(0:00 - 0:31)
We're gonna call the meeting to order. We do have a quorum and we will start off with the invocation and pledge led by me. Okay, please bow your heads. 

Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us safely together tonight. Watch over us as we deliberate the business of the college. Help us to be ever mindful of the needs of our students, faculty, and staff, and we ask all these things in Jesus' name.

(0:31 - 2:04)
Amen. Okay, next up is student spotlight. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to invite Kaylee Villanueva, which is maybe a similar name, we're not actually related, but we know each other well, and she's going to introduce our student speaker. 

Good evening Board of Regents and President Villanueva. My name is Kaylee Villanueva and I would like to introduce you to Roberto Nunez. He is a local Baytonian, a graduate from Goose Creek, and I've had the pleasure of knowing this very humble and determined gentleman for four years and I'm seeing everything he's accomplished. 

We're gonna do things a little bit differently than we usually do. But first, I'd like to say, Roberto, if you'd like to stand to the board. Very nice to meet y'all, and I hope you all have a great day today.

(2:07 - 2:47)
So, what is something you would like the board to know about you? Well, I was diagnosed with autism when I was six years old, and I don't think it was a disability, I think of it more as a blessing and a gift. It makes me feel unique and different from most people, but it makes me feel good about myself. So, what are you studying? Physical education and technology, because one day I want to become a great teacher and a sports coach.

(2:48 - 3:30)
So, what are some things that have been important to you in the Lee College community? Oh, an example for those around me in the classroom and on the basketball court, because I'm also the team manager of the Lee College basketball team. And how long have you done that? Starting this year, three years. And he's so humble, he's not going to brag about this, but we've calculated he's devoted over 800 hours of community service working as a manager.

(3:33 - 4:01)
Thank you so much. So, Virgil, what are some things that you have felt have both been a challenge and have also pushed you toward success in your personal life and here at Lee College? Let's see. Can you read the question, please? So, you've shared with me some things that have happened in your personal life that have helped push you further toward your success here at Lee College.

(4:02 - 4:12)
Would you care to share those with the board? Yes. Okay. Well, first, none of my family has gone to college, and I'm a first-generation college student.

(4:12 - 4:46)
And most people who are autistic like me, percentage-wise, most people like me who have autism don't go to college, but I want to change that for the community and maybe more and beyond, and also my family as well. I'll try to be a good example for Lee College and for us here, you know? There are some other personal things that have impacted your journey here at the college. Do you care to share those? Yes.

(4:49 - 5:18)
Well, first, two years ago, on December 6th, 2021, my dad passed away at 58 years old from a heart attack. My father was going to take him home for Christmas, but unfortunately, he was my hero. He made everything to me, and he always made me feel like I'm different and special, and it's not worth giving up.

(5:18 - 5:42)
It's not worth laying down and just calling quits. I miss him so much, and he's the greatest, and it's great because my school team was right behind me since I told them that. Everyone here at Lee College, I feel like I matter, and I'm a family, and this is my second home here.

(5:43 - 6:18)
This is like a second family to me, and that means a lot to me to be a Lee College student. Are there any programs at Lee College that have made a difference in your academic success? Yes, being part of the access department. Because I don't think without it, I don't think I would have done this well as a college student or as a person.

(6:18 - 6:30)
I miss Kaylee, I miss Claire, my tutor. We want people like them because they actually care, and I get a good job because they care. I miss Kaylee right here.

(6:32 - 6:51)
To clarify, the tutor that he's speaking of is actually one of our transition specialists that works with our Connecting to College program. It's a unique program that we have designed and geared toward serving the needs of neurodivergent students, and we welcome other students into it based on need. Berto has been a big part of that and was one of our first success stories.

(6:53 - 7:00)
Thank you, Berto. Is there anything else you want to share with the board? Let's see. I think so, yes.

(7:03 - 7:23)
I may be autistic, but that doesn't mean I can't chase after my dreams or capture my dreams. Like I said, I don't think it's a blessing. It may be challenging at times, but it's definitely a gift from God.

(7:24 - 8:06)
I want to change my story, I want to change my life, I want to change where I am right now. Thank you so much. You are representing us very well. 

You represent us very well. Thank you. That was better than anything we're going to possibly talk about here.

