(0:00 - 2:30)
Now 6 o'clock p.m. and we will begin our regular meeting and we will begin with Regent Santana leading us in the invocation and the pledge Please join me in prayer Heavenly Father, we're just so thankful for this beautiful day in Baytown, Texas, and we're so thankful for the institution of Lee College Father we know this institution has been here for generations Impacted people many lives over the course of almost 90 years Father we just asked it as we deliberate this evening on what it takes to meet the mission of this institution the financial commitment that it takes that we just Do our best to make sure that we ensure we give the administration and every employee here the opportunity to provide service to our students That they deserve and that they will take with them for the rest their lives and improve their situation so father just be with us as we discuss and eventually vote and We know that the outcome will be whatever you call us to do all these prayers. I lift in Jesus name. Amen Please face the u.s. Flag. 

Please hand over your heart and repeat with me I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Texas flag One state under God one indivisible Next up, we have student spotlight. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to invite Elena Lopez to introduce our student speaker. I just wanted to introduce Brooke Braley just real briefly. 

I'll just tell you that we worked with International Education to plan a trip to Greece and we went in May and we took a group of students and it was myself and Dr. Naderi. So it was a combination of the art department and the social sciences. So these students took courses, art classes, art history, studio classes, as well as some sociology courses and they had the parameters of being able to go to attend and we went to Greece and we saw Athens.

(2:30 - 2:49)
We went to the Mycenae region. We went to Delphi. I had a great time. 

I think they learned a lot. We explored art, architecture, and all kinds of things. So anyway, one of the things they have to do is they have to prepare a PowerPoint of their experiences and what what impacted them the most while they were there and what they learned.

(2:49 - 3:33)
So we had a great time and so I would like to introduce one of my students, Brooke Braley, and she will come up and share her PowerPoint with you. Hi there. Thank you for inviting me here tonight. 

This is very kind. So one of the things that struck me most about Greece was obviously it's a country that has very rich culture and very rich history. They've been around for quite a long time and one of the pillars of their culture is their love and dedication to art.

(3:33 - 4:38)
And you can see a lot of the ancient Hellenistic period pieces in the museums and scattered around the city. But one of the other things that you'll see if you are, especially in Athens, is a lot of modern art things like graffiti. And it is, it's not exactly legal, but it is pretty encouraged because it's how the people express themselves and it's it was really interesting to see how the ancient period art and the newer age art converged and created something really, really great. 

So that's what I focused my presentation on. We got to see quite a few things. One of the things we got to see was the Parthenon and it was quite a trek up a hill for us to get there. 

And you're headed to this place that's been here since, you know, longer than any of my ancestors, I feel like. And it's still standing. But as you're going there, you're just seeing all of this modern graffiti all over the streets and all of a sudden you're just hit with like how extraordinary it is, this big building.

(4:38 - 5:01)
And I really, I really liked the way that that went down. This is just going more into the mix and the convergence between modern and ancient art. I'm sorry.

(5:03 - 5:45)
This was one of the better examples of that because you can see the graffiti here towards the side of the building. I'll try and bring the... And then you can see the statue here. One of the things that they really liked to do in ancient Greece was build sculptures into their actual buildings. 

So we see that a lot, especially at the Erechtheion, you see that. I think I have a picture of that on the next slide. The six, they call them karyotids. 

That's what it is referred to when you build something into a building. These ones here are actually replicas. The five of them are in the museum across from this and one of them is in the British Museum.

(5:45 - 6:03)
But I thought it was really cool that they were able to replicate that and build it back into the building. This was one of the ancient pieces that we got to see in the museum. It's dated about 530 BC.

(6:05 - 6:23)
And this was modeled pretty closely to the women built into that building. So as another piece we saw, this one was one of my favorites. It is short now, but when they built it, it was actually equivalent to 16 stories high.

(6:23 - 6:45)
So I tried asking how they were able to erect that. I didn't get a straight answer from anyone, but I did think that it was pretty extraordinary that they were able to do that. I don't even know if we could do that today. 

You see it was 13 meters here. This was the drawing of it. Someone actually drew out the structure itself and I really like the story behind this.

(6:45 - 7:08)
There's a lot of debate going on why it was built and who it was built for. But what they've landed on now is that it was depicting an entourage of Dionysus dancing women and they would go onto the hill with him and they would spend their time dancing for him to honor him. I'm now going to move into a couple examples of the modern art we saw.

(7:09 - 8:08)
The Greek people are very happy with their country, but they're also very upset with the way a couple things are running and they use the graffiti as a way to express that. This one was a young woman just stating that she's here to take up space. What really struck me with the modern art was that they're actually facing a lot of the same social issues that we face here. 

They have a lot of young people that are unhappy with the way their government's running things. They're unhappy with the way police are running things. They're unhappy with their economy and here, you know, we'll do things like protest or make peaceful demonstrations, but in Greece they really really express that through art and that's how they get their opinions and their beliefs across. 

