Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Open Board of Directors Meeting
Norton Event Center
1601 E. Third St., Suite 138
San Bernardino, CA 92408
Minutes
Present: Patti Arlt, Deborah Barmack, Peter Barmack, Carole Beswick, Ken Coate, Jennifer Cusack, Kevin Dyerly, Sandra Espadas, Adam Eventov, Louis Goodwin, Jay Jimenez, Mark Kaenel, Lowell King, Pam Langford, Bill Lemann, Dale Marsden, P.T. McEwen, John Mirau, Dan Murphy, Roman Nava, Kevin Pulliam, Michael Rivera, Kristine Scott, Paul Shimoff, Phil Southard and David VanVoorhis.
Guests: Brad Chapman, Frank Reyes, Angel Rodriguez and Arnold San Miguel
Announcements: 1) Details and registration required for the White House tour has been emailed to the participants.
M/S/P: Minutes from April 17, 2018.
The San Bernardino Community College District (SBCCD) operates the San Bernardino Valley College (SBVC), Crafton Hills College (CHC), the Professional Development Center (PDC) and KVCR TV-FM.
SBVC and CHC provide high-quality affordable higher education for local students, professionals and veterans. Their student population of 21,000 is from some 20 cities across the Inland Empire. Our local community colleges are less expensive and ensure that students who cannot afford to go directly to Cal-State, UC or other private universities have the opportunity to succeed through academic programs and modern job training.
Taxpayers receive $3.30 dollars for every dollar invested in education. Students re-enter the workforce with new skills, empowering them to earn higher wages and salaries.
Our Community Colleges open new opportunities, so people can build or enhance careers.
The SBCCD:
- Works with K-12 on career readiness
- Partners with hundreds of local employers to train and retrain their workers
- Began a new fast-track STEM job training in electrical technology and water supply technology
- Simplified roadmap to bachelor’s degrees – New partnerships with University of La Verne and University of Redlands
- Is a statewide leader for raising grads’ income – CHC programs in business administration and child development helped boost student salaries by 75%
To continue building a quality workforce, quality colleges are needed. A recent report by UCLA shows that the Inland Empire is leading California in job growth. As local companies expand and demand for skilled workers grows, we need to improve classrooms, STEM labs and career training facilities to provide students with skills required for today’s and tomorrow’s jobs. We need our colleges to stay competitive, we cannot let our labs and classrooms for job training facilities become obsolete.
At CHC, the Arts Education building needs major work. Not only is it a resource for our local community, but Arts Education itself is a valuable trade in Southern California (1 in 10 jobs in California are part of the creative economy).
At SBVC, the fire protection and electrical systems in the Technology Building are in desperate need of replacement; and the building has a variety of ADA non-compliance concerns that need to be addressed. Without a truly functional, safe and up-to-date Technical Building critical job-training in water supply technology, automatic technology and electricity will not be able to adequately take place at SBVC for its students.
The following are priorities:
- Repair or replace leaky roofs, old rusty plumbing, and faulty electrical systems
- Upgrade classrooms, labs and career training facilities for biology, physical sciences, information technology, engineering, industrial technology, manufacturing, automotive technology and logistics, emergency medical services, anatomy and nursing
- Improve student safety and campus security systems including security lighting, security cameras, emergency communications systems, smoke detectors, fire alarms, and sprinklers
- Improve student centers to provide job training, job placement, counseling, and support services to students
- Improve access for students with disabilities
- Upgrade libraries to accommodate modern technology, digital resources, and improve instructional support for students
Prop. 51 was enacted in 2016 to fund new construction and modernization of K-12 schools and community colleges. However, none of the community colleges in San Bernardino County have received Prop. 51 funding. Advocacy is needed to help move funds to the County. But we cannot rely on state or federal funding alone to update our colleges and a local funding solution to help repair, upgrade and improve our community colleges is needed.
The SBCCD Board of Trustees is exploring a local bond measure to raise close to $500 million, which would mean about $44 tax for the typical homeowner. The Board won’t decide until this summer whether to place the bond issue on the 2018 November ballot. Polling shows 65% of local voters support a bond measure. To their credit, the District has earned high marks from their citizens’ oversight committee for sound and prudent financial management. Additionally, they have leveraged $200 million from the State in matching funds.
Today, we need more local funding, that can’t be taken by Sacramento, to make sure our local community colleges can keep working effectively for our region.
A Q & A period followed.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 a.m.