(8:06 - 8:27)
Okay, next on the agenda is disposition of minutes. Special board meeting January 16th, building committee meeting January 17th, board meeting January 18th, and policy committee meeting January 24th. Do we have a motion on the minutes? So moved.

(8:27 - 8:36)
Second. We have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Geralds. All in favor of adopting the minutes as submitted, say aye.

(8:37 - 8:58)
Aye. Any opposed? Next, report of the chairman. The first thing I would like to report, I don't have a lot tonight, but I will say that we had a legislative summit in Washington, D.C. last week.

(8:58 - 9:13)
Several of us were able to attend. We had some very good presentations in the general sessions, and we also had some very good breakouts. We had a particularly really good meeting with Congressman Babin.

(9:13 - 9:24)
That went very, very well. He spent a full half hour with us, and it was some good give and take. And so it was my first legislative summit, and I'm looking forward to going back next year.

(9:25 - 9:46)
And my last item is I want to give a shout out to our very own cover girl up here on her feature in the Baytown Sun for Black History Month. Our pioneer here. Thank you very much, and thank you to the Baytown Sun for asking to cover my story.

(9:47 - 9:56)
Appreciate that. Next up, we have building committee. Mr. Chair, the building committee met yesterday, February 14th.

(9:56 - 10:21)
We had a discussion on the ongoing projects around campus, and we also had some discussion on the progress on the, whatever we call it, RFP, RFI, whatever it is, for hiring a company to help us with the facility's master plan or strategic master plan process. And what else? That's all I can think of. I usually write it down, but.

(10:21 - 10:50)
I think we also talked about recommendations for supporting ADA issues around the campus as well as a recommendation on some other items. Yes, we had the first round of recommendations for some funds that we made available to handle the rest of the ADA concerns around the campus. And I think what we did do is we, along with the information that was presented to us, agreed that the buildings that we know are going to still be around for quite a while, we should move forward with the ADA improvements.

(10:50 - 11:10)
Buildings that may be questionable when we get to the strategic master plan for facilities, we should hold off on those right now so we don't put funds into something that we may not be using down the road. And I believe there will be some security and safety projects that will be brought to us to consider for the remaining funds that we have. So, you know, it's a lot of good discussion.

(11:10 - 11:28)
We're doing a lot of great things around this campus, as we've been doing for quite a few years. I keep bringing this up, but we're doing great things with the funds that we've had available to us, both excess revenue, CARES Act, McKenzie Scott, all those funding sources. We just continue to improve around here as best we can with what we have.

(11:29 - 11:37)
We're being very efficient with it, very mindful. We just look forward to continuing the process. Policy committee meeting.

(11:38 - 11:47)
Yes, sir. We met at the end of January. We went through a lot of policies, some of which are on the agenda tonight.

(11:47 - 11:59)
I would go into a lot of detail, but I were unable to go home and get my notes before coming tonight. But there's a lot of detail in the packet. So those that are on the agenda, you have the information on.

(11:59 - 12:16)
But we are actively trying to take care of all of Tasby's updates. There are some of them are just cosmetic. And then there are some of our own that we're addressing as far as local, which is our board policies on our duties and responsibilities and things like that.

(12:16 - 12:29)
So we'll have more details later. There's more policies to come, but there are a few on the agenda tonight. We were scheduled to meet last month, but we had a scheduling conflict, so that was canceled.

(12:30 - 12:38)
And I'll be getting with the committee about rescheduling here at some point. It's been a pretty busy month for administration, too. So we'll get it scheduled.

(12:41 - 12:51)
Report of the program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't ordinarily start my report in this way, but I wanted to recognize a special guest that we have with us in the audience.

(12:52 - 13:13)
She's joined by Paula, and her and Paula are in the choir together, I think, at their church. But she's with Suzy Ummel, who was married to Mr. Roy Ummel, who was a 30-year employee in the area of physical education here at Lee College. And she and I had a nice conversation and just talked about how much Roy loved Lee College.

(13:13 - 13:23)
And apparently, he made a good hire that's still here, Karen Guthmiller. We're glad about that. And many other contributions that he made to the college.

(13:23 - 13:38)
So thank you so much for being here with us. Any excuse to get former employees here, and even their spouses. Thank you so much.

