(0:00 - 0:32)
Okay, let me get out of this. Thank you, Regent Santana, for being my spotter. Coming out. 

Before Gina told you. Okay, it is 6.01. I call this the July 30th meeting of the Board of Regents of Lee College to order. We do have a quorum, and I invite Regent Cotton to lead us in invocation and pledge.

(0:34 - 0:48)
Join me, please. Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we'd like to thank you for the opportunity once again to come together to do good in our community. We ask that you would bless our efforts and keep us and guide us, give us wisdom.

(0:48 - 1:00)
We ask that you would plant wisdom in those who are over us and who are attempting to run our country, God. Keep your hands on them. Keep your hands on those of us who believe and love you in this country.

(1:01 - 1:13)
We would ask that each and every one of us be carried safely home and brought safely back as we go to and from. All these things we ask in your most precious name. Amen.

(1:13 - 1:59)
Now would you join me in the pledge for the American flag? 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. And to the Texas flag. Honor the Texas flag. 

I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. Okay, next on the agenda is the student spotlight. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to invite Chris Averitt up to the podium who is going to invite our student speaker and introduce him.

(2:03 - 2:19)
So are familiar with the HVAC program. You would know that this is our first cycle. We have our first class completing at the end of this summer semester.

(2:19 - 2:39)
And so we're super excited about that. In this first group of students. We found several really creative people, several deep thinkers, and Leland kind of stood out from the very beginning.

(2:41 - 2:58)
My socks say it all. I teach for the fame and the money. Leland is one of those that just inspired me as an instructor.

(2:58 - 3:20)
He was hungry, always asking deep questions, challenging me when he thought the answer on the test might be wrong. And in fact, there were some answers that were not entirely correct. Without carrying on too much, I want to go ahead and introduce Leland McElhatton.

(3:20 - 3:51)
Thank you. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. 

I'm honored to be here. Y'all have to forgive me. I had my dates mixed up. 

I was at work today and got a phone call from Chris. He said, are you ready? And I was, are you ready for what? He said, well, your speech? I said, no, it's not till August the 19th. He said, no, it's today.

(3:52 - 4:08)
Anyway, bear with me, OK, because I'm not really a great public speaker. No worries. My name is Leland McElhatton. 

I'm 53 years old. I've been an electrician in the oil field industry for many years. I decided to make a change.

(4:08 - 4:21)
My mom and dad are in their 80s and we have a cattle ranch. So I have a lot of responsibilities. I wanted to be closer to home and I got to thinking, hey, every little community in Texas has an HVAC contractor.

(4:21 - 4:36)
Why can't I go to work right here in my own little community? So I enrolled and sure enough, I'm working in my own little community now. I can't say enough about Chris. He's been an excellent instructor.

(4:36 - 4:48)
He's been there for me every time that I had a question, if I needed anything. It had to do with school or work. I can call him from work right now and say, Chris, I can't figure this out.

(4:49 - 4:58)
And he'll answer the phone and 90% of the time, he's right. He's pretty smart at that. So the HVAC industry, it's an expanding field.

(4:59 - 5:15)
There's all kinds of job opportunities in many branches of the field itself. Sales, service, installation, even estimating and engineering. Everybody in our area in southeast Texas wants air conditioner.

(5:16 - 5:33)
Especially when our power goes out, we forget how much we appreciate our air conditioner. So anyway, it's a pretty solid field to get into and I'm happy to be part of it. In the program here at Lee, we've learned all kinds of things.

(5:34 - 5:49)
The basic thermodynamic principles, I hope I said that right. We've gained knowledge of different types of heating and air conditioning systems. Became familiar with components, everything from compressors to capacitors.

(5:50 - 6:08)
Y'all probably don't understand all that because I don't understand most of it. Anyway, we've developed skills through hands-on experience in maintaining, repairing HVAC systems. As well as troubleshooting, charging systems, the installation side.

(6:08 - 6:24)
It's been an experience. Made some proficient at reading blueprints, which without the ability to do that, solving the electrical issues that come with the system is almost impossible. So that's been a blessing.

(6:25 - 6:38)
We've had multiple chances to have hands-on experience. We've got trainers there that can be programmed to display a fault that we have to figure out. It's pretty challenging.

(6:39 - 6:47)
It'll grab you. Anyway, guys, I don't have much more to say. I'm just thankful for you guys.

(6:47 - 6:59)
I appreciate the opportunity to come here and speak and to come to Lee College and learn. I plan on going ahead and finishing my associates. I'll probably be around for a few more semesters anyway.

(7:00 - 7:11)
Thank you, guys. Oh, thank you. I would also just like to add, I believe that he's a straight-A student.

(7:12 - 7:17)
You neglected to mention that. Yeah, he's just a perfect straight-A student. I saw that.

(7:17 - 7:32)
So congratulations on that and look forward to seeing you walk across that stage. And also that Chris is doing so well that we are now having to add a second faculty member in that program. So it is growing and we're very grateful for his leadership.

(7:32 - 7:44)
Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you.

(7:44 - 8:04)
Thank you. Okay, next up we have disposition of minutes. We have the building committee meeting from June 18th, the board meeting from June 20th, and the board budget workshop from June 20th, and a policy committee meeting from June 25th.

(8:04 - 8:14)
Do we have a motion on the minutes? Move approval. Second. Okay, I've got a motion by Regent Cotton and I've got a second by Regent Moore-Fontenot.

(8:15 - 8:23)
All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, next up, report of the chairman.

(8:24 - 8:41)
I'll be brief. What I would like to say is simply a huge thank you to our security team and our facilities team for their long hours and tireless work recovering from the storm. So thank you all very much for everything that you do.

(8:43 - 8:49)
Building committee. Mr. Chair, the building committee has not met since June 18th. We had a very robust meeting in June.

