adrian Dobson for a change of employee status as the Maintenance Specialist II-Swing Shift to Maintenance and Facilities.

Action/Discussion Items

Approve Monthly Financial Status Report: Our report this month covered approximately 85% of the fiscal year. As summary:

• Overall, total revenues are now lower than at this time last year. Property Tax Receipts have not been received from the County yet; however, once received, we will reflect the revenues in the monthly report.
• Salary expenses are close to budgeted amounts now that most of the retro-active salary increases for faculty have been posted. Associate Faculty retro-active salary increases will be paid starting next month. Overall, total expenses are now slightly higher than at this same 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.
• We show a projected 2022-23 Unrestricted General Fund ending fund balance of $7,536,547, or 19.9% of Unrestricted General Fund expenditures.

Approve Resolution No. 802 of the Board of Trustees of the Redwoods Community College District Approving a Debt Issuance and Management Policy in Accordance with S.B. 1029: The Board approved our recommendation to borrow money for the residence hall design and community stadium upgrade projects. Before we issue a tax and revenue anticipation note, California law requires us to provide information to the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission (“CDIAC”) no later than 30 days prior to the sale of the debt that we have a Board approved a debt issuance and management policy. Resolution No. 802 satisfies that requirement.

Approve 2023-24 Tentative Budget: The Board must approve a Tentative Budget before June 30, 2023 to provide a beginning budget for the District effective July 1, 2023. Once the Legislature and the Governor approve a final State budget, our 2023-24 Final Budget will be presented to the Board on September 5, 2023. Here are seven highlights of the Tentative Budget:

• Unlike the past two fiscal years, 2022-23 actual revenues received by the State have come in lower than projected, and there is an estimated $31.5 billion budget deficit. Even though the revenue receipts are underperforming expectations, the 2023-24 Governor’s May Revise Budget Proposal includes an 8.22% COLA for the SCFF as well as for select categorical programs. To help balance out the deficit, the May revision also includes a proposed 53% cut to 2022-23 Deferred Maintenance and COVID-19 Recovery Block Grant Funding.  
• As a result of the pandemic and the resulting decline in enrollment system-wide, districts were given the opportunity to participate in the Chancellor's Office Emergency Conditions Allowance for FTES. Districts that opted-in were able to use 2019-20 FTES for 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 in the Student-Centered Funding Formula (SCFF) calculation. Due to the decline in enrollment, we opted into this program for 2020-21 through 2022-23. Our 2020-21 FTES decreased by 27% when compared to 2019-20 to 2,749. The decline continued in 2021-22, with actual FTES dipping to 2,567 which is a 32% decrease when compared to 2019-20 FTES.
• We implemented several strategies to restore FTES, including outreach and recruitment efforts and enhancing our Athletic program. As a result of these efforts, our current 2022-23 FTES is 3,104, which surpasses the target of 2,837 by 366 FTES.
• When the SCFF was implemented in 2018-19, legislation included the Hold Harmless provision for Districts for the first three years, as well as a Prior-Year SCFF plus COLA (Stability) provision. The 2021 Budget Act extended the Hold Harmless through 2024-25. The Hold Harmless revenue is calculated by taking 2017-18 Total Computational Revenue (TCR) and adding COLA each year.  Previous year COLA’s have been:

• 2018-19 2.71%
• 2019-20 3.26%
• 2020-21 0.00%
• 2021-22 5.07%
• 2022-23 6.56% 

• The Hold Harmless Revenue Provision ends in 2024-25. A modified “hold harmless” revenue protection will start in 2025-26, which will use 2024-25 Total Computational Revenue (TCR) as the new floor. Going forward, districts will earn the higher of the “floor” or the SCFF, however the revised revenue protection will not include future COLA adjustments.
• Districts can earn the greater of either the SCFF, Hold Harmless, or Prior-Year plus COLA revenue amounts, however, districts may not know if the State will be able to fully fund revenue earned for all districts until well after the fiscal year is over. 

• We are estimating that enrollment will continue to be restored in 2024-25 and will surpass 2019-20 levels by 3% in 2025-26. This estimate is based on outreach and recruitment efforts, the reinstatement of Football, the addition of Wrestling for both Men and Women, and the launching of new academic programs. 

Informational Reports

Assistant Director of Employer Partnerships Jim Ritter Report: We asked Jim Ritter, Assistant Director of Employer Partnerships, to provide a report to the Board on Spring 2023 program priorities and plans for the fall semester. He spoke about a career speaker series, community outreach and strategic partnerships, CR and high school Career Fairs, and mentorship programs at CR and high schools. We are extremely fortunate to have Jim collaborating with us!