(13:39 - 14:37)
I wanted to kind of tag off of Chairman Fontenot's initial report about ACCT and just recognize those and appreciate those that went to the conference, but also wanted to kind of echo, though, that in a lot of different meetings that I had, I had visits with obviously other college presidents, but also with trustees at other colleges. And I had the opportunity to visit one-on-one with Dr. Walter Bumpus, who's the president and CEO of AACC. And it was quite nice to hear both of them kind of echoing and praising two of our regents who are here, Regent Susan Moore Fontenot, who's on the board of ACCT, but also Regent Guillory, who serves on a committee of governance and bylaws.

(14:38 - 15:01)
And what Dr. Bumpus said was great things are happening at Lee College, and he was very pleased to know that there was leadership at this level participating in ACCT. But also wanted to echo thanks to Regent Susan Moore Fontenot for participating in a panel about board governance, and we appreciated her efforts there as well. Thank you.

(15:03 - 15:07)
Let's see. I wanted to discuss spring enrollment. It's been a little while since we've talked about enrollment.

(15:07 - 15:18)
I guess it's only been a month. We did talk about it a little bit then. But we passed the official reporting day, and I'm pleased to report that our enrollment is 3% above what it was over last spring.

(15:18 - 15:39)
We are at 82, 8,237 students. And I think there's something special about the number three, in that it not only represents our increase in percentage in enrollment, but it also is the increase in the number of lives, obviously, who are transforming. But it also represents the third semester in a row that our enrollment has increased.

(15:39 - 16:16)
And as I shared with the board last month, while enrollments are generally increasing across the nation, the enrollment across the nation is still lacking in approximately a million students. And I really want to emphasize, though, that as I shared with the board last month, we lost one of our biggest registration days due to the Arctic storm. And so under the leadership of Dr. Marissa Moreno, who's filling in for Scott Bennett, she was able to work with Dr. Walters and all of the staff that report to her and ensure that we had, again, an increase in enrollment.

(16:16 - 16:36)
And so we're just so happy to see those efforts, very pleased and very proud. And again, to know that, again, 3% more of our students are going to have their lives improved, the quality of those lives improved. I want to share one of the highlights of our celebration of Black History Month.

(16:36 - 16:54)
So last Saturday, some of us went to a performance that was titled If You Loved Me. And that tells the story of a struggling marriage within the context of their church. And the author of the play is a native Baytonian who is known as Stacey J., Stacey Harrell.

(16:55 - 17:07)
And we were delighted to be presented with a scholarship to the foundation that she presented to us in the amount of $1,500 at the end or at the reception, but also at the end of the play. And we had no idea. So we were very pleased to have that.

(17:07 - 17:15)
But over 400 tickets were sold. So it was a very successful performance. And it was delightful to just see so many people from our community attend the event.

(17:15 - 17:42)
It received a great deal of attention and was attended by several elected officials, including Congressman Sheila Jackson Lee, who presented Lee College with an official proclamation. Judge Lucia Bates, Goose Creek CISD trustee Jim Campisi, who works with us as well, and our own Regents Guillory and Hall. So I want to offer special thanks to Regent Guillory, who introduced us to the playwright.

(17:42 - 18:05)
And I would say with record time, we were able to put on the performance. But only because Cella Taccone, who is our chief advancement officer and executive director of the foundation, in collaboration with Noah Dobbs, who is our director of the Performance Arts Center, they worked tirelessly and furiously to put on this performance. And we appreciate all of their efforts.

(18:06 - 18:25)
So thank you. Let me speak for a moment about our men's basketball team. In addition to having Berto, who serves our men's basketball team very well, if you attended last night's game, it was quite the spectacle, would you say? Yeah.

(18:25 - 18:32)
Yes, I would characterize it as maybe a blowout. But I try to be nice to our friends. So we faced Jacksonville College last night.

(18:33 - 18:39)
And we won by, I don't know, over 50 points? 40-something. Yeah, close. Are you sure? It was almost 50.

(18:39 - 18:49)
It was over 40, yeah. It was a lot. Enough, though, I mean, if you ever watch one of these games, and I will tell you that, I don't know, I kind of feel like Regent Santana feels the same.