(8:49 - 9:01)
Looking forward to July. Unfortunately, our meeting was scheduled shortly after Hurricane Beryl decided to come through and we decided to let our folks work instead of meet. So we'll schedule a meeting soon.

(9:01 - 9:14)
Thank you. Policy committee report. Yes, Beryl has deterred our ability to meet as well, but we have a couple of things on the agenda tonight for us to consider approving.

(9:15 - 9:37)
The real minor, TASB 47-1, is basically saying that we don't have to use SACs for our accreditation. And so it just allows to change the verbiage so that we can put another or a blank so that we can use someone else if we desire to do so. Audit and investment.

(9:38 - 9:43)
We had the same issue, so we did not meet. Very good. Report of the president.

(9:44 - 9:51)
I was also not able to do a report due to Hurricane Beryl. Am I allowed to? Okay, no, I'm kidding. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(9:51 - 10:17)
I'm sure you have a lot to say. First, I'd like to start off by thanking Shanna, who I don't know if you noticed is not David, and is stepping in for David while he's on vacation. And she has done an exceptional job in her role and has learned everything that is needed to support you guys in these meetings, and we are just so grateful to have her on our team.

(10:17 - 10:24)
So thank you, Shanna. Thank you so much, Dr. B. Yes. So back to Hurricane Beryl, the gift that keeps on giving.

(10:24 - 10:56)
As the board knows, the college was significantly impacted by the storm, and what we thought would be a regular storm, because we've handled these things before, turned into a series of events that took us offline for two full weeks. Leading our response efforts, though, was our newly hired emergency operations coordinator, Thomas Quinn. I just sent you guys an email with Tom, who sent us information about today's incident, and he is just all over things, and we're just so grateful to him.

(10:56 - 11:24)
But along with our safety and security team, they did an exceptional job of creating up-to-date reports of damage to the campus and ensuring prompt communication of the status of our campus to our team and to the entire college community. I'm especially grateful to Tom, but also our facilities team led by John Ditto, who's here with us, Phillip Hanley, and Mark Hyme, and our security team led by Chief Eric Williams. I don't think the chief is here.

(11:27 - 11:56)
But they, along with all of our essential employees in facilities, in custodial, and in security, were completely dedicated to ensuring that the campus was safe during the storm and that repairs were being made so that we could be brought back online. And they really went above and beyond the call of duty to support us, and I really could just not be more grateful. I have a couple of examples to share with you of the going above and beyond the call of duty.

(11:57 - 12:37)
So at one point, our chief of security, Chief Williams, and Officer Collette, who is just right outside here and always greets you, they noticed a fire in an adjacent property close to campus. And it turned out the fire was a generator that was in a home of an elderly individual, a resident, and the generator was dangerously close to the house. So the way Annette described it to me was this fence was like really very secure, but if you've seen Chief Williams, he is a strong guy, I'll just say that.

(12:37 - 12:53)
And he took that fence and he just pulled it down somehow, like Herculean strength. And him and Officer Collette climbed over that. They had a fire extinguisher.

(12:54 - 13:13)
One of them went to inside, somehow got inside the house, got the resident out, and the other one put out the fire. And, I mean, and of course, you know, we weren't worried about the damage to the fence or anything. And I don't think that the resident cared because she's alive today and her house is safe.

(13:13 - 13:30)
So we were just so very grateful that they took it upon themselves to do that. But if that wasn't enough, Chief Williams also noticed that there was a woman who was stuck in one of our elevators in the ATC building. And he personally rescued her.

(13:31 - 13:48)
So we were just so grateful to them. But they just go above and beyond. You may have seen in the Baytown Sun coverage of our Student Resource and Advocacy Center response to provide emergency aid to our students and our community.

(13:49 - 14:16)
So whether it was through supporting through groceries or fuel or other needs, the SRAC, in partnership with our Lee College Foundation, serve the needs of our students. And I'm very grateful for the leadership of Kelly Ford Spears, who worked with Rebecca Cognejo and Sela Taccone, and for all of you guys for leading those efforts. Our Lee College team is truly exceptional in so many ways.

(14:16 - 14:26)
And I just want everyone to know that the work does not go unnoticed by this board, by myself. And they truly are heroes, every single one of them. So thank you.

(14:27 - 14:41)
Let me talk about enrollment for a little bit. So yesterday I sent the board an overview of our enrollment efforts to date. And while our numbers are not as high as we expected, I am extremely proud of where we are for a number of reasons.

(14:42 - 15:00)
We essentially experienced a three-week blackout. And that was due to Fourth of July and then Hurricane Beryl. And what began as a 10% increase in where we were at before the blackout resulted in a 13% hit when we returned.

(15:00 - 15:11)
So we've already cut our deficit in enrollment by 4% within a week. And this is something in and of itself to be commended for. In fact, I was just speaking to Dr. Bennett.

(15:11 - 15:33)
By the way, he just received his doctorate, I think. I told you guys this at the last board meeting. That the FAFSA, which just keeps on giving us more and more gifts, has now been complicated by a request to manually enter data in for every single person versus having batch data, which is not good.

(15:34 - 16:03)
But because of this amazing team and their collaborative efforts, because of their grit, their resilience, and their persistence, we continue to overcome any challenge that comes our way. Whether it is an Arctic storm, whether it is a global pandemic, whether it is a hurricane, whatever it is, they continue to persist and to be innovative in their efforts. And they don't complain.

(16:03 - 16:15)
If they do, they're not complaining to me. And so I just cannot be more proud. And so it would be great if I was able to say we're about to experience another fall enrollment record.

(16:16 - 16:41)
But honestly, I'm more proud of the fact that we have the team that we do and that they persist and continue these amazing efforts in the face of all of these barriers semester after semester and year after year to support our amazing students and our amazing community. So thank you. I'm more proud of these outcomes than anything else.

(16:42 - 16:54)
But we haven't given up, by the way. We're still focused in on our recovery efforts and our registration, and that remains strong. And I'm just so very grateful to everyone on that team.