This was a really good example of that. Unfortunately, the picture is quite small. I don't know if you can see but this is above an apartment complex and it says live your myth in Greece.

(8:08 - 8:57)
600 euro salary, 450 euro rent. Live your myth in Greece was a slogan that the country's government put towards to bring in tourists and they actually put in millions and millions of dollars for the Olympics a couple decades ago and it did not pay off and they have been relying solely almost exclusively on tourism since to fund their economy, but that leaves the people living there almost broke during non-tourist season and the government hasn't done much to help them with that. This one's a bit more volatile in its content, but you can see that they have a support for the LGBTQ community and they're also showing protests against their police force.

(8:57 - 9:36)
I was blown away when I saw that because I didn't realize how global these kinds of issues are and so seeing something that we see a lot here and that we deal with at home is also something they're dealing with there but that they're dealing with it so differently was really really interesting to me. Was I believe that's an anarchy symbol? I'm not quite sure but they they are is one of the more angry pieces that I saw on on the street. This here is a really great depiction of the combination of ancient and modern art.

(9:36 - 9:53)
I believe right there is Achilles and on the bottom is supposed to be Poseidon, but they did it in a very graphics art kind of way, which I thought was really neat. This was my favorite piece by far. It is a statue of Athena covering her eyes.

(9:53 - 10:25)
Unfortunately, I was not able to find the creator of this because it was in an art shop in Athens and the person selling it did not know who made it, but this by far was my favorite thing that I saw of the whole trip. As soon as I saw it, I had to go in there and really really try and learn as much as I could about it because it's really neat just looking at it, but the more you pay attention to it, the more you see the reason that it was made. And I believe that the blindfold, the paint, the gold, they all had quite significant meaning.

(10:26 - 10:51)
You can't see it, but along the base of the sculpture is written revolution with love and red. So I think that they're showing that they're still in love with their city and they're proud of it, but they know that things need to to be changed. And the blindfold over Athena is, I believe, the artist's way of depicting that they are ashamed of the state of their city and they would not want Athena to see it the way that it is.

(10:55 - 11:10)
I just zoomed in here so you could see a bit of the detail. I really like that they included the bleeding heart. I think that they know that Athena, if she were to come down, would still love them, but that she would be devastated with the state of how her people are being treated.

(11:12 - 11:30)
And in here, I just zoomed in on the base so you could see the revolution. They also put in amethyst, which is a stone that's used to represent peace and cleansing so they can make a change in their city and bring more peace to their people. And the butterflies also symbolize transformation, hope, and beauty.

(11:34 - 11:45)
This is really cool. I love talking about this. So I have, I'm a waitress and I have a regular who I've waited on her parents for about seven years and I've watched her grow up and I've watched her develop a love for art.

(11:45 - 12:21)
And while I was in Greece, she was actually at an art summer camp and we came home the same day and her mom had showed her a picture of a tattoo that I got of that statue that I just showed you and she drew it and she gave it to me and it really, really helped symbolize the way that we see art and we internalize art and we interpret it in our own way and that's passed on from person to person and generation to generation. So you have my rendition of the art that me and my tattoo artist made and then you have her rendition of it and I have that hanging on my wall. Actually, I think that that's really, really beautiful.

(12:24 - 12:55)
These are just a couple of the ways that I saw people expressing art in non-graffiti terms. So here you have about a hundred roses just strung between two buildings. I always wondered who did that. 

Is it the mayor or people just do it themselves? Someone just writing normal doesn't lead you anywhere on a trunk next to flowers. They actually just used regular flowers as art, which I thought was really cool using the environment. And this person really liked frogs, which I thought was cute because I don't but I'm glad that they do.

(12:58 - 13:11)
Lastly I had this rose. I do want to thank the school and Elena and everyone that sponsored this trip. It was life-changing for me. 

It was beautiful. I can't imagine having not gone on it now that I've been there. So thank you all for your time, and thank you for inviting me here tonight.

(13:17 - 14:06)
Okay, thank you very much for that. I do have a quick question. I noticed in the pictures a lot of things were written in English. 

Is that pretty common there, the English? Obviously you can't ask the Greeks. I believe that they... Great, thanks. Okay, next item on the agenda, disposition of minutes.

(14:07 - 14:20)
Board special meeting August 31st, 2023. Board committee, building committee meeting September 20th and regular board meeting September 21st. Do we have a motion? So moved.

(14:21 - 14:38)
Second. We have a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by Regent Santana. Is there any discussion or amendments to the minutes? Okay, hearing no discussion, all in favor of approving the minutes as submitted, say aye.

(14:39 - 14:49)
Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Okay, next item, report of the chairman.

(14:49 - 15:40)
I want to begin by saying that we all just got back, we all being the nine regents up here, we just got back from our annual conference of the Association of Community College Trustees. It was held in Las Vegas this year. We will have a workshop in the coming weeks to debrief on the various breakout sessions that we all attended, but some very good information and a little fun was had as well and also, one of the things that came out of that conference is a big congratulations to our vice chair Regent Moore-Fontenot on being elected to the ACCT Board of Directors as an at-large member, quite the accomplishment.