(18:50 - 19:06)
But if you ever watch Coach Wade out on the court, it doesn't matter if we're up by 100 points. That man is so engaged in the game. And he is coaching his athletes until the very last second.

(19:06 - 19:24)
And I'm just in awe of that. So we are currently ranked number 11 in the nation, number 9 in the media poll, but number 11, still doing very well. And we just learned that our proposal to host the Region 14 tournament was accepted.

(19:25 - 19:46)
Yes! That means that we, college, and in our arena, we will be hosting the Region 14 tournament in years 2025 and 2026. So for two years, we'll have that tournament. And I think it's going to be great for the local economy.

(19:47 - 19:51)
I'll let the city know that. Oh, you'll let them know. Well, you know, you're retired now.

(19:51 - 20:03)
I'll still tell them. Okay, okay. But I wanted to recognize the efforts of Coach Wade under Annette Ferguson, because you were part of this proposal as well, Annette.

(20:03 - 20:17)
So I'm going to toot your horn a little bit. But there has only been one other time in the college's history that we have secured that bid. So just tremendously proud of our efforts to submit that proposal and to see it be chosen.

(20:18 - 20:34)
And we have a nice hotel to have people stay, so it'll be good. It'll be great. I want to also share with the board our recent notification of a special grant that we've received called the Pathways from Prison to Post-Secondary Education.

(20:35 - 20:47)
The gift is the result of two funders here in Texas. One is the Greater Texas Foundation, and that was in the amount of $500,000. The other is from the Trellis Foundation, which is in the amount of $250,000.

(20:47 - 21:18)
And the grant is focused on supporting students at our Huntsville Center in the high-demand field of logistics, where they can earn three stackable credentials in one year, but they can also get into other programs as well. But it's going to provide our students at the Huntsville Center in one particular unit pathways to the Lee College campus as well, where they're going to receive wraparound support services for basic needs and support for students in tuition. And the project period is three years, and we expect to serve at least 200 students.

(21:18 - 22:09)
We've received a great deal of recognition for this program, and our own Selah Tacconi, she was recently interviewed by Elizabeth Troval for her NPR Marketplace show, and it was such a hit, that interview, that she decided to extend and broaden that story with the focus on the grant In addition to that, she is interviewing Brandon Warren, Donna Zuniga, a graduate of our Huntsville Center program, and a current student at Plain State, which is where the grant is focused. But it is really focused on prison education with a focus on the new grant and just leadership in these types of programs, and we certainly are a leader in this area. But I'll be sure to provide the board with updates on when that release comes out so that you can see it for yourselves.

(22:09 - 22:50)
Next, I want to offer a very heartfelt thanks to Regent Warford and her husband, and she credits her husband more on this one, and I'm just saying what you told me, who surprised us by generously donating $50,000 to the Lee College Foundation. And Selah is working with Chris and Regent Pam Warford to determine how they want their gift to be distributed, but we're so grateful to them for giving from their heart to Lee College and supporting this great institution. Thank you so much.

(22:50 - 23:17)
And I'd also like to thank Foundation Board member Rusty Sennack and his wife Jenny for endowing two new scholarships to the foundation. And again, we're just so fortunate to live in a community that loves this college. And I was just telling Susie earlier that that's one of the things that I love most about serving this college, is knowing that I've never seen another community love a college like this one.

(23:18 - 23:37)
And it's great to serve in a place like that. Finally, I want to offer congratulations to our colleague, Dr. Randy O'Brien, who you may know was recognized as a distinguished educator of the year by his alma mater, Sam Houston State University, and it certainly will deserve praise for him. So I just wanted to recognize Dr. O'Brien.

(23:38 - 23:41)
That concludes my report, Mr. Chairman. Very good. Thank you very much.

(23:42 - 23:54)
Okay, we'll move right into informational reports and report of Lee College resignations and or retirement. I have two resignations to report. One is D'Angelo Johnson, Shared Dual Credit Advisor.

(23:54 - 24:26)
The other is Jessica Marshall, Shared College Coordinator, Goose Creek CISD. I just have a question. Those are shared. 

Are we the lead in hiring those employees? I would say we are, as we also, I think, pay the majority of the benefits, which makes us the employer. Is that right, Dr. Walters? The search committee has people from both organizations. The cost, including benefits, is split half and half.