(16:55 - 17:21)
Let me tell you about our Perkins funding. So I'm pleased to report that Perkins funding for the next year is going to be close to $1 million, $965,567, which is $300,000 more than it was just three years ago. The Perkins grant supports four full-time positions, pays for $300,000 in new equipment each year, and supports professional development, upgrading the curriculum, and much more.

(17:21 - 17:40)
And I want to thank Fran Parent and Karen Ascensio for doing a great job of managing this particular grant, which requires, as everyone in this area knows, a huge amount of paperwork, but it's so beneficial for our workforce programs. So thank you to them for that. Chief Williams, he just continues to steal the head.

(17:40 - 18:03)
Annette, you're looking at me like you don't know what I'm about to say, but I wanted to recognize Chief Williams one more time. He's going to be representing Lee College in November at the State of South Carolina's Law Enforcement Conference, but he was also contacted to speak at the FBI Executive Leadership graduation in December. So we've got a great chief, and the nation is recognizing.

(18:03 - 18:14)
So thank you again, Chief Williams, and thank you, Annette, for the great hire there, and so grateful for our leadership and our team. That concludes my report. That's wonderful.

(18:14 - 18:27)
Thank you. All right, moving right into informational reports, report of resignations and or retirements. Mr. Chairman, I have two to report.

(18:27 - 18:54)
One is Tammy Hardin, Recruitment and Outreach Specialist, and Anthony Romero, Administrative Specialist, Disability Services and Captionist. If you recall, Anthony is our former SGA President, but he worked in that area, and I believe he's gone on to transfer to, does anyone remember? Which four-year universities he transferred to? One of them, and we wish him great things. That's it.

(18:54 - 19:06)
Okay. Next up, we have a review of Vision 2028, Annual Planning and Evaluation Report by Dr. Walzers. Oh! Dr. Walzers, are you okay? Okay.

(19:09 - 19:17)
You're okay. Oh. A step down.

(19:37 - 19:42)
Well, good evening, everyone. Good evening. Glad I could make it.

(19:44 - 19:55)
We heard you. He was crawling to be here. So I want to thank the Board of Regents and Dr. Villanueva for making time for this review.

(19:55 - 20:33)
I'm Douglas Walzers, the Provost here at Lee College, and the purpose of this presentation is to provide a review of the progress we've made and the changes that we are proposing to the strategic plan. Now, this evening, we're not asking the Board for approval we want to provide some time. So this evening, I'm going to be explaining these changes that we're proposing, and then the Board will have a few weeks until the next regular meeting in August, and that's where we are going to ask for your approval so you'll have time in the interim to get any of your questions answered.

(20:37 - 21:17)
The presentation is going to be divided into three parts. In the first part, I will be going over a set of changes that we are making in order to comply with SB 17, which affects every part of the strategic plan, the foundational statements, the goals, the targets, and the measurable objectives. Secondly, I'm going to give a report on the measurable objectives, what we have completed in the past year, what we need a little more time to complete, as well as the new objectives that we are proposing based on the developments that have happened that we believe warrant adding new objectives to the plan.

(21:18 - 21:41)
And finally, I'll be going over the college's progress for the targets that we have set to achieve by 2028. And do you all have sets of documents, sets of handouts with the changes in them? I'll be referencing them. They're in the board packet.

(21:42 - 21:54)
And I would just add, too, that this is based upon the feedback we received from legal counsel. Yeah, we're not getting this. Some of us can see it.

(21:54 - 22:05)
I have it on mine. I can see it. Well, I'm not going to go through all the documents because we don't have enough time.

(22:08 - 22:26)
So you have or will have a document called Revisions to the Foundational Statements. The changes will be highlighted in red. And what you'll see is that we've removed the word equity and we have removed references to historically underrepresented students.

(22:27 - 23:02)
And we have instead changed the phrasing to focus on looking beyond stereotypes and expanding opportunities, especially for students who have had the fewest opportunities prior to coming to Lee College. And I do want to emphasize this is not just word substitution. This does represent a real shift away from a focus on race, ethnicity, and gender and towards socioeconomic status and the availability of opportunities in a student's school and community prior to attending Lee College.

(23:03 - 23:23)
Lee College does remain committed to serving all students regardless of background. And this change affirms our commitment in a way that is consistent with both the letter and the spirit of SB 17. So again, those changes are in your document that you can review.

(23:23 - 23:38)
And if you have questions, please reach out to ask. Secondly, there is a document called Revisions to the Strategic Goals. Most of the changes are to the equity goal.

(23:38 - 24:05)
And again, it will be highlighted in red in a Show Changes document. The goal has been renamed so that it is called Expanding Opportunity and focuses on providing opportunities to students who have had limited opportunities prior to coming to Lee College. There is a third document called Revisions to Strategic Targets.

(24:06 - 24:41)
All of the targets in the equity section have been eliminated because SB 17 prohibits creating programs based on race, ethnicity, or sex or gender. We will continue to track student success such as retention and graduation rates. And we will continue to disaggregate those numbers based on race, ethnicity, sex, and gender because SB 17 explicitly allows for the collection and reporting of data and because it is an expectation for both Achieving the Dream and for SACS COC.

(24:41 - 25:06)
But again, there will be no targets associated with those disaggregated numbers. Finally, there is a document called Revisions to Measurable Objectives. Objectives that were associated with the Office of Equity and Antiracism are now associated with the Office of Student Success and Belonging.

(25:06 - 25:30)
And there are actually very few objectives for which that change was necessary. And that's the conclusion of the changes to the strategic plan to ensure compliance with SB 17. As President Villanueva said, these are based on a review of the strategic plan by our legal counsel and the recommendations that they made to us.

(25:31 - 25:52)
So that is the first part of the strategic plan review. In the second part, I just want to go over the progress that we made in calendar year 2023. There is a document in your packet called Report on Completed Measurable Objectives.