Presentation of Redwoods Community College District's Initial Bargaining Proposals to the CSEA: We had the opportunity to present the District’s initial bargaining proposal related the CSEA negotiations to the Trustees as information. Our interests are twofold. We want to modify contract evaluation/personnel file language to align with recent legislative changes and clarify the procedures and requirements of the evaluation process, timeline, and forms while protecting the rights of employees under applicable statutes and regulations. We also want to modify the language regarding transfers.

Administrative Reports

President/Superintendent's Report: In my written report, I touched on several topics including the following:

• A May 30 Inside Higher Education opinion piece by Jenny Darroch stated “we need to stop blaming COVID and reframe the narrative around student engagement by thinking about who and what today's students are—knowledge workers. I attached is a copy Ms. Darroch's article that offers another perspective that we could view how we could be ready for complex and foundational shifts that what will require us to be more agile, more relevant, and more responsible to the needs of the communities we serve.
• Our summer 2023 enrollment surpassed that for summer 2022: we saw 180 FTES in summer of 2022 and 236 in summer 2023.
• We had the opportunity to participate in two Surviving an Active Assailant (SAA) training modules last week. Our SAA instructor was a former US Marine (Hoorah! Semper Fi!) and law enforcement officer. The first module focused on the fundamental core concepts of SAA including Run-Hide-Fight, Recognizing Red Flag Indicators, Improvised Device Recognition, Visual Weapons Screening, and Barricade Techniques. The second module 2 had us participating in controlled, hands-on scenarios.  The link to watch the recording is: Surviving an Active Assailant Training (Module 1) - YouTube.

There will also be an identical training taking place during convocation week on August 18, 2023from 9:30 – 11:00 in the theater.

In my verbal comments, I congratulated CR Coach Eric Wright for earning the State Assistant Coach of the year for Women’s track and field title and Hannah Hartwell for being awarded CCCSIA 2022-2023 Women’s Athlete of the Year. After winning the 5,000-meter gold at the '22 state meet, Hannah Hartwell captured the individual titles at the Butte Invitational (18:29), the Santa Rosa Pat Ryan Invitational (18:14), and then the Golden Valley Conference Finals where she raced a 21:18.6 over a 3-mile course. Hartwell went on to win the Northern California title as the only racer to beat 20 minutes at 19:52, and then became a state champion with the third fastest time in state meet history at 17:20.9 over the Fresno Woodward Park's 3.1-mile course. As of this May, she was the national leader in both the 1,500 (4:29.63) and 5,000 (16:28). 

Vice President of Instruction Report:  Lisa’s written report touched on our student’s success in national competition, our efforts to attain CVC-OEI recognition, and our accreditation work.

Our CIS students continued to excel in national cyber competition. Our students, coached by Professor Amy Murphy, participated in individual and team-based events and the schools placed #24 nationally in the Cyber Power Rankings among over 7,820 students from 450 colleges and universities this last spring.

CR is now a Home College with the CVC-OEI (California Virtual Campus Online Education Initiative). This means that our students can register for fully online classes at other California Community Colleges through the CVC-OEI Course Finder and can register for those courses offered by Teaching Colleges without going through an additional application process.

We have registered for a “Teaching College Cohort” with CVC-OEI and will work alongside a group of other community colleges in the state to complete the technical integrations and agreements necessary for full Teaching College status. After that, students across the state will be able to register for CR’s online classes with the click of a button.

Our Institutional Self-Evaluation Report (ISER) is due to the ACCJC no later than December 15, 2023. I plan to include a draft ISER as a first read at the October Board meeting. The final ISER will be submitted for Board approval in November.

The Review Team will meet to review our ISER on March 20, 2024.  This is a one-day meeting in which the team develops a series of Core Inquiries. While we will not participate in the Team ISER Review meeting, the Review Team may ask for some additional evidence prior to the Team ISER Review. To kick off our review process, the Team Chair will contact me to schedule a virtual meet and greet session between the Team and District personnel, as well as an open forum prior to March 20, 2024.

A Focused Site Visit will occur the week of September 16, 2024. This will be an on-site visit in which the Review Team will gather additional information via interviews, data requests, and meetings to discuss the Core Inquiries. While the Focused Site Visit will be a shorter visit with a smaller team, we will hold the entire week for flexibility in scheduling meetings. I attached the presentation she shared with the board that highlighted the standards and changes at ACCJC. It also provides a picture of the faculty and staff actively working on the ISER and the timeline for campus-wide input and feedback.