(24:27 - 24:31)
But we are the employer. Okay, we are the employer. Okay, thank you.

(24:33 - 24:48)
Okay, if there's no more questions on that, we'll move into financial report. Thank you, Chairman. Board, I'll start out with just saying one word.

(24:49 - 24:58)
Everybody's been anticipating the arrival of pickleball. I meant to put that in my report. You've got me.

(24:58 - 25:27)
But the pickleball courts are done. We have four courts ready to be used. And just so you know, one of our foundation chair, Gary Englert, he was kind of leading the challenge to have the pickleball courts.

(25:28 - 25:38)
And he told me already that he's already on his next item to look at, I think, racquetball as well. So that may be coming up. I just wanted you to know.

(25:38 - 25:45)
Well, thank you for that. Yeah, well, it was just late last night that he talked about it. And your comment reminded me.

(25:45 - 25:51)
Thank you. Okay. And then one other just little tag to the basketball team.

(25:52 - 26:00)
They do have a game this Saturday. So if you're free about four o'clock on Saturday, come out. They're playing Angelina.

(26:02 - 26:13)
Yeah, that one. And so and we need to win this game. If we win this game, then that means we get a bye in the first round.

(26:13 - 26:31)
So the regional tournament is March 12th through the 16th or so. And so if we win, then we will not have a game until Thursday of the week of the regional tournament. If we lose, we might have to play on Tuesday.

(26:31 - 26:35)
When we win. When we win. There we go.

(26:35 - 26:40)
Okay. Now for my other job. So.

(26:41 - 26:45)
Tyler. Tyler. So the financial.

(26:45 - 26:58)
Oh, I'm sorry. The financial reports that we'll be covering tonight are results as of the end of January. So five months, 42% of our fiscal year.

(26:58 - 27:19)
Our cash remains very strong. We have been collecting our tax revenue, which, of course, January and February, very, very heavy months for those revenues. And we are also anticipating another allocation of our state appropriations during the month of February.

(27:21 - 27:40)
This will be the second one, right? That's correct. So looking at tuition fees versus our budget, we're at almost 86%, which is very good. We are anticipating that we will be over budget on our tuition and fees.

(27:40 - 27:54)
So that is looking very strong. I just spoke about our state appropriations. Our taxes, as I said, our collection on Edwarum taxes has been very strong.

(27:55 - 28:14)
We got a nice little bump in our revenue in lieu of tax. We had budgeted 1.5, and we've actually received 2.3 million in those tax dollars. Didn't we get a nice little bump last year in that category as well? We did.

(28:14 - 28:20)
We did. And so we upped our budget this year. But now we got another little bump.

(28:23 - 28:30)
Other revenues still remain strong. We're pretty much right on track. Of course, our interest has been strong.

(28:31 - 29:02)
With the tax revenues that we brought in, we'll be, again, meeting with our investment advisors and staggering out, laddering out that money to support our budget between now and the end of the fiscal year. Restricted funds, federal, state, and private grants. Federal, we have about 700,000 that's available to be pulled down.

(29:03 - 29:18)
426 of that is Title IV money, so we'll be pulling that down very shortly. And the other big part is Perkins, which we'll be pulling that down as well. Budget versus actual year-to-date projected.

(29:18 - 29:42)
As you can see, as far as revenue goes, we are projected to exceed our budget in every category. Our total projected net revenue right now is 3.5 million. For expenses, our expenses are following our budget very closely.

(29:42 - 30:09)
We still have basically the same allocation between salary, operating, and debt as we budgeted, so all of that is tracking just fine. When you look at the monthly, I think we're going to have a swing on the operating costs between this month and next month. It's just a timing issue, so all that's looking good.

(30:09 - 30:33)
Year-to-date, we are tracking to be a little bit under budget on operating costs as well as salary and benefits. And projecting out through the end of the year, salary and benefits, we're looking at about 98% of budget. Operating costs, about 96%.

(30:35 - 31:06)
And that is my presentation, unless someone has any questions for me. What accounts for the about 4% in less expenses than budget? Is there any big item or just a combination of everything? It's mainly a combination of everything. There are some expenses that we haven't actually had them yet.

