Published on 4/2/2024.
Regular Board Meeting on April 2, 2024
Comments/Board Business
Land Acknowledgement: President of the Board Dr. Robertson read the District’s land acknowledgement 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.
Comments/Board Business
Board Member Comments: I am happy to share with you that several Trustees commented that they attended several Chancellors Office webinars, participated in the ACCJC Peer Review Team virtual Open Forums last month, and joined staff and faculty in ceremony dedicating our art gallery after Floyd Bettiga. President of the Board Dr. Robertson mentioned that she, Vice President of the Board Dr. Mullery, and I had a luncheon with CSEA and CRFO last month to share perspectives on appropriate interactions between Board members and constituent groups. We will hold similar lunch discussions with the Management Council and the Academic Senate leadership this month.
Board Committee Reports: Trustee Dorn mentioned that the President's Evaluation survey instrument will be deployed on April 3. The surveys are due back on April 16. Trustee Pedrotti shared that the Board's Self Evaluation survey instrument will be sent out on April 17.
President of the Board Dr. Robertson mentioned that she, Trustee Kelley, Trustee Pedrotti, and I met with Assembly Member Jim Wood last month to advocate for issues important to the District. What follows is an outline of the discussion:
- Increase the 2024-25 COLA to 3.1%
- Support Assembly Bill 1891, introduced by Assemblymember Weber that would require a community college allied health program to evaluate applicants for admission using specified criteria relating to the applicant’s academic performance, work or volunteer experience, foreign language skills, life experiences, and special circumstances, among other criteria and includes language that allows students to be awarded points for proficiency in any of “various languages of the African continent”. We believe that this bill would enable community colleges to enroll students in allied health care programs with a diverse range of professional and life experiences.
- Support Assembly Bill 247 that would place a $14 billion statewide K-14 education facilities bond before the voters on the November 2024 ballot.
- Keep strong workforce allocation stable. Over the last eight years, CR's Strong Workforce Program (SWP) has supported our ability to strengthen our existing Career Education (workforce preparation) programs and develop new Career Education programs needed to meet the evolving workforce needs of our industry partners.
For example, we used SWP funds to develop new degree and/or certificate programs in the following areas:
- Social Work and Human Services, AS Degree (Eureka Campus and Del Norte Education Center/Pelican Bay Scholars Program)
- Aquaculture, AS Degree and Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Graphic Design & Visual Communication, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Automotive Maintenance & Light Repair, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Geomatics, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Horticulture and Landscape Practices, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Organic/Sustainable Agriculture, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- CIS Cyber Security, Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
- Personal Wellness Trainer, AS Degree and Certificate of Achievement (Eureka Campus)
Our SWP funds were used to hire several new fulltime faculty:
- Carolyn Perkins, Social Work and Human Services, Eureka Campus
- Jasmine Iniguez, Aquaculture, Eureka Campus
- Jason White, Personal Wellness, Eureka Campus
- Laurie McKendry, Business, Del Norte Education Center/Pelican Bay Scholars Program
- Madeleine Lopez, Forestry and Natural Resources, Eureka Campus
- Nathalie Dierkx, Social Work and Human Services, Del Norte Education Center/Pelican Bay Scholars Program
We use SWP funds to improve many of our existing programs and support new programs including:
- Expanded our Business, General, AS Degree to both the Del Norte Education Center and to the Pelican Bay Scholars Program.
- Expanded our Social Work and Human Services AS Degree to the Del Norte Education Center and to the Pelican Bay Scholars Program.
- Expanded our Construction Technology program to offer CT courses at our Klamath Trinity Instructional Site.
- Expanded instructional support at the Shively Farm to provide our students with work-based learning and Community Sponsored Agriculture activities.
- Updated the fleet of vehicles used to train cadets in our Basic Law Enforcement Academy, updated classroom technology and purchased Purchase updated Skidcar Training System.
- Expanded our Automotive Technology to accommodate training in Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV) maintenance and repair and modernized our AT facility to include safer, electric bay doors and HEV-safe epoxy flooring.
- Invested in Allied Health Programs that allowed us to update our dental laboratory to stay current with industry standards, update classroom and lab technology to support both dental and nursing/LVN programs, purchase simulation equipment to support nursing and LVN instruction at both the Eureka Campus and the Del Norte Education Center, and purchase updated technology and additional equipment to support pre-requisite courses required for nursing, including an anatomage table for our biology department to enable virtual dissection lab activities.
- Encumbered over a million dollars to develop a new Aquaculture wet laboratory that will support the academic pathway to Cal Poly Humboldt.