(25:53 - 26:12)
It lists 23 completed objectives. It includes notes for each one describing the work that was done. And I will say that the administration is very pleased with the accomplishments that we made in 2023 and are grateful to the board for making all of that work possible.

(26:12 - 26:34)
So you will see a list with all the objectives and notes next to each one. There are six objectives that needed to be delayed because of impediments that were encountered in 2023. There is a document called Report of Delayed Objectives.

(26:34 - 26:51)
We're requesting an extension to the deadline for those objectives and those requests are in the document. But it is only six of the objectives. And finally, we have a list of 11 objectives that we are proposing to add to Vision 2028.

(26:52 - 27:08)
They represent work that has already begun and work that we wish to begin in the pursuit of the goals of Vision 2028. And we provide those for your review. They each come with a column showing the budgetary impact.

(27:11 - 27:48)
The last part of this report is to look at our strategic targets. I am going to bring up the strategic target document. Try to make it as big as we can.

(27:54 - 28:11)
And I am not going to go through every number. But the first set of targets are our enrollment targets. We provide the number of students who enrolled in the fall for 2019, 2020, and 21.

(28:12 - 28:38)
They represent our baseline prior to the beginning of this strategic plan. You can see in those numbers the effect of the pandemic as our enrollment suffered in 2020 and 2021. And there is a separate line for our regular enrollment students, our dual credit students, and our Huntsville students.

(28:39 - 29:04)
Then we also provide numbers on fall enrollment for the first two years, which would be the fall of 2022 and the fall of 2023. You can see that our regular enrollment students are in fact growing, which is a very good sign. We have reported to the board in the past how that is an area that many community colleges are not seeing growth in.

(29:05 - 29:37)
We have had very strong growth in dual credit and also very strong growth in Huntsville, and those have made our numbers look actually quite good. If you look at the bottom line of the three populations combined, in the fall of 2023 we were at 8,700 students, which beat our pre-pandemic enrollment. We also look at the percentage of high school graduates who come to Lee College immediately after high school.

(29:37 - 30:01)
Once again, we have the three years prior to 2022 establishing our baseline, and our target is to increase that by three percentage points at every school. You can see that at this point we're just beating that target by leaps and bounds. As I said, I'm not going to go through all of the numbers.

(30:01 - 30:24)
I do want to look at the equity targets. This will be renamed if the board accepts our recommendations next month. But these are charts that compare the population in the high school to the population of those high school students who either come to college or participate in dual credit.

(30:25 - 30:56)
There is one row representing each of the high schools in our service area, and if you see a cell that's shaded in red, it means that that is an underrepresented group. If it's shaded in green, it is a slightly overrepresented group. And this first group of cells here on the left, looking at our African American students, you can see a few underrepresented groups and a smaller number of overrepresented groups, but generally in balance.

(30:57 - 31:28)
The middle cell, our Hispanic students, you can see quite a few more green cells than red, representing some overrepresentation. Our white students, you can see a little more red than green, so some underrepresentation. I would like this all to be on one page, if I can make it do so, which I cannot.

(31:29 - 32:01)
But in the bottom center, we're looking at our female students, which are overrepresented significantly in all areas. And in the lower right are our economically disadvantaged students, which are underrepresented in all areas. As you know, we cannot set targets for race, ethnic, or gender groups, but we will continue tracking these, and we will be focusing more on socioeconomic status and the availability of opportunities.

(32:03 - 32:43)
So those are some of the specific targets that I wanted to show to the board. We do have a lot of targets, but we are a large and rather complicated organization with lots of different kinds of programs, and in order to provide a complete picture, we just need lots of different measures so that you can see how we're doing in the different areas. As I said, I hope this gives you a brief introduction to what we're proposing, and that over the next few weeks, you will read the reports, let us know of any of your questions, and then we will bring this back again in August to ask for your approval.

(32:48 - 33:09)
Can we ask questions now? You can. To go one, student success, this is the table that shows, I think it's target four, the percentage of high school graduates who enroll at Lee College the following fall. The lower part of that chart, a lot of zeros prior to our baseline.

(33:10 - 33:41)
They seem to be the outlying or the farthest areas away from us in our service area, and I'm just surprised that there's not one student. So those are also very small schools, and the THCB will not report if there are fewer than five students coming to Lee College. So for these schools, the THCB reported just less than five.

(33:42 - 33:52)
All they said is showing 27% for the class of 22. Is that because they just got over five? Yes. And when they report that, will they report six? Yes.

(33:52 - 33:58)
They only report one over five. No, no. Once you're over five, they'll give you an actual number of the number of students.

(33:59 - 34:25)
They are assuming that with that number, you won't be able to individually identify who the students are. So our target of 3%, we don't know what the number is for 3%, right? I mean, is that 10 students or? We don't have a baseline for that. Six or? So I have a larger chart that gives the size of the graduating class, so we do know what the number is.

(34:25 - 34:31)
I figure we do. Most of these graduating classes are under 100. So 3% would be three students.

(34:31 - 34:37)
So we're never going to see a report for that target. It's unlikely, yes. But we won't see that we've met our target.

(34:38 - 34:44)
Maybe our target should be five. Something that gets reported. Five students, yeah.

(34:45 - 34:58)
Well, something that gets reported, I mean, we'll never know if we've met our target. Yeah, if it's below five, we won't know. Okay, I know that's a detail, but it just caught me by, I mean, it just stood out that it's zero across a lot of those school districts.

(35:00 - 35:04)
Okay. That's crazy. I just have a question.

(35:04 - 35:14)
Yes. On the slide, and I'm sure that we're capturing this, so that's what I want to ask, where you have the female economically disadvantaged. Yes.

(35:14 - 35:29)
But one of the things that we know nationwide that there's a struggle with African American males. Yes. And so it's not captured here, but we are still tracking that as well.