(31:06 - 31:40)
We had budgeted some amounts in anticipation of the FAST program, and so we implemented that program for the spring term, not for the fall, and so we haven't identified all of those costs yet. We're still trying to wrap our hands around that, so I anticipate that that's going to be coming down some because we will be recognizing those expenses as we fully implement that program. Thank you.

(31:41 - 31:51)
Any other questions for Annette? Moving right along, next on the agenda, public comment. No one signed up to speak, Mr. Chairman. Moving right along.

(31:53 - 31:59)
Yes, okay. Dr. V forgot something earlier, so we're going to get her. Not just pickleball.

(31:59 - 32:44)
Yeah, yes, sir. I forgot to recognize that we have a special birthday, and that's that Lee College is turning 90 on February 24th, and we've been working under the leadership of Brian Waddle, who is taking us through a number of activities that we'll be celebrating, and some of you have seen our taglines and different things in different places, but I wanted to pass around an advertisement that's going to be in the sun and a couple of other areas, and I wanted to let you know. Brian, do you want to tell them what they're receiving? Yes, so these T-shirts run a little small, so David and I tried to guess what sizes, but don't be offended if you get something that's too big.

(32:48 - 33:01)
But they run small, so if you need a different size, just let them know. I've already got mine. This is nice.

(33:03 - 33:20)
Can we get one of those posters? Sure. More posters. It's nice, very nice.

(33:23 - 33:36)
Dave, you want one? Here. Oh, I thought you were going to sing happy birthday to us. Pull it back up, Gilbert.

(33:45 - 33:50)
Thank you, sir. Mine is not an extra large, that's all I'm saying. That looks good.

(33:50 - 34:10)
Thank you. David, you gave me an extra large, I'm hurt. They're very soft, I can tell you that.

(34:11 - 34:15)
There you go. That one's not bad. It's good.

(34:15 - 34:23)
It's not bad. All right. Thank you.

(34:24 - 34:46)
Okay, next on the agenda under items of action, personnel. Okay, we've got a consent agenda that I need to read here. Okay, consideration of new hires.

(34:46 - 35:07)
The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. Do I need to read these names? Okay, and we will entertain a motion on the consent agenda on the consideration of new hires. Okay, I've got a motion by Regent Gerald and a second by Regent Hillary.

(35:08 - 35:19)
Any discussion on the new hires? Okay, hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(35:19 - 35:32)
Moving on now to new business. Consideration of adoption of new policies. Let's get this.

(35:34 - 35:55)
Okay. The administration and board policy committee recommend that the board approve and adopt the revisions to local board policies as presented and recommended by Texas Association of School Boards, TASB, update 44, 45, excuse me, and two other policies. Do I have a motion on this? Motion, so moved.

(35:56 - 36:29)
Okay, how about a second? Okay, I've got a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Morfaw. No discussion on this item? Regent Guillory, can you tell us a little bit about what these two policies are? I could if I had my notes, but yeah, so I can definitely tell you and it may have to come up, but the one in relation to the board powers, this is just our request to move to align the president's evaluation time. And so that's specifically why we did that one.

(36:29 - 36:56)
And then BCA, it's the board officers and officials. I think that one was just us making sure that we aligned our processes with what our handbook says. So the process by which we go through that is defined in our handbook, which we did at our retreat a few years ago.

(36:57 - 37:05)
So we're aligning the policy with what's already in our operating handbook. It came back to me. Thank you.

(37:06 - 37:17)
Anyone else have any questions regarding the policy adoption? Hearing no further discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right.

(37:25 - 37:38)
Next, consideration of approval of the academic calendar for January to December 2026. The administration recommends that the board approve the academic calendar for the 2026 calendar year. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved.

(37:39 - 37:44)
Second. Okay. We have a motion by Regent Hall and a second by Regent Hillary.

(37:44 - 38:13)
Is there any discussion on the academic calendar? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Next, consideration of a memorandum of understanding with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for educational programs that serve TDCJ employees.

(38:13 - 38:27)
The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to approve the TDCJ MOU for educational programs to serve TDCJ employees. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved. Second.