(15:44 - 15:53)
And would you like to say a few words? Oh, I sure would. Thank you very much. I know Weston's over there timing me.

(15:56 - 16:11)
This came as a surprise. It seems like it was a long shot, but it happened. I definitely want to say thank you to starting with Gilbert, who signed letters for me to be on committees.

(16:11 - 17:52)
Seems as though that's very important for being on the board and to Daryl for his ultimate letter of support that I could serve on the board. And for all of you that helped and passed out cards, or you just prayed for me, and our Mark Hemsel that was there with me every presentation that I made. I had to make five presentations to the caucuses across the United States and he gave me feedback. 

He said, shorten this, do that, and all of those kinds of things. And so I really do appreciate Mark. He said, yeah, help, and then he showed up and he was there before I was. 

So, you know, I really do appreciate it. And I appreciate Linda, my president, for support. And to Leslie and to Brian for creating the flyer that was used. 

All of those things are really important. So, I, it was easy for me to give a speech when I could look back and think about all the things that are happening good here at Lee College. For me to talk about all of the things we do for students that we're in Achieving the Dream College, and we know what hard work comes with that. 

Our SACS accreditation and how well we've done. Our RELA participation, Achieving the Dream College distinction. All of those things resonated with regions across the country. 

And so it's good to say we have a voice now at the national level. And I do appreciate each and every one of you for your support. Thank you.

(17:54 - 19:22)
And the last thing that I have is congratulations to our own President Linda Villanueva on her recent appointment to the Texas Association of Community Colleges Executive Board. Quite the honor there. And she's also recently joined the Mount Bellevue area Chamber of Commerce and will be representing us out there in that part of the coverage area. 

So congratulations. Next, Building Committee. All right, Mr. Chair. 

The Building Committee met Wednesday, October 18th. That was yesterday. We reviewed the status of the major projects that have been supported by one-time funding sources over the last few years. 

The 2021 Revenue Board funded $3.8 billion in projects for near completion. The 2022 Revenue Board funded $4 million projects, primarily ADA in nature. These projects will focus on building interior ADA concerns and recent safety concerns that have come to light. 

These projects have not been prioritized or started. The Student Resource Advocacy Center Advocacy Center project funded by the McKenzie Scott $5 million grant and lost revenue funds for a total of 6.7 million is nearing completion and it's been publicized there's a ribbon-cutting scheduled for November the 14th. Another $4 million in projects funded by the CARES Act resources are near 100% complete.

(19:23 - 19:44)
And another project is the McNair Workforce Renovation Project, which is about $3 million funded from lost revenue funds and these projects are near completion. So to summarize, these projects represent around $22.2 million in facilities improvements. Along with the 2018 $11 million revenue bond, we've put over $33 million into our facilities in the last five years.

(19:44 - 20:00)
I'll continue to state these have been one-time funding sources and are not continuous. We received updates on some campus environmental concerns that were identified and mitigated. The sources of these issues can be traced to losing humidity control in one building and discovering small leaks in some areas.

(20:00 - 20:14)
Employee awareness and reporting has also assisted in identifying and mitigating concerns. We received an update on the continuing sidewalk and ramp repairs and upgrades throughout the campus. The recent drought created some new challenges and plans for repairs were discussed.

(20:15 - 20:30)
We had a short discussion on the recently acquired property on Whiting Street. The administration will research options on either moving by interested parties or demolition. We received a hard copy and flash drive of the 2018 strategic facilities plan document.

(20:31 - 20:45)
We have a hard copy and a flash drive for everyone on the board. See David and he'll hand it to you. So after some discussion, we concluded that although the document is nearly five years old, it's still a relevant document to use for master planning of our facilities.

(20:45 - 21:13)
We will continue to develop a time schedule for this necessary process. So part of the discussion of master planning is the need for some buildings to be vacated and demolished soon. The administration is strategically utilizing our available facilities, relocating some of our programs. 

Our next building committee meeting has not been scheduled, but we plan to incorporate a tour of the cosmetology building. And that's all I have unless any of the committee members want to add anything to it. Thank you.

(21:14 - 21:25)
Policy committee. Yes, sir. We met today to talk about our policies and we have probably about ten to twelve that we'll be bringing forward for your review.

(21:25 - 21:35)
Yes, you will have a chance to see them before they actually make it to the agenda so you can review them first. But we will bring some more policies towards. Some of them are TASB recommendations.

(21:35 - 21:55)
Some are just clean up and then some for us to make decisions about whether we desire to change or not. Audit and investment committee. Yes, we did actually meet yesterday and we had a presentation from meter investments, which is formerly Patterson and just a quarterly update on our investments.

(21:56 - 22:11)
We talked with Julie kind of in depth with some items that she's been busy working on. She's been helping out with the bookstore, getting that kind of lined out and ready to go. She's been working with the foundation.

