Board of Trustees Report
District Office
April 14, 2010
Late, I know, but it’s been a very tough week. I’m afraid the report will be incomplete
also, as I had to miss the first meeting (Infrastructure) due to a doctor’s appointment,
and had to leave early from the late-starting Open Session to catch a flight up north for
the Spring Plenary. So there are my excuses, out on the table!
Workforce and Economic Development
Committee
Marvin Martinez and I reviewed the process by which district faculty and administrators
came together last summer to put together the ideas for the application for the ARRA
grants. Chito Cajayon then got other agencies to join us as partners and wrote the grant
requests. As you’ll recall, we won two of them, totaling some $5 million for the district
(down from the $6 million figure anticipated earlier). There were only 37 winners out of
700 applications nation-wide. The Van de Kamp Center will be the main location for the
training that one grant makes possible. In addition, a number of state grants have been
awarded to us.
Deputy Mayor Larry Frank and City Assistant Manager Robert Saenz were introduced.
They had last appeared before the committee one year ago. In reference to the need for
DWP training programs, Frank talked about the need for it to stop using coal, which
currently makes up 42% of its energy supplies compared to only 11% at Edison. Frank
discussed eleven City-sponsored ARRA projects, totaling $7 million. In nine of them, the
district or one of our colleges is involved. Frank called our recently expanded partnership
with the city a "profound piece of work," adding that many around the country are looking
at it as a best practice to model.
Some discussion was given to the program to retrain hospitality workers that West is
heading up. Saenz noted that the LA Scholars Program, the summer program for high
school students, can be significantly expanded this year. Finally, they stressed that a
real synergy of efforts is possible at Van de Kamp, with SEIU and Catholic Charities
among other partners working with us to create training programs there. Sylvia ScottHayes pointed out that these programs will serve our regular student population; they’re
not for high school students. She argued that this has not been acknowledged by those
who insist on a traditional college center at Atwater, such as the Van de Kamp Coalition.
Finally, Jordan Bernstein from Cassidy gave an update by phone from Washington on
new federal grant opportunities as a result of the recent health care legislation. There
are 17 that could involve us, three of them directly concerning community colleges and
the others dealing with workforce training. Two of the largest have been discussed at
Board meetings already, but others were presented for the first time. Bernstein said it
was crucial that our colleges work cooperatively if we want to maximize our award totals.
The American Graduation Initiative was reduced from $12 billion to $5 billion in the end
(and included in Cassidy’s list of grant possibilities), a reflection of the fact that
community colleges still don't have adequate clout in Washington.
Legislative Affairs Committee
Bernstein, still on the line from DC, talked about the fifteen earmark requests that the
district has submitted. The LA congressional delegation is pleased with what they’ve
seen.
Patrick McCallum then presented the latest news from Sacramento. He noted that
revenue projections were a bit better than expected, which may reduce the need to cut
quite as much as feared. If they pan out, it could mean up to $200 million more for
community colleges. Currently, the talk is to give half of that to growth and half to restore
categoricals. Later in his presentation, however, he acknowledged that there would still
remain a state deficit on the order of $17-18 billion, and that Democrats are loath to cut
health care, welfare services, or K-12 any further, given the draconian cuts to all three
last year, leaving cuts to higher education likely.
He also outlined five proposals coming forward from an ad hoc group of CEO's, faculty
leaders and the Chancellor's Office. They include 1) a single assessment for all CCC's,
2) an electronic "life map" available to all students (akin to a degree audit program like
our fledgling Degree Works), 3) a workplace skills assessment test, 4) enhanced funding
for basic skills, and 5) a new transfer guarantee for all CCC students.
Some discussion followed. Scott-Hayes reiterated her long-standing desire to see a
single assessment in the district. I noted that we would be meeting with the Math Council
about this in early May. McCallum and John Clerx praised West LA for moving ahead
with Degree Works. I said that, while all of us wanted a successful audit program, the
articulation officers and counselors had serious reservations about Degree Works, given
that it was never intended to do transfer auditing. Scott-Hayes said we should quit being
so hesitant and work out the problems.
Open Session
The session started around 45 minutes late, as the Board remained in Closed Session
much longer than normal.