Annual Review of Mission Statement: The Board of Trustees reviewed the District's mission statement. The Trustees noted the importance the Board placed in aligning their goals with the District's mission statement.
Consent Calendar Action Items
Approve/Ratify Personnel Actions: The Board ratified my acceptance of Professor Kristy Carlsen-Capozzo's resignation as our fulltime Professor of Spanish effective July 31, 2024. Kristy has agreed to serve as an associate faculty member teaching Spanish in fall 2024.
The Board approved the appointment of Arlene Wynn as Dr. Gaetje' s new Executive Assistant starting April 22, 2024.
Also approved was the change of status several of our colleagues: Tory Eagles' changed from Pelican Bay State Prison Program Coordinator to Pelican Bay Program Manager, Aimin Huang moved from Library Technician, Range 112, Step 7 to Library Technician, Range 113, Step 7 retroactively to July 1, 2023, and Gregory Toleno moved from Library Technician, Range 112, Step 5 to Library Technician, Range 113, Step 5 retroactively to July 1, 2023.
Approve/Ratify Contracts, Agreements, and MOUs: I would like to note three contracts that the Board approved that are specifically relevant to the Del Norte Campus.
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Contract/Agreement/
MOU
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Date
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Contract Amount
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Background
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Restricted/Bond Funds
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First Service Plumbing
Crescent City, CA
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01-26-2024
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$4,000.00
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This is an agreement for dismantling and reassembling a filter that helps with reverse osmosis water at the Del Norte campus.
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Red Sky Roofing
Crescent City, CA
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03-07-2024
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$344,424.00
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This is an agreement for the library roof replacement and skylight repair at the CR Del Norte Campus and will be paid by scheduled maintenance funds.
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Transformative Education
Tehachapi, CA
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04-03-2024
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$12,000.00
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This is an agreement for professional development for the Pelican Bay Program.
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Approve Surplus Property Recommendation: With this agenda item, the Board authorized the Administration to move forward with disposing of 21 Glock weapons as surplus property. For your information, the exchange will be handled by a local Federal Firearms License (FFL) business. The old weapons will be purchased by the business for fair market price and sold out of state. The guns used for the Academy are all Glocks which are not all legal for regular purchase in California. All the proceeds will go toward upgrading the weapons for students to generation 5 Glock 17's which will help us accommodate both left- and right-handed shooters.
Support for our Aquaculture Program: The Trustees authorized the Administration to publish Request for Proposals (RFPs) for Engineering Design Services and procure a metal building for the Aquaculture Lab.
Approve Authorization to Proceed with a Del Norte Center Building Repair Request for Proposal: Several structures on our Del Norte Campus need remediation and repair. The Trustees authorized the Administration to publish Request for Proposals (RFPs) to perform remediation work and repair buildings at the Del Norte Campus.
Action/Discussion Items
Resolution 806 Recognizing April as "Campus Pride Month": In approving Resolution 806, the Board is joining LGBTQ+ communities are the country in celebrating Pride month and honoring its history. The passage of this resolution is especially important now with the surge in anti-LGBTQ legislation and attitudes. I attached the fully executed resolution to this summary.
It is good to remember that Pride began as a protest with the Stonewall Uprising. The Stonewall Inn was a bar in Greenwich Village that served as a gathering place for many gay community members. One night, police raided the establishment, arresting both employees and customers. This led to six days of clashes and protests. Although there had been many previous acts of resistance and protests from the LGBTQ+ community, this event served as an inflection point in the gay civil rights movement.
On the first anniversary of the uprising, a march was organized down Christoper Street to Central Park under the theme of "Gay Pride." Since then, similar marches have expanded across the United States in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community.
Pride is observed to remember the historical struggle and marginalization of the LGBTQ+ community and to celebrate the many contributions of LGBTQ+ people. Taking the time to acknowledge the positive impact of LGBTQ+ people foster diversity and highlights the importance of embracing an inclusive community.
I am proud to include the signed resolution in this blog summary.
Informational Reports
Recognitions: I recognized several of our colleagues and a student in this agenda item. Here is a summary of those recognitions.
Recognition of Katrina Hanson, Amber Buntin, Jasmin Iniquez, and Madeleine Lopez
Katrina Hanson, Manager of Retention, Basic Needs, and Wellbeing organized a Women in STEM panel on March 6, 2024 in celebration of Women's History Month. For 2024 Women’s History Month, the Multicultural and Equity Center, in collaboration with CR’s Retention, Basic Needs, and Wellbeing program, facilitated a panel of three exemplary College of the Redwoods faculty--Amber Butin, Jasmin Iniquez, and Madeleine Lopez--in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), which is a historically male-dominated field.