(22:13 - 22:27)
Talked about GASB 96 a subscription. Not exactly sure how to term it, but it sounds like it's going to keep you pretty busy for a while. So this girl's been working and then we talked about some fixed assets.

(22:28 - 22:36)
We will meet again. Hopefully next month. It's been a challenge to try to find a date for us the entire committee to get together.

(22:36 - 22:55)
But we will work on that. I do believe that the board will be getting a copy of the quarterly report sent to you. And that's that's all I have to report. 

Thank you very much. Next we have report of the president. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(22:56 - 23:17)
I'd like to begin with some information on corporate training. So we had five Exxon Mobil employees in our new advanced corporate training program for the area of analyzer technicians that began last week. And I wanted to recognize Marcia Tuhoff and her team because of their efforts there at the Center for Workforce and Community Development.

(23:18 - 23:48)
They've designed this training specifically for Exxon Mobil and this is a highly complex curriculum and in fact what I'm told is the most complex that we've ever actually had in terms of corporate training. And it was made even more complex by the fact that we had a number of supply chain issues and just at the same time this need for highly trained analyzer individuals who would be employed. So we partnered with Smith Analytics to overcome these barriers.

(23:48 - 25:27)
They were very helpful and our partners at Exxon Mobil are extremely pleased with this training and obviously that makes us very pleased. Yesterday I shared with the board two national publications on research that featured the partnership between Lee College and Goose Creek CISD. And in particular we were highlighted as a best practice for our efforts to increase both enrollment and student success for our shared dual credit students. 

But I want to especially thank Dr. Marissa Moreno and Anthony Perez who oversee our dual credit program and all of our partnerships with our ISDs. Because our work is truly making a splash. Not just locally, not just regionally and in the state, but nationally. 

And you can see that when you read these publications. So I just want to also thank the board for everything that you do to support these partnerships. They're very important to the college. 

And along those lines I want to bring to the board's attention in your agenda tonight that you will be looking at some modifications to essentially all of our MOUs with our ISD partners. And this reflects the changes that are necessary to adopt and implement the new FAST program. And that will allow us, as you know I've been talking about this, to provide free dual credit to all of our economically disadvantaged students in high school. 

So free tuition, free fees, free books. So we are just very excited to witness how this program is going to unfold in our community and the ways that this will impact lives for many generations to come. And we're just so pleased that so many new students will be Lee College students soon.

(25:29 - 25:48)
Wanted to also highlight the SBDC or the Small Business Development Center. They collaborated with the Dayton Chamber of Commerce and they held an event in Dayton at the end of September to help business owners maximize their marketing efforts. We had record-breaking attendance with 31 business owners participating in the two-hour event.

(25:48 - 26:10)
And I want to thank Linda Jones-Zabranek and her team for doing a great job as we grow our presence in all parts of our service area. And I think I also passed along an email to you in case you have any friends or partners that you'd like to share more information with about our SBDC. Next I want to tell you about our nursing pass rates.

(26:11 - 26:40)
So I'm delighted to share with the board that for the third year in a row our vocational nursing students have tested and passed at a hundred percent for their licensure exam. So this makes our passing rate for both our LVN and our ADN program a hundred percent this year. And by the way, this is the first time that our ADN program has achieved a 100% passing rate in the program's history.

(26:41 - 27:19)
That is huge. So I am so incredibly proud of all of the nursing faculty's efforts to completely revamp their curriculum, make the changes that were needed to deal with all of the renovations that have been happening in the facilities, and for the leadership of Dr. Janina Norris, who oversees all of our health care programs, and to Dr. Walser's for his leadership of our instructional programs. In other nursing news, I wanted to share with you that the ADN program just completed its national accreditation with the Accreditation Commission for Education and Nursing, or as we like to call them ACEN.

(27:20 - 27:45)
So they just completed their visit and similar to our tenure reaffirmation process with SACS, our ACEN visit is extremely rigorous. I'm proud to share with you that we received a preliminary report as they leave, and we're always happy to see them leave. We received yesterday that our program was found in a preliminary report to be in compliance with every single standard.

(27:46 - 28:06)
So this is noteworthy for two important reasons that I want to share with you. The first is that being in compliance for every single standard is a rarity and something that we just don't see. And the second is that eight years ago, we had an ACEN visit, and I'm just going to say that it didn't go as we wanted it to go.

(28:07 - 28:38)
And we had to do a great deal of reporting and compliance work, but that's not the case this time. So with a quality program, we see quality outcomes and quality reviews, and that was noticed by our ACEN team. But I'd also like to mention that I'm extremely grateful to our partners at Houston Methodist in Baytown, because as part of that visit, they had to do a review with our clinical partners, and our largest clinical partner is Houston Methodist in Baytown.

(28:38 - 29:43)
And we had a difficult time with a system-wide clinical partner coming to the meeting, and I picked up the phone and I called our CEO of Houston Methodist in Baytown, still for a little while longer, right, David Bernard, and he said, I'm on it. This is happening in two hours, but he said, if I can't get someone there, I will be on that meeting to represent the hospital. And that is huge. 