(35:30 - 35:44)
I just see we just have female here instead of male. Yeah, male is the exact inverse, right? Yeah, so we just subtract 100 from that and you get the male. But it's not going to be, yeah, you can do your own math, but you clearly have a column here for it.

(35:44 - 35:51)
There's not going to be a column, you just have to do the math to make the difference. Yes. Because the issue that we have is obviously not females.

(35:51 - 35:59)
Right. As you can tell by the green. So to me it would be more beneficial to have what we're struggling with, which is the male side.

(36:00 - 36:04)
I can go either way. But we're still capturing it. That's right, yes.

(36:04 - 36:25)
Yeah, I mean, the overrepresentation of females is an underrepresentation of males because it's a binary. Absolutely. Similarly for economically disadvantaged students, right? The underrepresentation means an overrepresentation of students who from the college perspective don't have a Pell Grant or from a high school perspective don't qualify for FAST.

(36:26 - 36:30)
So... Yes. Yes, thank you. Yeah.

(36:36 - 36:44)
Well, I've given you a lot of homework for which I apologize. Thank you so much. But I appreciate your attention to the strategic plan.

(36:45 - 36:51)
Thank you for allowing us the time to process it and then come back and vote on it. So that's appreciated. Yes.

(36:51 - 37:04)
Thank you. I do have a question. She pointed out a disparity or overrepresentation, using her example, of black females and black males.

(37:04 - 37:30)
Is there any writing or anybody opining about the cause of that? Is there any... I mean, surely you all sit around and discuss how can we address this situation. Is there any material out there that attempts to address the cause? It's speculation, but... Yeah, there is volumes of material out there. Volumes, absolutely, everywhere.

(37:33 - 37:41)
We go to the conferences every year. Everybody's having the exact same and trying to... Nationwide. Everybody, yeah.

(37:41 - 37:53)
But, I mean, there's also research. I mean, it's not just opinion pieces, but there's real research on that subject. I have one more question.

(37:53 - 37:58)
Yes. Just back on the Vision 2028 report, the proposed new objectives. Yes.

(37:58 - 38:08)
The first objective listed is related to the branch campus. Yes. Does that one objective capture everything that is a goal for the branch campus? No.

(38:09 - 38:26)
It's just one piece of that project. And just real quick, just because you said there's volumes and volumes of data out there of underserved. Do you have committees or anybody? I would assume you do, that you're saying, okay, this is underserved.

(38:28 - 38:49)
How are we going to target them? Well, remember, SB 17 now precludes us from acting on that data on the basis of that category. On the basis? On the basis of race and gender. But then how are we allowed to get information based on race and gender? We're allowed to collect the data and look at it, but we're not allowed to act on it.

(38:49 - 39:02)
But I can't imagine that we wouldn't be able to go after someone who's in education. Well, we're allowed to. So the, correct me.

(39:02 - 39:08)
Go ahead. The law does not prevent us from recruiting. Events, right.

(39:08 - 39:19)
The law does not prevent us from what happens in the classroom. The law does not prevent us from. Research.

(39:20 - 39:26)
Yes, research. And is there. Student activities.

(39:27 - 39:33)
Yes, student activities. Our SGA president is here, Armando. And so.

(39:35 - 39:46)
We can collect the data, but so if, but if someone comes to us though and says, you know, I would like resources, we're going to provide them. And it's not going to be on the basis of, we're not going to say it's going to be on the basis of anything. Oh, that was what I was going to say.

(39:46 - 39:56)
So we can continue to do all of the monthly cultural heritage things that we do, as long as they're open to everyone. That was the other thing. The law does not preclude that.

(39:56 - 40:07)
They've always been open to everyone. And, and we've, we've never had programs that were exclusively open to everyone. Exclusive to a gender category or a race ethnic group.

(40:08 - 40:21)
But we, we now can't have targets. Like, I can't say I want to close the gap. Or, or even to say, you know, we would like to, you know, we, we understand why we think that there's an issue for black males.

(40:23 - 40:31)
This is a program that we'd like to implement in regard to black. We absolutely cannot do that under the law. But you have to be able to, Judy, to collect the data.

(40:31 - 40:34)
Because we need the data for other things. Oh, I understand. I understand.

(40:34 - 40:43)
Just being in public schools. I know we collect data. And one of the groups that we, we did discuss way back when we wrote the achieving the dream grant was.

(40:44 - 41:02)
The underserved and the black male, because they were the most underperforming, but, but a lot that it, it actually applies to a lot of males. It's not just that group. So you talk about what, how you can modify programs that might help any, anyone that would be in that situation.

(41:03 - 41:07)
We're here to serve everyone. Exactly. So we just need to get the word out to everyone.

(41:07 - 41:21)
And I know that's easier said than done. Right. But we have, you know, you know, just maybe that's the, the bigger philosophy is how do we get the word out to everyone? Well, so, so we, we've had that.

(41:21 - 41:41)
I mean, we are the Hispanic access committee and the, you know, they were targeting, you know, I went and spoke to that group. They were targeting Hispanic graduates to let them know here's Lee college, what the college can do for you. And I think that's what we, can we still do that? You can, because we're getting, you know, we can still meet and get the word out.

(41:41 - 41:52)
I mean, I don't think we're precluded from letting everyone know. I think we've always let everyone know we're here. We're available, but you can set up programs and you don't have to announce it to the world.

(41:52 - 42:11)
You set them up so that that those populations would be strengthened and helped by those things that you are doing to help them. But we absolutely, well, I, I want to get there though. We cannot, we cannot have a program for example, that is focused around males, right? We cannot, that's correct.

(42:11 - 42:41)
Regardless of what your ethnic ethnic background is, no males, no females. We cannot do that. We can create programs focused on people from lower socioeconomic status, right? From different census tracts, from zip codes, we can, and we look at all this data as you can see from graduating classes, we can, and we can say, we have a very poor rate of college going percentages from a particular ISD and we can, we can target that.

