District Planning Committee
April 26, 2013
District Office [Board Room]
Present: Michael Allen (Mission), Mary-Jo Apigo (West), Leticia Barajas (Trade-Tech),
Adrianna Barrera (District), David Beaulieu (District), Kristi Blackburn (Harbor), Lawrence
Bradford (City), Ryan Cornner (East), Anna Davies (Pierce), Yasmin Delahoussaye (District),
Felicia Dueñas (Southwest), Angela Echeverri (Mission), Jon Freitas (City), Don Gauthier
(District), Cathy Iyemura (District), Patrick Jefferson (Southwest), Deborah Kaye (District),
Sarah Master (District), Josh Miller (Valley), Edward Pai (City), Maury Pearl (District), Luis
Rosas (Harbor), Tom Rosdahl (Pierce), Jim Stanberry (Harbor), Rebecca Tillberg (West), Bryan
Ventura (East), Daniel Villanueva (Mission), Dan Walden (City)
1. Valley-side Accreditation Debriefing:
Deborah Kaye distributed a handout showing Valley’s eight college recommendations and one
District recommendation. She also noted the team focus on distinguishing between distance
and correspondence education and stated that the team’s organization was unusual in that
members of the standard teams did not necessarily possess expertise about a particular
standard) and in its request to interview District Office staff.
Danny Villanueva described the collaborative nature of the writing process at Mission and
reported that the logistics of the team visit went well and that the team was “tough”, having high
expectations for the college. Although the exit report was vague, it mentioned the need for
improvements in the student discipline appeal process, documenting the impact of SLO
assessment on student learning, and in the evaluation of integrated planning.
Anna Davies stated that Pierce’s report will have three recommendations and seven
commendations. The recommendations will include integrated planning (going further to
integrate existing college plans), cash control (from audit finding), and authentic assessment
and evidence of improvements for SLOs.
2. City-side Accreditation: Preparations and Status
Dan Walden reported City will have its kickoff on May 10th with a speaker from Foothill College
discussing integrated planning. He sees a problem in meeting the standards in relation to
distance education, but will try to remedy this before the self-study is written. He also pointed
out that integrated planning involved how all plans fit together and that the resource allocation
component involved the entire budget, not just budget increments. To address this, City is
creating an annualized version of their strategic plan which will be the basis of budget requests.
Leticia Barajas stated that Trade-Tech is having their kickoff on May 20th. Trade is focusing on
documenting evidence of improvements, aligning their strategic and educational master plans,
and of examining their resource allocation mechanism through their budget and planning
committee.
Ryan Cornner reported that East’s leadership team has been established and that their kickoff
will be on opening day for fall focusing on accreditation and SLOs. Even though East has
established DE policies, he was concerned with the college’s ability to address the components
of the standard dealing with provision of student services at the same level provided to non-DE
students and with the ability of course management systems to authenticate student logins. (DE
policy is addressed in TPPC.) He was noted that SLO progress was needed at both the course
and program levels and announced that East had created an ISA position for learning
assessment.
3. Topics and Agenda Items for Future Meetings
There was group discussion of areas in which the District Office could assist the colleges.
Danny Villanueva mentioned that, similar to what was done for Standard 4, the writing for
Standard 3 could largely be standardized since colleges relied on the same district fiscal and
human resource processes. Dan Walden suggested that the college account for resources
needed to address accreditation concerns through and an annual accreditation budget. Ed Pai
thought that the topics in the DPC meeting schedule could serve as a basis for organizing the
accreditation planning cycle leading to the 2015 visits.
Ryan Cornner raised the issue of the type of information presented in reports to the Board,
saying that they should also focus on areas concern or difficulty. This led to a broader and wideranging discussion of the increasing stringency of the accreditation standards, the need for
candid college self-examination leading to identification of areas in which colleges are deficient
or need help (such as conducting authentic SLO assessment, developing institutional standards
for student achievement), and of the need to need to engage both the Board and other college
bodies in open and honest (“courageous”) conversations in addressing shortcomings. It was
suggested that DPC and other shared governance committees could be forums for sharing
struggles and challenges related to their specific focus areas.
4. Accreditation Gaps
Yasmin Delahoussaye distributed several handouts describing gaps in meeting accreditation
standards. The documents listed recent recommendations received by both colleges and
districts. There was also a handout describing the status of LACCD colleges in SLO
implementation, showing progress made. These reports were intended to highlight areas of
concern for the 2015 LACCD accreditation cycle.
5. District Strategic Plan: Annual Effectiveness Reporting
Maury Pearl discussed reports to the Board of Trustees Institutional Effectiveness Committee
for 2012-13 cycle of effectiveness reporting. Since targets for the District Strategic Plan (DSP)
are to be set by the colleges and will not be done in time for first-year reporting, the reports will
instead focus on DSP baseline data and the process of alignment with college plans. In
addition, the reporting will be based on college strategic plan outcomes, progress on SLOs and
Achieving the Dream. Sea-side colleges will present in June (6/26), Valley-side in July (7/24),
and City-side in August (8/31).
Next Meeting:
Friday, May 24, 2013, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
District Office, Board Hearing Room