So Dr. Jennifer Vera was there to recognize our partnership, and she told me last night at an event that it wasn't hard at all to talk about how great the work and the partnership that we have with Lee College and with the hospital. And so, just very grateful to them and to David Bernard for supporting us. I wanted to share also with you guys that we received a Department of Education's Child Care Access Means Parents and Schools, or what we call a C-Campus grant, in the amount of two million dollars.

(29:43 - 30:05)
Two million dollars, okay. This is over four years and is going to be a complete game-changer for sustainable child care services funding. This is a new funding source for us, never had it, but it's similar to a Title V grant or a TRIO grant that we've received in the past, which means that once you've received it, it's much more likely that we'll receive it again.

(30:05 - 30:20)
I'd like to recognize Celia Taccone and her team for developing the grant application. I believe, Dr. Victoria Marone, that you also kind of did some work with this, and Kelly Ford Spears. And so, thank you for your leadership on that.

(30:20 - 31:04)
They've received, by the way, a 100 on that application. You can't get any better. And it was nice to be on an advisory committee meeting with Achieving the Dreams CEO, Karen Stout, who publicly and nationally recognized Lee College for receiving that grant. 

And so, that was a nice supportive mention from her. I wanted to also share that our own Sarah Tidwell, who's our Director of Advising, has been selected to serve as a Texas Accenture Community College Research Fellow. This is a distinguished position that's a year in length and is a highly competitive process.

(31:05 - 31:51)
In this role, she's going to be doing research with the Center, and she's going to be assigned a mentor. And she's going to have a research plan that relates to our work with Guided Pathways. She's going to apply that work to helping our Guided Pathways efforts, and she's just going to do great work with that. 

And this is, I believe, our second research fellow that we've had for Lee College. Dr. Laura Lane Worley has also served in that role and has done good work. And so, we're just very, very happy for her. 

And finally, I just want to thank everyone who was involved and supported our annual Foundation Gala. It was an absolute tremendous success. You may have read in the Baytown Sun that we surpassed the events, not only gross, but net proceeds.

(31:52 - 32:43)
And I'm so proud of our Foundation and Advancement teams led by Foundation Board President Gary Englert and our own Sella Taccone and her entire team who really worked tirelessly to ensure the event was a huge success. And for me, I can tell you it was a success because I was able to just completely enjoy the event. It wasn't work for me. 

It was just come in and have fun. We didn't notice anything wrong. Everything was just perfect for us. 

And so, I want to thank the board for your support of this immensely important event to raise funds for our students. And we're so excited that we're already beginning to plan for next year. So, thank you very much. 

That concludes my report. Okay, now we move into informational reports. We have the Title IX CEO report.

(32:45 - 32:57)
Happy to answer any questions. We're required by Texas Education Code to provide this annual report to the board. You have that in your packet, and if you have any questions, we're happy to answer them.

(32:58 - 33:06)
Something we have to do though, every year. Well, I have a question. I'm not a serious math guy, but I'm a simple math guy.

(33:07 - 33:44)
So, we usually appreciate that. Five reports and three somethings. So, were two of those reports just not reviewed? Not, no action taken? So, my understanding is that those two reports don't rise to the level of being required to do any, rise to the level of meeting the the laws requirement for being in violation in that area and needing further review. 

Dr. Kaufman is here though. And our new Title IX director, please. Got to come down.

(33:46 - 33:58)
Please come down to the microphone if you don't mind. So, yeah, that's pretty much it. It's whenever a report comes in.

(33:58 - 34:09)
Sometimes it doesn't rise to the level based on the definition. Whenever we do our investigation, sometimes it comes across as a different type of misconduct. So, the numbers don't add up all the time, but that's that's basically it.

(34:09 - 34:34)
Yes. Okay, I knew it was a simple answer because it's a simple question. But, so, it rose to the level of reporting because it's just been presented, but not to the level of any kind of disciplinary action or, okay, that's a simple question. 

I'm doing the math. Thank you. Next we'll move into resignations and retirements.

(34:35 - 34:45)
Mr. Chairman, I have one to report. Mr. Charles Thomas, full-time faculty in process technology. Long career, very long career, and we're very grateful for his service.

(34:47 - 34:58)
Very good. Next we'll move into the financial report by CFO Annette Ferguson. Thank you very much.

(35:14 - 35:36)
Okay, well, it's time to start a new year. Hard to believe. We will have auditors on campus next week, actually, and they'll start their annual review and so we'll be bringing final numbers back to you to you as that audit gets wrapped up.

(35:37 - 36:05)
But tonight what we're going to look at is the first month of our new fiscal year for the month of September of 2023. Our cash and investments remain strong. I will just remind you that the allocation of our state appropriations for this fiscal year is going to be different than what we've been accustomed to.

(36:06 - 36:29)
What we've been accustomed to is receiving an amount every month except for two months, and I believe it's December and January. But now we will be receiving three payments. Our first one was received during the month of October and the next one will be in February and then the final one I believe in July or June.

