Board of Trustees Report
East Los Angeles College
February 9, 2011
Planning and Student Success Committee
Since the Board was meeting at East, most of the committee’s time was given over to a
presentation of three new student success programs there. Evelyn Escatiola, the
Professional Development Coordinator, began with a review of teacher training
programs started with a Title 5 grant. The focus has been on understanding the East
student profile (over 70% are from low-income families), building a foundation that
faculty can then build on, and providing teachers with a community beyond that of their
departments. Over 185 have now gone through a four-week “Rethinking Effective
Teaching" series. It stresses course and lesson design and a positive classroom
atmosphere. In addition, 51 first-year professors have now completed a seven-week
New Faculty Institute. Finally, a Winter Adjunct Institute was inaugurated last month.
Sylvia Scott-Hayes and Mona Field were both responded quite positively. I compared
these new institutes to FTLA in terms of positive effect and pointed out how closely the
East Academic Senate works with the administration in supporting expanded
professional development.
The second presentation covered the Early Assessment Program/Summer Bridge
program started last year. Jessica Cristo from the English Department claimed that 70%
of those who were pre-assessed increased their placement at the end of the four-week
course (the sample was small, however). Most of the improvement was in Math. This led
to a discussion of the relative difficulty in creating accelerated Math and English courses.
Scott-Hayes says both can be done more or less comparably well; my view was that it's
much more difficult to do with English. She made the analogy to short-term courses at
CSLA; I challenged the comparison, given our students' broader range of academic
preparation.
The final presentation was about the Faculty Transfer Advisor Program. In order to
address the chronic, extreme shortage of counselors, teaching faculty have been
engaged to partner with counselors in preparing students to transfer. Training is
provided and expectations are delineated. Over fifty are now involved. Future plans
include increasing faculty/counselor collaboration further and developing on-line
resources. Response again was very positive. I stressed how crucial it is that programs
like this be established elsewhere in the district, given the terrible counselor ratios
everywhere.
The last portion of the meeting consisted of a review of the work to date of the new CCC
Task Force on Student Success. Kathleen Burke-Kelly filled in for Yasmin
Delahoussaye. Since the summary deals with information you've seen elsewhere (the
need for more California graduates, for example), I won't detail it here besides a few
striking facts:
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The US ranks tenth among developed countries in the percentage of young
adults with a degree.
It is the only country where younger generations are not better educated than
older ones.
While it awards far more AA's and certificates than any other state (twice the
number of second place Texas and Florida), its rate of awards is far lower than
average (162 per 1000 FTES, as compared to 240 average).
Committee of the Whole
In the first half of this meeting, Lloyd Silberstein gave another in his series of
presentations on the bond program. Last month he discussed the energy technologies
that the district has adopted in order to meet the Board's goal that 20% of all energy use
come from renewable sources. At this meeting he reviewed projected energy savings
and educational and behavioral approaches to energy consumption. He claimed that
once all bond projects are completed there would be a 50% reduction in electrical usage
district-wide (from what would have been the case, had no special steps been taken).
The savings will be the result not just of renewable energy sources but carefully
designed buildings that take full advantage of energy conservation possibilities. He then
detailed the projected savings per campus.
In terms of education and behavior, he mentioned the efforts of the Sustainability
Institute, and the particular energy optimization programs at each college. He followed
with a detailed look at the Student Success Building at East, emphasizing the careful
attention paid to building placement and light. He added that the district’s commitment to
renewable energy and sustainability in general has had a dramatic impact on
professional work in the area due to the size of the program. The number of LEEDS
certified individuals has gone from a handful to 17,000 in the last several years, and the
district was credited with a large part of that increase.
Mona Field praised Larry Eisenberg for implementing the vision of the Board. ScottHayes reiterated that thanks, saying their work has been "worth all the hits we've been
taking," and that there was "a lot to be proud of." Georgia Mercer added her praise.
In the second half Vincent Leoni from Moss Adams reported on the findings of their
annual bond performance audit regarding Prop. 39 compliance issues. He reviewed
some findings and noted the steps taken to address them. Overall, they found a noncompliance rate of less than 1%. This elicited a very positive reaction from three
trustees, Scott-Hayes, Field, and Mercer. They suggested that it was a vindication of the
management of the bond program. Chancellor LaVista joined them in drawing a very
positive conclusion from the audit. Scott-Hayes said that the audit news should be put on
the district website and the information widely disseminated. I remarked that they should
anticipate sharp questions if they do so, as the Bond Steering Committee had spent
quite a bit of time just the week before detailing significant areas of concern that were
not covered by Moss Adams, given their limited charge.
Open Session
The meeting took place in the main theater of the new Performing and Fine Arts Center,
which had just opened for classes two days earlier. The meeting was the first public
event in the complex, which will be formally dedicated in March. Trustees were given an
extensive tour at midday.