Lisa mentioned that part of CR's agreement as a Consortium member of the CVC-OEI included establishing and maintaining a local POCR (Peer Online Course Review) process, a program that is designed to enhance the quality of online learning. We received official notice from the CCCCO that CR is now a certified Local Peer Online Course Review (POCR) college through the California Virtual Campus (CVC). This accomplishment is due in large part to the leadership of Leigh Dooley and Christine Dobrowolski, and a group of dedicated faculty. 

Vice President of Administrative Services Report: Julia noted that we will hold two budget open forums to allow for district-wide discussion of the 2023-24 Tentative Budget and Multi-year Forecast. All staff, faculty, administrators, and students are encouraged to attend.

Tuesday, June 13, 2023 from 9:30 am - 10:30 am via Zoom

Zoom: https://redwoods-edu.zoom.us/j/86472169971

Meeting ID: 864 7216 9971

Thursday, June 15, 2023 from 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm via Zoom

Zoom: https://redwoods-edu.zoom.us/j/89720382114

Meeting ID: 897 2038 2114

Interim Vice President of Student Services Report: Crystal’s written report drew attention to the academic achievements of our student/athletes by team.

Here is a GPA breakdown by sport:

 Sport                               # of Participants     GPA                                      

Baseball	27	3.191
Men’s Basketball	12	3.348
Women’s Basketball	10	3.436
Men’s Cross Country	6	3.381
Women’s X Country	6	3.348
Football	57	2.968
Men’s Soccer	18	2.768
Women’s Soccer	12	2.862
Softball	12	3.339
Women’s Tennis	8	2.770
Men’s Track	13	3.149
Women’s Track	11	3.510
Volleyball	11	3.372

She also noted that we are working with Cal Poly Humboldt to provide two shared learning opportunities in spring 2023: Domestic Violence Awareness & Prevention Summit, and multi-session event focusing on a Becoming a Trauma-Informed Campus. 

Interim Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives: Kerry provided an update on several strategically initiatives including:

• She secured an allocation of $936,000 ($234,000 per year for four years) through the Redwood Coast K-16 Collaborative grant project to focus on building healthcare pathways that connect local K-12 students to CR’s healthcare programs leading to either transfer to CSU or UC or to living wage jobs with our local healthcare providers. We will focus on the healthcare sector, and funding will be used to support the expansion of our dual enrollment offerings. We will also expand outreach efforts to both middle-school and high school students, targeting Native American, first-generation college students, and socioeconomically disadvantaged students in particular.  
• She represented CR as a panelist at the recent POWER CA: Partnering for Ocean, Wind, and Energy Renewables in California conference held May 10 - 12 at the Scotia Lodge. The Humboldt Bay Harbor District released a YouTube video about offshore wind that may be of interest to you. Videos will be periodically uploaded to this site: https://www.youtube.com/@humboldtbayharbordistrict. 
• Our proposal to support Culturally Responsive Pedagogy & Practices has been approved for funding by the Chancellor's Office. The grant totals $300,000 and will be awarded over two years ($150,000 per year). CR's cohort-based project will provide faculty with equity-minded professional development to build cultural competency and will help equip faculty with the tools to effectively assess their curriculum and pedagogical strategies to support more inclusive learning environments. 

Executive Director of College Advancement and the Foundation: Marty noted that the Foundation Board elected Scott Pesch, a broker and owner of Coldwell Banker Commercial, and Jill Sherman-Warne, Executive Director of the Native American Environmental Protection Coalition and Hoopa Tribal Councilmember, as new members of the Foundation Board. He also announced the Foundation Board’s Presidential Innovation Academic and Staff Grants awards:

• Katie Terhaar, Academic Grant, 50-gallon cold water saltwater tank for instruction, for $4,825, contingent on the tank being approved by Facilities.
• Levi Gill, Design Thinking Workshop, Academic Grant, $4,750, contingent based on legal review.
• Reed Elmore, Academic Grant, Ecological & Native American Running Camp, $5,000, contingent on additional funding being secured for $5,200.
• Ashley Mitchell, Staff Grant, $3,870 for a self-service kiosk for the Cafe.
• Gustavo Vasquez, Staff Grant, $5,000 for 3D printer for a maker space on the Crescent City campus, contingent on whether an existing 3D printer can be repurposed, if not then a new 3D will be purchased.