Sandra Lepore, sitting in for Velma Butler, described the CFT March for California’s
Future, which concludes April 21, after 45 days. Six participants have marched all the
way from San Diego to Sacramento. Tax equity and more funding for education are two
main themes.
Carl Friedlander reminded the Board that the Guild’s annual retirement conference
would be on Friday, April 16.
There were no public speakers.
No action was reported out of Closed Session (to the surprise of many, given the delay).
Committee reports were given. In Infrastructure, the Clausen Hall modernization project
at City, the upgrade of the Southwest Student Services Education Center, and a new
retaining wall project at East were approved for continued work. The Southwest and
East Master Plan updates were also reviewed. Kelly Candaele and Sylvia Scott-Hayes
reported on the other two committees that met in the morning (see above).
Resolutions were passed in support of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Mexican
American Heritage Week and Recognition of Cinco de Mayo, National Nurses Week,
Peace Officers Memorial Day and National Police Officers Week, and El Dia Del
Maestro y De La Maestra, as well as Classified School Employee Week.
As part of Chancellor Wieder’s Report, Jack Daniels said an alumnus of Southwest
(Class of ’87) had been recently named a Fellow of the American Council of Education
(the organization which speaks for higher education in Washington and nationally).
Professor Ron Spencer said that Pierce had again placed in the top three of the
WESTEC Manufacturing Challenge, a collegiate creative engineering competition in
which students build their own project. Twelve universities and colleges in California
participated this year. He said that Pierce had placed “in the top three every year for 24
years.”
Susan Aminoff from JLMBC reported that the district would have $18 million less in
health benefit costs this year, from $75 million to $57 million. This is due, she claimed, to
the change to CalPERS and to dental plan savings.
An update on the Wellness Project followed. Katrelia Walker talked about the recent
Health Fair and other activities. She said that stress was at “epidemic” levels among
classified employees district-wide.
Discussion of Consent Calendar items followed. Lepore objected strongly to an IT item
involving the use of contract personnel to do what is normally done by classified staff.
And at that point I had to leave to catch my flight. Agenda items remaining included
approval of a City EIR addendum and of its Long Range Facilities Master Plan, as well
as a presentation and hearing for East’s update to its Campus Master Plan and final
EIR.
Comment
The morning was another one of those schizophrenic discussions that we've gotten used
to in the last year: lots of federal money coming down the pike (though not enough),
opening up new opportunities, but a huge deficit in Sacramento constraining our existing
programs terribly.
On May 14 we'll bring the Stimulus Grant Group back together. They're the faculty and
administrators who drafted the ideas for the two ARRA grants we won. Martinez and
Cajayon will review how we'll go about their implementation and talk about the new grant
possibilities discussed in the morning.
Our new ties to the city are very impressive. They were long overdue and augur well for
the future.
McCallum seemed to contradict himself. Yes, it's possible that we will get more money
(though Scott Lay this week says the latest figures show that won't happen after all), but
he had no answer as to how the state would deal with the colossal deficit without cutting
higher education further. The two just don't square. He seems to be consistently more
upbeat than Lay in his analysis, though this may be more just a question of emphasis.
I also have to disagree with his enthusiasm for West's implementation of Degree Works.
All of the articulation officers (including Eloise Crippens at West) and several others who
have worked on this have expressed serious concerns about how Degree Works is
being implemented and promoted. It was never designed for transfer auditing (and never
claimed that it was). Yet it's being asked to do just that. Only West--and only the
administration at West--has moved so far into implementation. The concern of the
articulation people is that erroneous information will be given to students. This issue
aside, the implementation has been very slow and costly. We agreed to purchase this
system almost five years ago, after all. It’s been a real disappointment for many. What
we have to do now is make the best of things.
Is it really possible that Pierce has placed in the top three at WESTEC for 24 years and
not been acknowledged by the district in recent years? I don’t recall every hearing about
this. I must have missed something. In any case, it’s a great achievement.
The announcement we were expecting at the Open Session came a few days later, with
the news that Dr. Daniel LaVista had been named Chancellor of LACCD. Having met Dr.
LaVista, I think it’s a wonderful appointment, and I look forward very keenly to his tenure,
which starts on August 1.
All the best,
David