In his introduction of President Ernie Moreno, the chancellor reviewed Moreno’s long
district career and praised his accomplishments as president. Moreno, in brief opening
comments, noted East's current enrollment of 27,000 and reviewed the meaning of
East's logo. Jorge Vera, the ASU president, welcomed the Board and reviewed recent
student activities.
Three faculty leaders then spoke. Guild President Armida Ornelas said that it is not fair
to East students that the college has to cut classes further, given its large and growing
balance. She said it was almost a civil rights issue. Ornelas also complained about the
lack of transparency regarding bond policies. Jeff Hernandez, Senate Vice President,
stressed the importance of decentralization, which allowed East to be financially
successful. He also said a new district-wide enrollment policy has created serious
problems and East, since it allows students from outside East's service area to get seats
that would otherwise go to local students. This disrupts those students’ progression
towards program completion. Senate President Alex Immerblum reiterated the concerns
of the first two regarding the budget cuts. He described it as double taxation for East.
Field expressed surprise about the new enrollment policy Hernandez discussed. No one
from senior staff or among the presidents was able to offer any background, so the
chancellor asked Hernandez to add to his comments. Hernandez then detailed the issue
further.
Scott-Hayes and Santiago gave committee reports (see above). Scott-Hayes said she
was very impressed with East’s new initiatives.
Nothing was reported out of Closed Session.
Resolutions were passed honoring Cesar Chavez and supporting Women's History
Month and Measure L on the city ballot (regarding library funding). The Board also voted
to support a legislative “fix” that would allow the district to operate its labor compliance
program as now practiced (as discussed at an earlier Legislative Affairs Committee
meeting).
After some questions from Field, a complex resolution regarding the budget was passed.
It supports Governor Brown's basic approach to solving the budget crisis (a combination
of tax extensions and budget cuts), opposes apportionment based on student retention,
and supports allowing local voters to approve parcel taxes with 55% of the vote in order
to backfill state budget cuts to community colleges.
Chancellor LaVista began his report by thanking the East faculty leaders for raising the
issues they did and praising them for their comportment. He did say, however, that the
open session was not the appropriate place to discuss them.
Moreno then introduced Evelyn Escatiola who repeated a portion of her morning
committee presentation (see above). Laura Ramirez, a dean of Academic Affairs,
followed with a review of East's MESA program, its new Green Science and Tech
program, and its CTE Community Collaborative program.
The final item in LaVista’s report was a presentation of the first-ever district technology
strategic plan. Jorge Mata, the district's Chief Informational Officer, and Wendy Bass, cochair of the Tech Policies and Planning Committee, reviewed the process by which the
plan was created, the membership of the task force, the plan's emphasis on student
success, and the new technological possibilities emerging in the district. Scott-Hayes
asked about electronic transcripts; Mata said those will be possible once the new
student information system is installed. Velma Butler vehemently complained about the
lack of a classified representative on the task force. I pointed out that the fault for this
oversight lay not with Mata and Bass but with Gary Colombo and myself. The plan will
come back to the Board for formal approval at a later date.
Before approval of the Consent Calendar, Nancy Pearlman asked why one firm,
PSOMAS, had received over 60 contracts with the district, while some smaller firms
have complained to her about not getting any. Eisenberg reviewed the established
process.
The chancellor has selected Perrin Reid, currently a dean at CSULB, to become his
executive assistant. She formerly worked at Glendale College, UCLA, and Mt. Holyoke
and has experience working with state and federal officials. She will begin on March 1.
After some hesitation by a few trustees, a local travel allowance of $1,530/mo. was
approved. That is the standard amount for senior staff and college presidents.
Finally, the Board voted to prohibit bicycling, skateboarding, roller skating, et al, on
college grounds and walkways, unless expressly allowed by the college president.
Ensuring pedestrian safety and avoiding damage and defacement of college property
were given as rationales. There was no discussion.
Comments
The accomplishments of the bond program are varied and enormous. The Board was
visionary in approving sustainability and energy standards in 2002. All of that is obvious
to anyone paying attention. That said, there have been very serious problems with some
aspects of the management of the program. It was very distressing to hear three
trustees and the chancellor strongly imply that the audit by Moss Adams exonerates
bond management generally. None of the areas that have worried those of us in Bond
Steering and Energy Oversight—an energy program out of control in 2008-09, several
consultants with exorbitant salaries and/or questionable qualifications, non-competitive
bidding for at least one major contract, and the West project plan overrun for which no
one downtown accepts responsibility—none of that was covered by Moss Adams. Leoni
and Eisenberg were very clear about that in Bond Steering a few weeks ago. Broad
claims based on their limited audit are very regrettable.
David
District Academic Senate President
213-891-2294
dbeaulieu@email.laccd.edu
www.laccd.edu/das