Recognition of Susan Gehr
Susan Gehr, faculty Librarian, authored a chapter in the recently published book The Languages and Linguistics of Indigenous North America: A Comprehensive Guide. You can check out the book here, Susan’s chapter is on pages 1169-1200.
Recognition of CR Student Athlete Tianna Thompson
Former Del Norte Warrior Tianna Thompson continued her impressive start to the new college track field season with another big performance against Division-2 opposition at the March 9-10 Wildcat Invitational hosted by Chico State. Ms. Thompson, a sophomore sprinter, placed first in both the women’s one hundred meters and two hundred meters, setting a personal record in the former with a time of 12.29 seconds.
Recognition of Student Athlete Sportsmanship
The Administration received a message from a referee of the College of the Sequoias versus CR men's basketball game commending the sportsmanship of CR's student athletes. It is a pleasure to share the email in its totality.
Hello Coach Bisio,
My name is Terrance Minnoy. I’m one of the officials that worked your game against COS this past Saturday.
First of all, I hope that you are feeling better. I was shocked when your staff told us that you were not well and will miss the game. I was looking forward to working for and with you. Again, speedy recovery, Coach.
I’m writing to commend your young men, those on the court and off (including the coaching staff). Our crew of officials commented to one another about the showing of respect and sportsmanship that your team displayed during the game. That’s not always easy in the heat of battle, as you know. From deliberately handing the ball (vs. tossing) to officials to asking tough questions in a respectful manner, I commend their display of professionalism and respect for the game.
I’ve been officiating young men for a long time and only a couple of teams have stood out like this, and CR is one of them. And to be honest, there were a few calls that were close and didn’t go their way, yet they just played hard with minimal complaints. This goes for the coaching staff too. They fought for their team yet made it easy to build a working relationship.
I’m aware that this type of professionalism starts at the top with you. You’ve created a great culture of building young men in your program and I felt compelled to let you know. Kudos to your team and staff. I wish you the best moving forward. Again, I hope you’re feeling much better.
Best,
Terrance Minnoy
Organizational Reports
Academic Senate: Senate President Dr. Herrera shared a list of Academic Senate Goals. Dr. Herrera noted that the Senate's Goals are aligned with the Education Master Plan. I attached the goals to this summary.
CRFO: CRFO President Haggerty’s written report noted several items including:
- On 3/5/24 CRFO leaders joined a zoom meeting with the ACCJC accreditation team. It was a positive conversation where the strengths of College of the Redwoods were highlighted. Many uplifting stories were shared, exhibiting the commitment of all employee groups, and how this college has changed many lives!
- The negotiation team is continuing to participate in team building to engage in negotiations on topics scheduled for this year. The CRFO is looking forward to the training on 4/10/24 where faculty that are new to the Interest Based Bargaining process will be included.
- FACCC’s Advocacy and Policy conference was attended by the VP of CRFO Erik Kramer and Shannon Mondor who is an Associate Faculty representative on CRFO’s Executive Committee and the northern California representative for California Community College Independents. They were able to attend sessions on the budget for our system, and sessions focused on the needs of Associate Faculty and our students. The keynote speaker was Robin G. Isserles who authored the book The costs of completion: Student success in community college (2021). This important book examines the factors that are impacting student completion rates and student success.
Management Council: In President Barber’s written report, she noted that:
We would like to thank President Flamer and Molly Blakemore for providing information at the March Management Council meeting regarding the potential bond measure. The council appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback to the District.
We are excited to be in the final stages of updating the Management Council Charter; this is the first time it has been reviewed since the initial charter was developed and approved in May 2013.
A call out for nominations for the 2024/2025 President-Elect and Secretary has been deployed. Morgan Solem will assume the role of Management Council President, having served as the President-Elect this year.
To show our appreciation to the Classified, Confidential, and Temporary staff across the District, we are in the planning stages for two BBQs for the third week of May. One will be held on the Eureka Campus and another in Del Norte; Klamath-Trinity staff will be invited to the Eureka event. Both events are held in celebration of Classified School Employee Week, May 19-25, 2024.
Management Council members are also looking forward to the upcoming Annual Plant Sale hosted on campus by our Agriculture Program. The plant sale will be held Friday, April 19th, and Saturday April 20th.
Student Trustee: Student Trustee Sible Godfrey provided a brief list of the various actions taken by the Student Senate over the past few weeks.
