Meeting Notes May 24, 2018

Approve the Notes from April 20, 2018

The April 20, 2018 notes were approved

Discussion

College Planning Committee Updates

Newell presented the College Planning Committee Updates. In Spring 2018 the College’s tasks are to review key external and internal trends; review the mission statement; develop a vision statement and conduct collegewide dialogue and activates around the mission, vision and strategic initiatives. Newell reviewed the Strategic Initiatives which include outreach, student success and retention, equity and civic engagement.

There are mandated plan themes (increase completions if historically underserved students; increase overall student completions; increase student supports; provide clear pathways and reduce basic s course sequences) and mandated plan (basic skills; strong workforce; SSSP/equity/BSI integrated plan and guided pathways).

State of the Valley 2018 analysis (https://jointventure.org/events/state-of-the-valley) shows a that birth rates peaked 18 years ago and since then has consistently been decreasing. 10% of high school students do not complete school. 54% are not eligible for UC or CSU. Only 3% unemployment rate in the Valley. 50% of the jobs (increase of 23%) are in community infrastructure and services (healthcare/social services/retail/food/education/construction/transportation/banking) jobs that pay approx. $54k per year. 32% of the workforce earn approx. $27K per year. 30% of families do not earn enough money to meet basic needs without assistance. 17% (43 minutes) increase in commute times. Public transportation use decreased by 15%. Area housing prices increased in 2017 by 7% and the median cost is now $968k, which is the highest in the nation.  

This means continued decline in college-aged students; commute times increasing; inflation out pacing wages; most jobs in the innovation & information products and services areas.

Average worker changes jobs 10 times before 40 years of age and this is expected to increase. Employers are looking for soft skills such as:

Communication; teamwork; adaptability; problem solving; critical observation; leadership and conflict resolution.

Newell conducted a poll which asked “What is the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about “De Anza College?”. The group gave various submissions which will be incorporated into the other poll results. Results will be presented by the institutional research department in due course.

A vision statement looks forward and creates an image of the ideal state that the College wishes to achieve. A mission statement is a concise explanation of the College’s reason for existence. It describes the College’s purpose and its overall intention.

With this information in mind, the College Planning Committee drafted the following vision statement for review.

“Empower all students to attain their educational goal, develop an equity-based mindset, and become civic leaders in their community.”

 Send feedback to Mallory Newell. Once the governance groups have reviewed the document it will be finalized in Fall 2018.

Annual Governance Reflection

The group answered the three questions as follows:

1. Reflecting on the work of your governance group over the past year, how did this work help fulfill our mission, values, strategic initiatives, Institutional Core Competencies, and commitment to equity?

The group completed program reviews within TracDat for the first time this year in line with all other planning and budget teams. Assisted with the writing of the accreditation follow-up report draft to meet ACCJC requirements. The group spent the primary amount of their time on budget reductions with a focus on trying to preserve services that had the greatest impact on services, identify alternative sources of income when available to reduce the impact on positions. The group invited presenters to share information on Guided Pathways, which are linked to the college's mission and strategic initiatives. The divisions completed all AUOs and assessments this year as well.  Reviewed the state budget information and how it will impact the college.

2. Reflecting on your governance group’s processes and practices over the past year, please identify what has been working and what changes you plan to implement over the next academic year to ensure continuous improvement.

The group identified that the Annual Program Review was too extensive and not applicable so will spend time in the fall refining the form to better fill the needs of the departments.  The name of the division was changed to better reflect how it serves the colleges. The group will explore with the district the timing of their meetings which often conflict with the all Administrators meetings, to hopefully set a consistent meeting schedule for next year.  The group would like to increase student representation on the committee, it was noted that having the schedule determined in advance would help with student scheduling as well.

3. Reflecting on your groups’ ability to disseminate information to its stakeholders, what are some strengths and weaknesses in regards to ensuring that all stakeholders are informed of the committee’s activities, processes, policies and decisions? How can you improve your process for information dissemination next year? 

A committee member emails the meeting minutes to Academic Senate who often shares the decisions and outcomes. This process will continue next year. Meeting agendas and minutes are posted online. Starting this month, each PBT will report out to College Council as a means to increase information dissemination. The union representative reports back to the ACE classified union during executive board meetings.

Additional Budget Reductions

Final reduction plans are due to the district in mid Fall 2018.

Additional $7.6 million in districtwide budget reductions approved by the Board of Trustees in May 2018. De Anza’s share is 50% or $3.8 million. Allocation at campus level is still being determined, but it appears our PBT’s portion will again be 9% or an additional $342,000.

As a reminder, the College’s share of the districtwide $17.6M deficit (Original $10M plus the additional $7.6M) is 50% or $8.8M. The Administrative Services portion of the cuts is: Tier 1 & 2 (implementation July 2018) $225k. Tier 3 and additional cuts (implementation July 2019) is now $567k for a total of $792k.

The district has stated that the dollar savings to be implemented by July 2018 must agree with figures from the FY2017/18 position control report. The cuts to be implemented by July 2019 must be based on figures from the FY2018/19 position control report.

Grey, Varela & Cheu met a number of times to review all possible options for the further reductions and are collaboratively presenting the plan for the proposed cuts as per slide 5 of the presentation. Cheu noted that the proposal was strategically aggressive and would have a significant negative impact to college services provided to both employees and students.

A part of the plan to address the additional reductions include eliminating a vacant cashiering position. This will impact the area by approx. 33% as there are only three positions in the department. This would directly impact service level to students. 

The administrative services reorganization proposal is confidential and cannot be discussed at this time. Cheu will report back on the outcome as soon as it is finalized one way or the other.

The plan has been amended slightly from previous versions as updated information became available.

Cheu asked the team to consider this proposal and present to constituent groups ready for voting at the June meeting. In the meanwhile, if there is feedback/suggestions/questions please email Cheu and Gore.

State budget update – Funding Formula

The most recent news is that there is still no final answer on the new funding formula. It has been though a few iterations the first being: 50% FTES  25% need based (Pell/BOG etc.)  25% achievement. Under this formula the district stood to lose $14M.

It would require a system change to try to capture the achievement portion of the new funding formula. Currently there are students who earn certificates but do not apply for them as they either do not know they have met the criteria or they are focused on a higher goal. A further area of concern is related to Financial Aid allocations for students applying for certificates. More investigation is needed in this area.

Under the needs-based portion of the new funding formula we are at a disadvantage as the cost of living in this area is very high which means that a lot of students earn over the maximum allowable for financial aid. This in turn impacts our district as we would not be able to count these students for the needs-based funding model.  As the district is state funded (apportionment) not property tax funded (basic aid) this funding formula will impact us greatly. However, it is not so for basic aid colleges as they are funded by property taxes. We would have to become smaller as a district in order to be able to be property tax (basic aid) funded.

There is a lot of politics at play but the prevailing thought is that the current State 100% FTES funding model is outdated and has to change.

The final proposal to Governor has to be submitted by June 15th which does not allow us time to plan.

The all online college has a lot of support. Guided pathways initiative is firm.

Recommendation to make sure that planning is happening at the district level to ensure that we look at the district holistically rather than two separate colleges.

Consider being more focused to ensure we still provide excellent education.

Cost of living is very high and that is reflected in hiring challenges.

Quick News:

The PBT has a new URL: www.deanza.edu/gov/apbt/

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