(42:42 - 42:58)
And that's, that's one of the things that we do. Can, can we target in, in the case of males, typically males go and young males go into a different workforce. There's a, there's a disparity between, you know, the types of jobs.

(42:58 - 43:02)
Oh sure. You know. Welders versus nurses.

(43:02 - 43:15)
Well, okay. Or, yeah. Well, and there's a lot more jobs available that females tend to go into that may allow work from home where bricklayers are not going to work from home, you know.

(43:15 - 43:35)
So my, my question is, we can target like night classes and things like that to accommodate schedules that may be required that are reflective of, different. But that would mean we would identify that as a problem to begin with. And we don't know that that's an issue.

(43:35 - 43:40)
So we do know it's an issue. No, but nighttime. We don't, we don't know.

(43:40 - 43:48)
We don't know, for example, that nighttime, the offering of nighttime classes is something that helps males, but. Yeah. And I'm just using that as an example.

(43:48 - 43:59)
And we have a very robust evening program in our workforce trades. I mean, when you go to the McNair center at noon, you'll see a bunch of dual credit students. You go there at six o'clock.

(43:59 - 44:10)
It's parking lot is full of working people's vehicles. And again, SB 17 doesn't preclude us from recruitment efforts. We can, we can still do that.

(44:22 - 44:49)
Hey, next up. We'll hear from our chief financial officer. Good evening regions.

(44:50 - 45:00)
President. So the financials that we'll be covering tonight. We'll be year to date as of June 30.

(45:00 - 45:06)
So. 83% of our fiscal year. We're almost there.

(45:07 - 45:17)
Cash continues to be strong. No real surprises there. Our tuition and fees versus our budget.

(45:18 - 45:35)
Right now, we're projecting that we will just be slightly under our budget, which we've talked about that for the last couple of meetings. State appropriations. Somehow we got that one, right? They kind of just tell us the number.

(45:36 - 45:46)
Our district taxes. We have exceeded our, our budget. A lot of that is coming in the revenue in lieu of tax.

(45:48 - 45:58)
And then other revenue. Our interest income is outpacing our budget and. Other revenue is still a little shaky there, but.

(45:58 - 46:11)
Still looking fine. Our restricted funds. We've got about 700,000 still yet to be pulled down on our federal grants.

(46:11 - 46:27)
Our private grants. We're holding funds to be spent on our private grants, which you can see a lot of that is for the chambers debate lab that we are redoing. And then state grants is.

(46:28 - 46:40)
About 20,000 out there to be pulled down. And that's Texas work study. When we compare our budget versus our year to date projected.

(46:41 - 46:49)
Again, we're looking fine. Tuition fees a little under taxes will be over. And then our other, which is mainly our interest.

(46:49 - 47:00)
We will be over budget. Projecting out our net revenue right now. It looks like we would have an operating surplus of about 8 million.

(47:03 - 47:25)
You can see 2.8 of that is coming from our revenue being over what we had actually budgeted. And then about 5 million from expenses that were budgeted, but not spent at this time. And you can see the detail here about 1.4 of that is in.

(47:25 - 47:40)
Payroll. And then about 1.2 of that is in repairs and maintenance still for expenses. We are pretty well following what we had budgeted.

(47:40 - 48:10)
Our salary and benefits end up being a little bit bigger just because our operating expenses are showing up below what we had budgeted. And so that causes the salary expense to be a little bit larger part of our overall budget. If we look at what we had budgeted monthly, budget versus expense, I think last year we had, I mean, last month, not last year, sorry about that.

(48:11 - 48:30)
Last month we had shown the inversion under this operating cost. And that's obviously just a timing issue. When we look what our year to date is versus our budget, again, our operating costs are showing up below what we had budgeted.

(48:30 - 48:53)
And then salaries also a little bit below what we had budgeted. And when you look at projections, we're projecting that we'll be at about 97% of our salary and benefit budget and about 86% of our operating costs. And that is it unless someone has a question for me.

(48:56 - 49:19)
Thank you. I still don't see anything on the tax collection. Are we able to get those reports that you're getting into our report somehow? The collections that they do are included, obviously, in our revenue, in our tax revenue.

(49:21 - 49:59)
We do not break that out separately on our financial reports. We have been provided with some reports and I'm still, quite honestly, I haven't had a chance to dig into those to understand exactly what they are. He has provided more detail than what was initially provided and I'm still just working my way through that to see because part of the issue is that it's all based on monthly activity and we need some cumulative activity to understand how that impacts overall everything else.

(50:00 - 50:25)
And also, when we're looking at what has not been collected, what's still outstanding, that's still an area that we need a little bit more detail on. Could the board see the reports? I know that some members are getting them and I think everyone ought to get what some people are getting. It's a pretty good sized report.

(50:26 - 50:39)
I know that he has offered to also come out and give a presentation to you and so we're working to try to get that scheduled as well. The sooner the better. Thank you.

(50:39 - 51:00)
Just a quick question on that. So when these collections are coming in, they could be from prior years, right? This could be two or three years ago collections and percentage wise, is it a round off number or is it significant? We'll have to get back to you on that question. All right.

(51:01 - 51:20)
I would think it's going to be a small amount, but I just need to get the detail for you. Have you communicated them what you still need? You mentioned some things that you want to see or we told them what we need. As I said, I'm still working through what they've sent to me.

(51:21 - 52:02)
And so as we get through that and then we'll, we'll get with Brandon and try to schedule a time where he can come and make a presentation to you. Errol was not kind to us and in many ways, I think that's one of the things that, uh, speaking of that, are we set up to work from home though, if we need to, some of the admin folks or not, if you have your servers, you're working and you have, we had no access to data, but we still can work from home though. We have nuts and all of this that you see and access to our files all gone.

(52:02 - 52:19)
And if you had no internet and if you didn't have internet, you didn't have access to the servers either. But even if we did have internet, we didn't have access to our servers, which by the way was actually a good thing for one thing. And that's because Microsoft Outlook 360 thing did not hurt our server.