(36:29 - 36:46)
So we will have a different cash flow for this year. And so it may look a little squirrely to you just because it's not what we're accustomed to. But right now cash still remains strong.

(36:47 - 37:47)
As you can see our restricted is 25 million right now and once we finalize the audit for the year that we just wrapped up, we will be coming back to you with that final operating surplus and and make some recommendations to you as far as potentially allocating part of those funds back to facilities and or adjusting any any balance that we may need for our operating reserve as well. Looking at our tuition and fees right now with just the month of September we are at about 47% of our budget which is pretty much where we need to be. We may be just a little bit ahead of what we have budgeted but right now that looks pretty good.

(37:51 - 38:13)
As I already stated on our state appropriations the schedule on receiving those funds is different and so we did not receive any during the month of September. Our taxes. Taxes again will start coming in during the months of December and January and so the fact that this is low is not of a concern at this point.

(38:16 - 38:39)
Can I ask a quick question on the appropriations? I know we're looking at September, but you said we we did get our first payment in October ballpark. What was that? It's like 50% of our total allocation. But we're getting three payments and so the first one was approximately 50%? Yes, 50% of our total allocation and then 25 and 25.

(38:45 - 39:26)
For other revenue you can see we brought in about 275,000. Most of that came from our contract with TDCJ 117,000 and then we had some revenue recognized for housing and some gifts as well. Looking at our restricted funds we've got about $900,000 a little over $900,000 that would be available to be pulled down and we will be pulling that money down as soon as it is authorized at the at the federal level.

(39:28 - 40:03)
Looking at our budget versus year-to-date projections as I said before our tuition and fees right now we're we're looking at being a little bit over what our budget is. Everything else is pretty much spot-on, but it's still really really early and so we'll continue to monitor and report back. Our total projected net revenue right now again, this is very very early so but right now we're projecting a little bit of an operating surplus, but we'll continue to monitor.

(40:04 - 40:39)
Looking at our expenses right now the breakdown between our budget and our projected actual is pretty much right on target as my last slide showed. And if you look at the expense versus budget for the month you can see our debt service and our salary and benefits are very close. We did have we are a little bit under budget on our operating cost which has to do with some of our contracts and so as those come in we may see that flip back around.

(40:41 - 41:04)
Again projecting out year-to-date everything looks good. Right now we're projecting that we'll be right at 99.5 on salaries 98.3 on operating costs and pretty much right on with debt service. That is it unless y'all have any further questions for me.

(41:05 - 41:23)
Any questions? I'm just glad to see that the state is funding 50% early to give us the operating cash, right? Me as well. I think that's the first time that's ever happened, huh? Yeah. All right, thank you.

(41:33 - 42:37)
Okay, next up we have public comment. No one signed up to speak, Mr. Chairman. Okay, next we have consideration of new hires. 

The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. I move. Second. 

Okay, we have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Morfantino. Do we have any discussion on this item? We're voting on all hires one vote in consent. Yes, okay, all in favor say aye. 

Aye. Any opposed? Next, new business. All right, we have consideration of changes to dual credit MOUs.

(42:39 - 43:12)
On the verbiage here. Consideration of changes to dual credit MOUs to begin participating in the financial aid for SWIFT transfer FAST program. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to approve modified dual credit MOUs that conform to the requirements of the FAST program. 

Do we have a motion? So moved. Okay, I have a motion by Regent Morfantino and a second by Regent Hall. Discussion on this item? We're able to get all of them.

(43:16 - 44:00)
And it's a good thing because we have to have them all. Is there any concern that we will have an increase in students served and the impact that might have with staffing or the additional students that we may have? At this point, not a concern. Dr. Walters, do you want to talk about that at all? We've talked about it, especially in terms of just demographics in general, but we still don't know what's going to happen. 

That's our hope. Yeah, we want it. We want to have a problem for staffing.

(44:01 - 44:22)
We are hoping that this will bring about a significant increase in the number of dual credit students, especially from across our service area. And I think we can find the staffing. If they come, we will find the staffing for them.

(44:22 - 44:37)
Many of them will want to take dual credit classes at their high schools. And so that will be a concern because faculty have to travel to those high schools to provide those classes. But again, that's a problem that we want to have.

(44:38 - 45:06)
Do we have faculty at the ISDs that teach these courses? Most of the dual credit teachers at the ISDs are high school teachers who have been qualified by our faculty. But we do have some full-time and adjunct faculty who travel to high schools to provide classes. There are a relatively small percentage, but sometimes we have classes that need to be covered and we provide faculty for them.

(45:07 - 46:23)
But the majority of dual credit students are taught by ISD teachers that we qualify. That's correct. I asked that question because there has been a critical shortage of teachers in the public schools post COVID. 

So I'm just looking ahead. Is there a limit in the classroom size for dual credit just like any other course? Yes. You can't just up the number of students. 

Yeah, they cannot put 50 students in a classroom. Any other questions on this item? Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye. 