(38:28 - 38:44)
Okay. I have a motion by Regent Hall and a second by Regent Warford. Discussion on this item? There is a term in here that was described, and as I was reading it, it's what's force de majeure.

(38:45 - 38:51)
Force majeure? Force majeure. That's an interesting term. Oh, it's an insurance term.

(38:52 - 38:54)
Oh, okay. Matters beyond our control. Yep.

(38:54 - 39:07)
So, that was my vocabulary word for today. If you work in the world of finance, you see that word all the time. So, I have a question.

(39:07 - 39:20)
So, where are these employees taking their courses? Online. And they're from all over the state? They are from all over the state. So, these would be our 100% online programs.

(39:22 - 39:34)
This is just a follow-up to the board's approval of the reduced tuition rate. Nice perk for those employees. I'm glad that we were considered to be one of the providers.

(39:37 - 39:42)
Okay. If there's no more discussion on this item, we'll bring it to a vote. All in favor, say aye.

(39:42 - 40:02)
Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Next agenda item, consideration of three-year contract with ShareStream video platform.

(40:02 - 40:23)
The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the contract with ShareStream in the total amount of $72,600. This contract is through the State of Texas Department of Information Resources, DIR-TSO-4299. I have a motion on this item.

(40:23 - 40:25)
So moved. Second. Okay.

(40:25 - 40:37)
I've got a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Geralds. Discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor, say aye. Aye.

(40:37 - 40:58)
Any opposed? Okay. Next item. Consideration of contract with DataVox for Cisco Unified Computing System upgrades.

(40:58 - 41:28)
The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the contract with DataVox for Cisco UCS upgrades in the amount of $193,370.84. This contract is through the State of Texas Department of Information Resources, DIR-TSO-4299. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved. Do we have a second? Second.

(41:29 - 41:44)
We have a motion by Regent Morfantino and a second by Regent Warford. Any discussion on this item? Are we, do we have any other contracts with DataVox? I'm not aware. Say they were the most.

(41:44 - 41:59)
I'm not aware. Good evening. We have had contracts with DataVox before.

(42:00 - 42:10)
So yes, we have. Any other questions or? I just asked because they were the low bidder. Oh yes.

(42:11 - 42:28)
But a good bidder. Yes. And they're throwing in education credits and 24-7 support and all those other things and deployment services, which will be very good to help our network manager, Luis Hernandez, that's with me tonight.

(42:30 - 42:32)
Thank you. Thank you. Okay.

(42:33 - 42:39)
If there's no more questions on this item, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right.

(42:52 - 43:08)
Next, we have submission of Vision 2028 with updates as approved by the board on August 17, 2023. The administration recommends that the board accept Vision 2028 with the approved updates. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved.

(43:09 - 43:14)
Second. Okay. I have a motion by Regent Morfantino and a second by Regent Orford.

(43:15 - 43:28)
Discussion on Vision 2028. I've got a couple of items. And I'm not sure the timing that we should be adhering to.

(43:29 - 43:36)
These are recommendations that came from a meeting in August. Is that correct? These were approved changes from the board in August. Okay.

(43:37 - 44:00)
So this is really a record of what was approved. Will we be taking up some of the, Senate Bill 17 has some requirements that we have in our mission statement and I'm assuming this is a quote to a mission statement that we have. And there are several other things that are in this statement that are not reflective of what the new Senate Bill 17 should be in the area of equity.

(44:01 - 44:32)
Are we going to be addressing that in a future meeting? I want to ask Dr. Walzers as a resource because we both know about Senate Bill 17 and I don't understand that our vision document and strategic plan is in concord with Senate Bill 17. Well specifically, Senate Bill 17 talks about hiring in section 519318. It talks about the hiring process.

(44:32 - 44:40)
I believe I've got the right one. I may have added the wrong paper. But it talks about the hiring process and it's going to be rate neutral.

(44:40 - 44:46)
I'm just using my language. Okay. And our equity statement doesn't reflect that.

(44:46 - 45:07)
It's the same equity statement that we've had from the past. But our equity statement does indicate that we're going to be potentially favoring certain groups based on race or ethnicity or a bunch of now prohibited by Senate Bill 17 groups. And I'm wondering if you've gotten an opinion on that.