(52:19 - 52:29)
So we were not one of those people. So that's, that's a, if you want to look for a silver lining, that was a silver lining because our servers were down. Some of our data didn't get hurt.

(52:29 - 52:52)
Well, and, and to, even if we had not lost the data center, when we don't have power to our desktops, uh, that limits our ability to work remotely as well. Thank you. Okay. 

Thank you. Next on the agenda is public comment. No one signed up.

(52:52 - 53:32)
Good job. Moving right along. Okay. 

Uh, items of action, personnel consent agenda, consideration of new hires. The administration recommends that the board approved the new hires as presented below. Um, do we have a motion? Okay. 

I've got a motion by Regent Gerald's. Do I have a, do we have discussion on this item? Motion by who? You both, you're both. I didn't hear her. 

Yeah. Obviously I'm loud. I'm closer to her.

(53:35 - 53:44)
Uh, any discussion on the consent agenda? Hearing none. All in favor, say aye. Aye.

(53:44 - 54:12)
Any opposed? All right. Okay. New business consideration of the first time free at Lee program that will provide tuition fees and textbooks to students attending Lee college for the first time since finishing high school or completing a GED.

(54:12 - 54:27)
The administration recommends that the board authorized funding for tuition fees and textbooks for qualifying students. Do I hear a motion? Yes. I'll move. 

Second. Okay. I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Hall.

(54:27 - 54:39)
I was looking right at you Weston. Is this for the fall semester? I think it's for the next academic year. It's the whole year.

(54:41 - 54:49)
Okay. We have to do it for, no, we have to do it each semester. What we have been doing is we have been, uh, come on up doctor.

(54:50 - 54:58)
Watch your step. Good evening. So yes, we have been bringing an agenda item to the board every semester and seeking your approval.

(54:59 - 55:46)
And so what we're doing this time with this agenda item is seeking your approval for the fall and spring semester for main campus until the board decides to rescind a first time free. So this way we're not bringing it to you every semester over and over again. That's what I just said. 

It was for the year. For beyond, beyond the year. Oh, all years. 

That's right. Okay. You're right. 

We're institutionalizing. Yes. Institutionalizing. 

Yes. I like that. Double. 

Okay. But the offer is for a semester. One semester. 

Yes. Yes. I just spent a dissertation on full promise programs and I'd be happy to talk with you about it. 

But for now, one semester. When we need something to help us sleep. Yes. 

Oh, you hurt my heart. I'm going to leave you mine for the same thing. But yes, one semester.

(55:47 - 56:02)
Are there moves across the country to move to? I've read an article where one state, maybe more than one state, are moving to state funded community colleges, I guess. Yes. Yes.

(56:02 - 56:12)
There is a big move towards that. You know, I think the percentage increase has been over 400 percent over the last eight years. So yes, more, more states are moving towards doing this.

(56:13 - 56:18)
Not required at the state level. Not required at the state level. That is not a move that we're seeing in Texas.

(56:19 - 56:28)
Individual campuses are doing things like that, promise programs, but not at the state level. Like Tennessee. I'm just wondering what the national, what's happening on the national side.

(56:28 - 56:34)
National trend is to expand and for the duration of a credential. Regent Santana, you had a question. Hold it.

(56:36 - 56:44)
Clarifying question. Yes. It states, I mean, it's stated the same thing we've always said, but first time since finishing high school or completing a GED.

(56:45 - 56:52)
What about dual credit students? They are also first time. Also first time. They've been a Lee College student.

(56:52 - 56:58)
Yes. But it's once they finish high school, then they kind of start over. We give them another first time.

(56:58 - 57:02)
We give them another semester, yes. Okay, great. That's when they graduate.

(57:02 - 57:14)
Correct. Any other questions? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

(57:14 - 57:43)
Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Consideration of first time free at Lee program that will provide tuition fees and textbooks to student attending Lee College Huntsville Center for the first time since finishing high school or completing a GED.

(57:44 - 57:52)
The administration recommends that the board authorize funding for tuition fees and textbooks for qualifying students. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second.

(57:52 - 58:13)
I've got a motion by Regent Cotton, and I've got a second by Regent Moore-Fontenot. Any discussion on this item? So I guess I'm not totally understanding what we're doing. The state pays for grants or whatever, pays for most of theirs anyway, right? Not all of it.

(58:13 - 58:26)
No. A lot of tele-funding, and that's federal. So are we giving up anything by doing this? Well, it's always been last dollar funding, right? Since we've put this into place, it's what it's been.

(58:26 - 58:35)
It's the last funding. It's not the first funding. Over 90% of our students at Huntsville are Pell recipients, and that's the last dollar.

(58:35 - 58:59)
About 85% of Huntsville students get Pell grants to cover all of their expenses, so they don't take institutional money when they are in their first semester. So this really is for the 15% who do not qualify for a Pell grant. The state has provided PECERS money, which is a loan, not a grant.

(59:02 - 59:15)
I think that having that loan to, I like the wording here, to ensure that they can complete their program. Right. They must be eligible.

(59:15 - 59:29)
Eligible. So that they can continue after their first semester to finish their credential. Any more discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

(59:29 - 59:48)
Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Okay, consideration of renewal of the contract with ExamSoft.

(59:49 - 1:00:09)
The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to renew the contract with ExamSoft for a period of three years for a total cost of $65,635.10. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay, I have a motion by Regent Geralds and a second by... No, no, no.

(1:00:10 - 1:00:16)
Oh, that was Pam. I'm sorry, it was Pam. I'll make you arm wrestle for who gets credit.

(1:00:16 - 1:00:37)
Okay, for Regent Warford and a second by Regent Guillory. Any discussion on this item? What is SSO integration? SSO? Single sign-on. Single sign-on, my word.