Any opposed? Okay. Next item. Was that the one we were going to pull? Yes. 

Okay. Do I need to do anything here? Okay, so this item is being pulled from the agenda, so we will move on to the next item. Okay, so the item is consideration of increases in course fees for nursing courses. 

We're not going to take action on that tonight. We're pulling that item. We'll take that up at a later meeting.

(46:26 - 46:53)
Okay. Next, consideration of approval of PBK architect's fee increase for the student center food bank. The administration recommends that the board authorize the President or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the fee increase of $23,651.44 to PBK architects.

(46:54 - 47:00)
I move. Second. A motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Geralds.

(47:01 - 47:21)
Any discussion on this item? What was the reason for the increase? It appears in the details this is a correction of a previous adjustment that wasn't made properly. Does that sound right? It was my mistake. We wanted to bring the AE fee increase at the same time we brought the change order.

(47:21 - 47:54)
We did not get the invoice in time from PBK, so we figured it ourselves, but the reimbursables were within the AE fee, so we thought we had $23,848 more in that side already. And then when we got the invoice from PBK, it was always $55, so that was the exact number that we found with the reimbursables. I think, and not at fault, but I think clarifying also is that architect fees are based on total construction fees, right? So as those construction fees go up, their percentage goes up.

(47:54 - 48:03)
The reimbursables was in the construction fees by mistake, and that was the exact amount. It happens. From estimated to actuals, it changes sometimes.

(48:03 - 48:10)
Had you brought it the first time complete, it would be this total amount. We will wait for invoices. It's all good.

(48:13 - 48:24)
Any other discussion on this item? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next, we have consideration of Oracle PeopleSoft annual maintenance and support.

(48:24 - 48:54)
The Administration recommends that the Board authorize the President or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the annual Oracle PeopleSoft support contract P996020000022 in the amount of $173,152.08. This contract is through the State of Texas Department of Information Resources, DIR-TSO-4158. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second.

(48:55 - 49:05)
I have a motion by Regent Morfano and a second by Regent Killery. Any discussion on this item? We're still moving away from PeopleSoft. That's our goal.

(49:05 - 49:48)
Well, it's not going to be supported in the future at some point, but we're not there yet. As long as we're with PeopleSoft, we have to maintain our… They're still doing it. Any other questions on this item? All right. 

All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next, we have consideration of the adoption of the 2023-2024 tax levy order and resolution.

(49:48 - 50:41)
I move that the property tax be increased by the adoption of a tax rate of 0.2101, which is effectively a 1.25% increase in the tax rate. Second. Okay. 

We have a motion by Regent Morfano and a second by Regent Santana. Discussion on this item? I have a question. What the variance between the no new revenue rate and the tax rate we're setting now in dollars, what does that equal? I think it's roughly half a million dollars.

(50:42 - 50:57)
I'm no CFO, but half a million or a million. We've been basing the penny at two million, so if you just do the math. So it's the difference between the rate we're setting and the no new revenue rate is about half a penny.

(50:57 - 51:03)
Is that correct? Close to a quarter of a penny. It's less than half. Okay.

(51:03 - 51:40)
0.0026. There are a lot of numbers, but I think this paperwork says 0.026. Okay. So a little over a quarter of a penny. Okay. 

I knew it was floating around a little bit. I would like to avoid a tax increase, and so for that reason, in light of the additional funding we got from the state of Texas, I'd like to move that we set our tax rate at the no new revenue rate and carry the difference just as a deficit. We already have a motion.

(51:40 - 51:48)
I move to amend the motion. I'm sorry. I move to amend the motion to set the tax rate at our no new revenue rate.

(51:49 - 52:00)
Don't we have to take action on the motion that is on the floor? We can amend the motion on the floor. That's not all the time. If the person that made the motion decides to amend it.

(52:00 - 52:08)
Yeah, the person that made the motion would have to agree to do that. Okay. And the second.

(52:09 - 52:29)
So currently we have a motion on the table. Is there any further discussion on the motion that's on the table? So we're a quarter of a penny above the no new tax rate. So we're within the number of .26. 500,000 or so of not a revenue increase.

(52:30 - 52:50)
I mean, it looks like to me we'd want to need to stay under the no new revenue. I mean, why would we not want to not do that to the taxpayers? Obviously, we don't need the money. Why would we not want to do that? Well, the building committee meeting I was in yesterday, we certainly have use for the money.

(52:50 - 53:12)
Okay, that would be a bond. If we need that much money, then we need to go out for a bond and ask the taxpayers for the money instead of just forcibly taking it from them as we're doing and trying accumulating all this wealth that we've accumulated on our own. We need to do right by the taxpayers and let them decide if they want to do a bond.

(53:12 - 53:22)
I think by investing in this asset, we are doing right by the taxpayer. We can use the money that we have now for maintenance. We don't have to build new buildings right now.

(53:23 - 53:31)
Well, we haven't been doing that. I mean, we've accumulated billions and billions of dollars and we haven't done it. And we talk about that every year and we still don't do it, Pam.