Administrative Reports
President/Superintendent Report: In my written report, I mentioned that I was fortunate to attend a Psychology 33 with Professor Dr. Phil Freneau, a Math 15 class with Professor Levi Gil2024,nd a Biology 6 Lab with Assistant Professor Jamie Jackson on the Del Norte Campus on March 6, 2024 and the initial meeting of the Del Norte Community Advisory Council will be held on April 15, 2024 on the Del Norte Campus.
I also wrote again on the discouraging subject that the state faces a serious budget shortfall that will require tough decisions throughout the budget process to bring the budget into balance and to improve the out-year fiscal condition. Starting with the Governor’s January forecast, the state faces a $38 billion budget problem. Since that forecast was released, revenues have underperformed projections, and the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) has reported the problem could grow by an additional $15 billion, which would take the shortfall to $53 billion.
The May Forecasts will provide a more precise number, which could range from lower than $38 billion to higher than $53 billion.1 This is why the state must move quickly to reduce the deficit.
In response to the state's budget challenge, the California State Senate developed an Early Action Plan to protect the progress made to core programs in recent years and make the tough decisions to tackle the deficit.
Step one of this effort is to enact the Shrink the Shortfall early action plan, to immediately decrease the shortfall to a more manageable level for the critical time period leading up to the June 15 budget deadline date.
This early action plan uses the current point-in-time shortfall estimate range of $38 billion to $53 billion.
There are no easy options for closing this shortfall; however, the Shrink the Shortfall budget plan includes implementing $17.1 billion in solutions (through program reductions, revenue borrowing, delays, and deferrals), and in agreement with the Governor’s proposed partial use of the Rainy-Day Fund. These early actions will reduce the shortfall from a projected $38-$53 billion to a more manageable $9-24 billion and position the Legislature and the Governor to best protect the state's progress by maximizing the time and energy spent focusing on the most challenging solutions to close the remaining budget shortfall during the critical time period leading up to June 15.
Step 2 of the Senate’s Protect Our Progress 2024 budget plan will be released later in the Spring and provide a comprehensive proposal for a balanced, responsible budget that protects core programs and services.
Senate Bill 1388
This bill would prohibit, commencing with the 2025–26 fiscal year, a community college district’s annual unrestricted general fund balance for a fiscal year from exceeding 16.7% of its unrestricted general fund expenditures for that year, unless the community college district meets specified conditions.
The bill will also prohibit a community college district from transferring unrestricted general funds to another fund if the receiving fund has an existing balance of 33% or more of the community college district’s unrestricted general fund expenditures for that fiscal year or if the transfer would cause the receiving fund to have a balance of 33% or more of the community college district’s unrestricted general fund expenditures for that fiscal year.
For a community college district that violates the above-described prohibitions, the bill would require a community college district to distribute the amount of the annual unrestricted general fund balance that exceeds 16.7% to nonsupervisory and nonmanagement employees of the community college district, as provided. To the extent that the bill would impose new duties on community college districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
In my verbal report, I related to the Board that I intend to use several of the questions included in the President's Evaluation survey instrument in the Vice President evaluations.
Vice President of Instruction Report: Lisa’s written report noted that:
- While the overall recidivism rate for incarcerated individuals is approximately 67%, it is only 14% for individuals earning an associate degree. This lowers to 5.6% for those who earn bachelor’s degrees and 0% for those who earn their master’s degrees. While College of the Redwoods has a robust Pelican Bay Scholars program and new course offerings inside the Humboldt County Correctional Facility, the College also recognizes that the District serves many formerly incarcerated students across all our campus locations.
On March 29, CR faculty and staff had the opportunity to learn about the challenges faced by formerly incarcerated students, hear from a CR student panel, and learn about how to best serve justice-involved students. Special recognition goes out to the core planning team for this event: Carolyn Perkins, Matt McKindley, Jonny Maiullo, Summer Ferrier, Alyssa Plante, Gary Ronne, Brendan Killeen, and Rachel Warze.
- A cohort of faculty engaged in the Culturally Responsive Pedagogy course with USC Race & Equity Center are nearing the end of the course. The anecdotal feedback thus far has been that this work has given faculty time and space to reflect and make meaningful changes in their classrooms to positively impact student experiences. An additional session open to all CR faculty and staff will be held in April to explore how College of the Redwoods can intentionally embed equity-minded practices into its performance review processes and metrics. A more complete assessment of faculty feedback on their experiences will be available in future months.
In her verbal comments, Lisa thanked Trustees Biggin and Kelley for attending the Breaking the Silence event. She also gave a "shout out" to the faculty and staff who put on the Del Norte Campus Open House.