(1:00:37 - 1:00:46)
Is that what she said? Single sign-on. Yeah. I didn't hear her.

(1:00:49 - 1:01:14)
Any other discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Consideration to contract with TMC Scrubs and Medical Supply, Inc.

(1:01:14 - 1:01:33)
for nursing supply kits. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and to contract with TMC Scrubs and Medical Supply, Inc. to provide nursing supply kits for $60,000 per year with renewable options for four additional years, 12 months at a time.

(1:01:33 - 1:01:41)
Do I hear a motion on this item? So moved. Second. I have a motion by Regent Cotton and a second by Regent Warford.

(1:01:42 - 1:02:05)
Any discussion on this item? Just, again, a clarification for me. So we, Lee College, buy these nursing kits and we give them to the nurses? Or do the nurses purchase? They come out of their fees. Yes, we purchase them and then it is included in the student fee.

(1:02:06 - 1:02:30)
So we collect the fee back. Well, what's included in the kit? What's in it? Their stethoscope, all of their supplies for labs. So needles, syringes, dressing supplies, urinary catheter kits, all of those things that they use for all of their skills in the skills lab.

(1:02:31 - 1:02:53)
Does the amount change from year to year? Or do you have a consistent amount of students so that you know that that's the consistent amount? I would think it might kind of change a little bit. So we, historically, this used to be in the bookstore back when we had a bookstore. And then we started budgeting and purchasing these supplies and it was in their fee.

(1:02:54 - 1:03:15)
Now that they're doing it by kits, we send them a number of students that we accept and we only purchase what we need. So could that amount change each year that we renew the contract? Based on supply costs, potentially it could. My understanding is, again, if we have to do this every 12 months, then it could.

(1:03:16 - 1:03:27)
I didn't know if it was $60,000 a year or if that changes each year. It potentially could change based on cost of supplies. Well, they're not going to go down.

(1:03:28 - 1:03:37)
They never do. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:03:38 - 1:04:07)
Any opposed? Okay. Next item, consideration to award Texas Association of School Boards for property insurance coverage. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the award of property insurance coverage in the amount of $490,807 per year.

(1:04:08 - 1:04:11)
So moved. I've got to get in the minutes. I've got to get in the minutes.

(1:04:11 - 1:04:16)
So moved. Second. Third.

(1:04:17 - 1:04:35)
I've got a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Gerald. Discussion on this item? I see it's an 18% increase. Yeah, it is year two of a five-year contract we voted on last year.

(1:04:35 - 1:04:40)
And it's insurance. It's definitely going up. Oh, yeah.

(1:04:44 - 1:04:50)
All right. Any further discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:04:50 - 1:05:11)
Any opposed? All right. We are moving into the Regent Guillory show here. All right.

(1:05:11 - 1:05:30)
Consideration of adoption of board policy revisions for local policies. The administration and the board policy committee recommends that the board approve and adopt the revisions to local board policies as presented and recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards update 47. Do I hear a motion? So moved.

(1:05:30 - 1:05:35)
Second. All right. I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Hall.

(1:05:36 - 1:05:51)
Discussion on this item? Okay. Hearing no discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:05:52 - 1:06:09)
Any opposed? Thank you. All right. Now we are moving into my favorite item of the agenda.

(1:06:10 - 1:06:48)
Consideration of compensation for college employees impacted by the closure of college locations due to Hurricane Beryl. The administration recommends that the board approve the resolution authorizing compensation for full and part-time hourly employees including part-time federal work study and student assistance impacted by the closure of the college due to inclement weather and power failures for the period of time between Monday, July 8th to Sunday, July 21st. The main campus, McNair Center, Education Center, South Liberty County, and between Monday, July 8th and Tuesday, July 9th for the Huntsville Center.

(1:06:49 - 1:06:52)
Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. All right.

(1:06:52 - 1:07:03)
I've got a motion by Regent Wartford and a second by Regent Wartford. Do we have any discussion on this item? Just so happy that we can do this for our employees. This is just wonderful.

(1:07:05 - 1:07:10)
All right. Hearing no further discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(1:07:10 - 1:07:30)
Any opposed? Okay. Okay. Consideration of ordinance and resolution adopting the Lee College district budget.

(1:07:30 - 1:07:42)
The administration recommends that the board approve the ordinance and resolution adopting the Lee College district budget for fiscal year 2024 to 2025. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second.

(1:07:42 - 1:08:01)
I have a motion by Regent Cotton and a second by Regent Morfano. Do we have discussion on the budget? Really? All right. Hearing no discussion, all in favor say aye.

(1:08:01 - 1:08:07)
Aye. Any opposed? All right. We just made history.

(1:08:09 - 1:08:13)
Let's put courses in a calendar. Yeah. Don't talk about it.

(1:08:13 - 1:08:15)
Don't talk about it. Just move on. Okay.

(1:08:16 - 1:08:34)
All right. So at this time the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above list to date after proper posting and in accordance with chapter 551 of 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.

(1:08:50 - 1:09:00)
Okay. Closed meeting is adjourned and the board will reconvene into open meeting. Next on the agenda is matters of concern for future agendas.

(1:09:01 - 1:09:28)
Anybody have anything? I would just like to be sure we have opportunity to discuss the issues for Beryl, you know, the issues that we have with equipment failures and generators and air conditioners so we can understand that and maybe get a plan. A comprehensive debrief? Well, I'd like to be a part of that, yeah, because that happens a lot it seems like. I think that's our next building committee meeting.

(1:09:29 - 1:09:38)
Well, can we all be a part of that then? We'll schedule the meeting and invite everybody if you want to come. Well, you've got to post it if we're going to come. Yeah, we'll post it.

(1:09:40 - 1:09:47)
I don't think it needs to be like this board meeting. Whatever. I just think it's time we figured this out.

(1:09:55 - 1:10:02)
Anything else? All right. Hearing none, we are adjourned.