(53:32 - 53:44)
Go ahead. I'll just say that I think when we started this process, which I agreed with, we weren't chasing a number. I don't know anyone that chases a number intentionally.

(53:44 - 53:57)
We were looking at the mission of this institution and what it takes to carry out that mission. The additional funding we received, and we've had this conversation many times and there's many opinions. In my opinion, we received the money because we earned it.

(53:57 - 54:06)
And we didn't earn it by not spending money. We earned it by spending money. And in order to continue delivering what this institution delivers to our community, we have to keep spending money.

(54:07 - 54:27)
And then we have to reinvest into our facilities to deliver those services. I, for one, appreciate the efforts of everyone who's chasing a number, calculated by the county who can manipulate all the numbers they want. And I appreciate that we landed, unintentionally landed, a quarter of a cent from the no new revenue rate.

(54:28 - 54:43)
But I also wasn't chasing that rate. I think we had a robust discussion on the needs of the institution. Although we didn't formalize the priorities, at least the items we should look at, we did discuss each of those.

(54:44 - 54:54)
And just because the tax rate was the last on the list didn't mean it was the least important. It just meant that it wasn't the first. And when we chase a rate, we make that the first item.

(54:54 - 55:11)
And we don't consider the needs of the institution as given to us by the administration. So I think we went through a very healthy process and a discussion. And we're going to have the two same, you know, folks who are three, four, five, whoever, we'll find out when we vote, that feel the way they've always felt this whole process.

(55:11 - 55:18)
But I think we had a very good discussion. We did consider the taxpayer. We cut the tax rate one cent.

(55:18 - 55:27)
It's a quarter cent above the no new revenue rate, but we cut it a penny. We did that with intent. We considered the taxpayer when we looked at all the needs of this institution.

(55:27 - 55:49)
We didn't put one dollar of this budget into our cash reserves, not one, but we considered it, right? We cut our self-insurance because we considered the taxpayer and we cut out of that fund that we had originally budgeted more money. So I think we had a good discussion and we can revisit the whole thing all over again and be right where we were, you know, in the last two months. But that's all I've got to say.

(55:51 - 55:58)
Chairman, ma'am? Are you saying there's no money in the budget? I'm not saying that. There's a lot of money in the budget. The chair recognizes Regent Wharton.

(55:58 - 56:19)
So as a former employee here, I concur with former Regent Coffey in that we have not kept up our maintenance of our buildings, of our campus. It's a priority that we need to hold very high. I think that the students that go here deserve that.

(56:20 - 56:46)
I think our employees deserve that. And I think a half a million dollars spread through the city of Baytown is going to make a minuscule impact on all the taxpayers. Any other discussion? Okay, hearing no other discussion, all in favor of the motion that's on the table regarding the tax rates say aye.

(56:47 - 56:53)
Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Okay, let's do a show of hands.

(56:53 - 57:01)
So, okay, let's start over. All in favor, let's raise our hands. One, two, three, four.

(57:03 - 57:15)
Okay, all opposed? Okay, so we have six in favor and three opposed. The motion carries. The tax rate is adopted.

(57:16 - 57:22)
Okay. Executive session. Fantastic.

(57:22 - 57:30)
You mean we get to go home? This is before the Astros start. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

(57:31 - 57:51)
Okay, matters of concern for future agendas. Just real quick, on Senate Bill 17 has a lot of requirements on the college. What is our ‑‑ I'm not sure what our responsibility is, and maybe we need to have some information coming from our board attorney as to what regents' responsibilities are.

(57:53 - 58:16)
I actually visited briefly this question at our ACCT legal roundtable, and nobody had any answers, including the attorneys that are there from Texas. And so I would like that our attorneys begin to, if they're not looking into it, to informing us what our responsibilities are. I concur with Regent Hall.

(58:16 - 58:45)
I had a conversation with a state senator who said they explained to Dr. Villanueva what was not included in that bill, which, you know, if they can just say it without it being in writing, I think it would be good for us to have that official path forward for us so that we aren't going on the basis of what we're told by one senator. I would say, number one, the bill is not in effect until January. Item for future discussion.

(58:45 - 59:05)
I just wanted to say that. And, yes, our attorney is working, as is pretty much every attorney, and we're still not getting complete information on that bill and its impact. Dr. Walters, did you also want to make a comment? It's not an item on the agenda.

(59:06 - 59:28)
I just wanted to say that just, I think, four days ago, TASB released a memo about the impact of SB 17, and it includes some pretty clear paragraphs on the board's responsibilities. That part, I don't think, is really not in question about the board's responsibility. I mean, that is pretty well spelled out in the legislation.

(59:28 - 59:38)
It is, and I think TASB does a good job of summarizing it. It's for a future agenda. So we can address that item.

(59:38 - 59:40)
At some time. At some time. Okay.

(59:41 - 59:47)
Any other items of concern for future agenda? All right. Hearing none, we can move to adjournment.