Vice President of Administrative Services Report: Julia’s written report noted that we will once again use CWDL as the District's financial audit firm. The Interim Audit Visit is scheduled for the week of May 13. During this time, the District will work with the Audit Team virtually to fulfill all interim audit items, answer questions, and respond to specific information selection requests. The Final Audit Visit will be the week of September 9. The Audit Team will be on-site for this visit as the District provides the final audit request items. This will provide ample time to get the audit finalized before the December 10 Board meeting. She also noted that that to help ensure a smooth fiscal year-end transition and a timely audit, the Business Office releases the annual Fiscal Year-End Transition Plan. The plan helps to inform all employees of the specific cut off dates for things such as purchase orders, Cal Card purchases, journal entries, etc. The plan also speaks to the timeline for the 2024-25 operational budgets.
Julia's verbal comment focused on the outstanding work Mitchell Lucky is accomplishing to make our budget building process more efficient and effective.
Vice President of Student Services Report: In her report, Crystal mentioned that the Child Development Center staff, teachers, and leadership team utilize reflective practice. This practice allows the team to meet people where they are at, use common terminology such as reframe and repair, reach out and engage in deep conversations that prevent conflicts from arising later. The staff elected to learn this tool during COVID (2020) under the training of Beth Havelin, Reflective Practice practitioner, and have been utilizing this tool in their daily interactions for the past three years. Reflective Practice has shown to be a helpful tool for working with students, parents, and other staff to meet them where they are in the moment and engage with mindful self-regulation, empathic inquiry, collaborative exploration, capacity building, and reflection integration. Wendy Hill, CR's Child Development Center Director, traveled to the National Coalition for Campus Children’s Center (N4C) conference March 19-23 to present on this tool and share best practices with colleagues across the state.
Crystal thanked Katy Ferrier and Irene Gonzalez-Herrera for their work on authoring Resolution 806—with the Board approved at this meeting.
Interim Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Report: Kerry’s report spoke to our partnership with Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center on a grant proposal to work with 13 Native American Tribes to spur economic development in the western United States by developing manufacturing capabilities for materials and products made from hemp. OSU, the lead agency, recently received word that our $10 million grant proposal was approved for funding by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. As a sub-awardee on the grant, College of the Redwoods will receive approximately $260,000 over the life of the five-year project.
The project seeks to develop sustainable supply chains based on the needs identified by an intertribal business consortium that links regional hemp production, processing, and manufacturing to create hemp products.
The project will also focus on creating educational and workforce development opportunities to equip Native American students and adults for jobs in the emergent bio-based economy. College of the Redwoods will be one of six institutions of higher education, and one of only two community colleges, to engage in the workforce development aspect of the project.
The grant builds on a 2022 White House executive order focused on bio-based manufacturing, meaning using renewable biological resources from land and sea – such as crops from farms, trees from forests, and fish and animals – to sustainably produce food, building materials, industrial products, and energy. The properties of hemp-derived materials have potential to replace those manufactured from oil, natural gas, and coal, including textiles, nanofibers, electronics, polymer bio-composites and construction materials.
In addition to Oregon State University, our other grant partners include: 13 Tribal nations within the geographical boundaries of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Montana and California, including the Yurok Tribe and the Trinidad Rancheria; three other western U.S. land grant universities; Stone Child College; USDA Agricultural Research Service; 7 Generations LLC; the Indigenous Habitat Institute; and the Intertribal Agriculture Council.
Kerry informed the Board, in her verbal comments, that she participated in meetings last week related to the development of Humboldt's port and the wind technology project.
Executive Director of College Advancement and the Foundation Report: Marty’s written report included:
- An online registration site was created for the next Women in Welding event, to be held on April 27-28. The weekend learning experience is for twelve students and costs $169 a person.
- He collaborated with Student Services staff to establish CR’s first Emergency Grants Program and with Staphanie Lane, from Cal Poy Humboldt, on a joint CR/HSU sash for CR’s graduation.
- Two new Wiyot land recognition signs are being reproduced on aluminum, to match CR’s more modern signs and ensure they can withstand the elements. These signs will be installed before graduation.
- He was interviewed about the Redwoods Room & Board Scholarship Fund by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) for their March/April issue of Current Magazine. “A Place to Call Home.”
- He coordinated with Redwood News to do a 3-minute piece on the Floyd Bettiga Art Gallery and interviews with Peter Blakemore, Executive Dean of Arts & Sciences & Lindsay Kessner, Gallery Director. CR Floyd Bettiga Gallery on Redwood News 2024