(45:07 - 45:29)
Has our attorney read this? What our vision statement is or the requirements of Senate Bill 17 are? Before you answer, in the strategic plan, which section? Are you talking about in the equity part? I'm talking about the equity part. I just got it pulled up. I think it might be H19.

(45:29 - 45:34)
I think that might be where he's at. That's what I'm looking for. On number five.

(45:34 - 45:39)
If I'm wrong, Mark, tell me that that's what I pulled up that seems like it meant. Okay. I'm sorry.

(45:39 - 45:44)
I was just trying to follow along. Go ahead. Can you give us a chance to look at that? Certainly.

(45:44 - 46:07)
In terms of your comment, just to see. The statement is what we approved before. And it's the college will strive to have a race, ethnicity, gender, full-time, part-time faculty, and exempt staff reflect the race, ethnicity, and gender of degree and certified seeking students.

(46:07 - 47:09)
Is that in keeping with Senate Bill 17, which says that we are prohibited from doing that because the implication of that is that we're going to be looking at the race makeup of particular school districts or population groups, however we determine that, and favoring a reflective employee balance of that makeup. What's our group that we're looking at, first of all, to establish the race and ethnicity that we want to have reflected in our faculty? Well, before, I just want to, you can tell me if you want to jump in and say something else. I might offer, since we haven't had this reviewed by legal in that context, and so I would offer, if you wanted to table this, we could have a legal review by our, because Dr. Walzers, as talented as he is, is not a lawyer.

(47:09 - 47:36)
He's read a lot of things, but he's not a lawyer and cannot provide a legal analysis. And Amanda, who's here, is over HR, but again, is not an expert in SB 17. So, but we have had a number of interpretations, and so, and we know a lot more about SB 17 now that it's been moved forward, so I would offer that we have it reviewed by legal, and then we can bring it back.

(47:37 - 47:49)
I think that's a great idea. Absolutely. Is that area, this is talking about student population, right? We're talking about, the equity part talks about students.

(47:49 - 47:52)
Page 19. Yeah, but having. It talks about more than just students.

(47:52 - 48:03)
Employees mirror, from the way I understand it, the employee breakdown ethnicity and gender would mirror the students that are enrolled, right? I'm looking for employees. I'm looking for the word employee. Look at number five.

(48:04 - 48:08)
Yeah, look at number five. Equity targets for employees. Faculty classified staff.

(48:08 - 48:15)
So, I'll move that we table this item. Second. Number five is the issue.

(48:15 - 48:18)
Yes. As written. One motion and a second.

(48:18 - 48:24)
It's hiring, it's allowable hiring criteria. Yeah. In relation to students.

(48:24 - 48:35)
Okay, so we have a motion from Regent Guillory and a second from Regent Warford to table this issue. All in favor of tabling the issue, say aye. Aye.

(48:36 - 48:51)
Any opposed? Okay. We'll table this until it's been reviewed by our attorneys. The next item on the agenda is executive session and we do have executive session tonight.

(48:52 - 49:11)
So, the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above list to date after proper posting and in accordance with Chapter 551 of the Texas Government Code for the specific purposes provided will recess from open meeting to closed meeting. No action will be taken while the board is recessed in executive session. So, we are recessed.

(49:12 - 50:19)
Got to go. Why don't you, Scott? Okay. The closed meeting will adjourn and the board will reconvene into open meeting.

(50:19 - 50:26)
Matters of concern for future agenda. I have a question. Maybe something that we could, I believe if I recall correctly.

(50:26 - 50:45)
When we did the budget last year, we talked about upping the PAC Center's budget to reach out for more, better entertainment. Could we kind of get an update on how that's going? Like who there, who might be coming and things like that? Sure. The Jersey boys were really good a number of years ago.

(50:49 - 51:16)
Well, I've struggled with that area, but because my former college had a pretty good lineup, but things were done differently. And I'll be quite frank in saying one of the issues that we have is that we don't have a restroom in the green room. And a lot of artists require things like that.

(51:16 - 51:25)
And so. So, anyways, I'll just. Can we renovate? I'm going to put a pool party in there.

(51:28 - 51:32)
We'll get a report back on where we are. Great. Fantastic.

(51:33 - 51:38)
Any other items for future agenda? All right. Hearing none. This meeting is adjourned.