Board of Trustees Report
Trade-Tech College
November 2, 2011
Finance and Audit Committee
Buying locally and green were the first topics on the agenda. Recent action by the City
Council to favor local purchasing was cited. Camille Goulet raised concerns about the
legality of such efforts beyond marketing and outreach to small, minority, and emerging
firms, given that “market narrowing” is against public bidding law. However, we currently
don’t have even a local firm outreach program for our operational budget, as we do for
the bond program. Goulet said it was harder to arrange for our regular expenses, given
our decentralized structure. Adriana Barrera said that while there are no specific
guidelines now, we do try to buy green (a related but different emphasis) as much as
possible, given the general Board policy in favor of sustainability. Jim Watson, our
contracts manager, added that we try to buy locally as well. Steve Svonkin expressed
surprise that we didn’t have a policy for both in place. He and his colleagues, Steve
Veres and Nancy Pearlman, would like to see local and green purchasing encouraged
whenever possible, as long as it’s legal. Svonkin asked whether any tracking had been
done of bond program local/green purchasing. Tom Hall said that none had been. In a
related matter, Barrera announced that the vice presidents of administration services will
meet in a few weeks to discuss the feasibility of districtwide purchasing.
Jeanette Gordon presented the first quarter financial status report. It shows the district
fiscally sound, with a projected $72 million balance (14%) after the anticipated Tier 2
mid-year cuts. Enrollment is expected to decline 5-7% this year, to 102,000 FTES.
That’s still far above the 95,460 that the state will pay us for under Tier 2. Svonkin had
questions about the balance. He had been under the impression that it was larger than
14%. He also asked about some colleges still running deficits, saying he’d heard
complaints about this in his campus visits. The chancellor answered that many steps
had been taken to bring the deficits under control, and that considerable progress had
been made. He suggested that the deficits could be due to an insufficient initial budget
and not necessarily to poor management. He implied that he thought it was, at least in
part, due to the former. Svonkin agreed. No individual colleges were mentioned.
A review of BuildLACCD’s responses to the KPMG financial audit was next. The audit,
which covered the year ending in June, 2010 (it was submitted over a year late), had
four findings. The first two had to do with district failure to have adequate accounting
procedures in place for identifying expenditures and capital assets. Lloyd Silberstein
claimed that there were reasons for the expenditure identification delay and that the
assets issue had been resolved. The third issue had to do with inadequate FF&E
inventory procedures. Silberstein claimed progress in improving them. The fourth issue
drew the most attention. It had to do with conflict of interest forms that are supposed to
be completed by all employees with procurement responsibility. Goulet said the district
has been slow to get this done, as it is trying to develop a comprehensive form beyond
the standard one used by other government agencies around the state. Veres expressed
some impatience with this answer: “I don’t like the response...there has to be a simpler,
faster approach to get this done...the culture of the district doesn’t think of conflict of
interest first.” He wants a more proactive position, given the negative bond publicity.
Svonkin reiterated his call for a district Ethics Office.
An update on internal auditing was the final item. Arnold Blanshard presented
information on follow up by the colleges to recent audits. Valley College appeared to be
slow in terms of a Community Services matter, but Sue Carleo explained that activity at
Valley subsequent to the last check had resolved the problem. Veres said that the audits
need to be closed out, as opposed to being done and then forgotten. He also suggested
that audits be planned on the basis of a risk assessment, given the inadequate staffing
of the Internal Audit unit. Currently Blanshard has only two working under him.
Open Session
On behalf of the Board, Tina Park expressed condolences to the family of Patrick
Owens, a trustee from 1989 to 1993. Mr. Owens passed away earlier in the week.
Chip Chapdelaine welcomed the Board and introduced faculty and staff leaders and his
management team.
From the Resource Table, I informed the Board that the ASCCC had serious misgivings
about the recently released Student Success Task Force recommendations. In
particular, we're concerned about the rushed process by which they were determined,
the lack of faculty input in the final version, and the implicit change of community college
mission that some recommendations entail. I added that we would be urging a delay in
the timeline for action by the Board of Governors.
Paul Magallanes, whose firm MAI was an applicant for the Inspector General position,
protested the selection of Christine Marez’s Policy Masters. He repeated an earlier
charge that the RFP called for auditing experience that Marez doesn't have and said his
firm was on the short list and ranked higher than Policy Masters but wasn't chosen for an
interview. He noted that he was a former FBI agent and said the district had breached its
duty in their treatment of his firm.
John Walsh from Hollywood Highlands claimed that Scott Svonkin physically threatened
a school board candidate in Temple City. He then went on to suggest that there was an
FBI investigation into the bond program, taunting the trustees as to who would be the
first to give evidence.
Svonkin gave a brief summary of the morning committee meeting (see my report above).
Santiago praised the chancellor for his online meeting agendas. He said the trustees
would be working from ipads at future meetings, rather than hard copies.
In his report, LaVista thanked Trade for its hospitality. He then turned to a presentation
about the Faculty Teaching and Learning Academy. He described it as one of our most
successful student success efforts in the district, a sign of our new focus on student
achievement. He cited its learning centered methodology and focus on innovative
technology in teaching. Deborah Harrington then gave the Board an overview of FTLA's
progress. Over 100 have now gone through the program, which is about to start its
fourth year. She talked about breaking down barriers between teaching and learning, the
need for contextualized lessons and action research. She also described how the
information learned in FTLA classes is disseminated out at the colleges.
The chancellor then introduced Chapdelaine again, after lauding the college's "genuine
community." After having had special Dia de Los Muertos pan dulce distributed to the
Board and the rest of us up front, Chapdelaine then showed a video of Trade students
entitled "I Am Trade Tech." The theme was making dreams come true, and featured
several touching stories of student struggle and success. Chapdelaine said that over
$600,000 had been raised at their recent foundation gala. Trustees added their own
commendations of the efforts at Trade, especially Veres and Svonkin.
There were several questions about the Consent Calendar, none of them too
consequential. It was noted by Svonkin, however, that the auto allowance for senior staff
would be discontinued soon. Mona Field raised a question about the size of the budget
for Project Match's upcoming awards dinner. I pointed out that it was PM's 20th
anniversary. The calendar was then approved. A lease for a workforce center in
Hollywood was approved, as were two new appointments to the bond Citizen's Oversight
Committee.
Comment
It was touching to see the students featured in the Trade video. They’ve really
accomplished something very impressive. And I have no doubt that the community
feeling at the college is honest. But that said, I do think the Trade leadership should be
much more candid about the academic condition of the college and much more modest
in its claims of student success. Trade’s Student Progress and Achievement Rate, the
most significant figure in the ARCC data, was at 36.7% in 2007-08. In 2009-10 it was at
36.4%. Comparable schools (by various measurements, including percentage of basic
skills students) are at 44%, and the district average around 45%. The one other district
college with comparable numbers, Southwest, has shown an improvement (37.1% 0n
07-08, 40.3% in 09-10). Yes, there are many wonderful programs at Trade, but that
doesn’t excuse the disturbing numbers we see.
One reason Trade is not where it should be is that the current administration has never
truly respected shared governance. I’m speaking now of the president and his senior
staff (though not all). We’ve tried hard to improve things in recent years with numerous
interventions but have little to show for it. Without this basic respect for faculty and
faculty prerogatives, student success will never be what it should be, as energies are
spent in needless arguments.
David
David Beaulieu
District Academic Senate President
Los Angeles Community College District
(213) 891-2294
dbeaulieu@email.laccd.edu