The meeting began with a fairly large number of faculty, students, and staff from the John Adams campus speaking strongly about the need to upgrade and improve the John Adams campus.
Later, the resolution on student equity and achievement gaps was taken out of order, first on the agenda. Many students, faculty, and community members spoke strongly in favor of the resolution. The Chancellor joined the parade, supporting it “100%,” including full implementation. The Board passed the resolution unanimously. Trustee Jackson’s leadership on the Board concerning this resolution should be especially acknowledged.
Steve Spurling reported to the Board on the annual ARCC report (Accountability Report for Community Colleges), on which City College improved or was flat on all but one of the seven measures.
Steven Glick and a student (unfortunately, I didn’t get her name) presented to the Board concerning the upcoming President Obama Celebration and Teaching and Learning Event. This included a draft of a letter to President Obama, inviting him to speak at the event. The event will take place on November 5, 2009, (one year after he was elected) from 9:30 AM to 2 PM in the Wellness Center. Stay tuned for more information as the date approaches.
Peter Goldstein reported that this fiscal year’s budget is looking decent because we have controlled spending, because we have had an increase in non-resident enrollment, and because we expect to earn growth monies from the state. Next year’s picture is not so rosy, especially if the propositions on the May 19 ballot do not pass. Estimates about how much we will lose in that scenario vary widely; suffice it to say it would be “difficult to protect” all District employees.
The District apparently owes almost $870,000 to the San Francisco Board of Elections for our Trustee elections. We paid $247,000 for the most recent Board election. Goldstein reported that in total the District pays the City and County of San Francisco about $1.5 million per year.
Goldstein reported on a conversation with the state regarding the money we are saving on the Joint Use Facility—basically, there’s a disagreement about how much of that money the District can keep and how much we might have to return to the state. Goldstein said that we will keep at least $1.2 million of the $2.9 million we are saving, but probably not all of it. He is hopeful that interest earned from the 2005 bond measure can be used to make up for the money we have to give back to the state and that we would like to use for improvements at John Adams campus (see the B5 resolution to newly appropriate $2.9 million to the John Adams project). Trustee Marks asked for—and received—a commitment from Jim Blomquist that there would not be a request to add funds to the Joint Use Facility at a future time. Further, Trustee Marks criticized the Facilities office and asserted that all the truth was not coming to light.
Trustee Marks consistently spoke about wanting a different and better process for bringing items to the Board.
The Board passed a resolution opposing Proposition 1A and in support of the removal of the two-thirds requirement to pass a state budget.
Finally, the Board approved a new master agreement with the CCSF Foundation, formally making it an auxiliary to and separate from the college.
