(0:13 - 0:21)
Right up close, Mr. Chairman. We're going to call the meeting to order. And we do have a quorum.

(0:22 - 1:47)
And we will begin tonight with the invocation and the pledge to the United States flag and the Texas flag, led by me. Okay, next up is student spotlight. Mr. Chairman, our student speaker is Charles Brantley.

(1:47 - 1:59)
And I would invite Kelly Fort Spears to come up and introduce him. Right, good evening. It's my pleasure to introduce our student spotlight this evening, Mr. Charles Brantley.

(2:00 - 2:21)
Charles exemplifies resilience and determination. From his dedicated service in the military to his personal battle with addiction and even pursuing his higher education at Lee College during the height of the pandemic, he has continuously persevered in the face of adversity. Now, Charles is committed to serving his community, working closely with veterans who struggle with addiction.

(2:22 - 2:35)
His personal experiences uniquely position him to support others on their path to recovery. And he has embraced this as his life's mission. Lee College is honored to be part of his journey in education, personal growth, and recovery.

(2:36 - 2:48)
Please join me in welcoming Charles. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, esteemed board.

(2:55 - 3:19)
That's a lot better, I think so. All right, thank you all for giving me an opportunity to be here this evening, to be able to address you all and to tell you a little bit about my journey here at Lee College through the addiction counseling program, which I happen to believe and think is the best program in the world. A fine faculty that was here, that was here when I was here, as Spears said, during the height of the pandemic.

(3:20 - 3:36)
I come by way of personal experience, lived experience through addiction. I served in the United States military, United States Navy, during Desert Storm. And during that time, I had some trials and issues dealing with alcoholism.

(3:37 - 3:57)
And by way of that, once finishing up there and coming back home, dealing with personal issues, which I used to self-medicate, became an issue and a problem with me. I knew that there, I wanted an answer. I wanted a way out of that, knowing that some of my family members also had experienced some of those things.

(3:58 - 4:11)
But, you know, lo and behold, I was able to seek out and find some help. And some of the people that I crossed paths with had had the same kind of experiences that I had. And they found purpose.

(4:11 - 4:43)
They had went to school and found some sense of direction in overcoming their situations that dealing with addiction and alcoholism. It was a faculty member, actually, that was here that I met in the rooms of AA that was actually an instructor here who had encouraged me to utilize what I had went through to perhaps be of service to others. Her name was Miss Toni Bates that worked here, Toni Bates-Somerset.

(4:44 - 5:03)
And there's been a lot of those along my journey that worked here. I live 45 minutes from here. And I decided to listen to them, Toni, Miss Breonna DeGeorge, Vanessa Ayala, Howard Broussard.

(5:04 - 5:15)
Oh, Howard, my good friend. And they encouraged me, supported me, and I turned to Lee College. And when I got here, there was so much encouragement.

(5:16 - 5:27)
There was so much dedication. So much attention to detail there and commitment to helping the clients, the students that were there. See, it was more than just about education.

(5:28 - 5:53)
It was about preparing us and impacting us to be able to help families and individuals who were struggling with addiction. This program here, this addiction counseling program has allowed me to be able to give me a career, a field, a purpose to go out and to be able to help those in the community. I've worked in the field primarily assisting veterans.

(5:53 - 6:03)
That's been my niche. But I also serve and help others that struggle with this because there is a problem. There will always be a continuing issue with addiction and mental health issues.

(6:04 - 6:30)
But I credit Lee College for giving me that opportunity and the wonderful faculty and this promising, this wonderful addiction program that Lee College has here to serve us, to allow us to be able to be of service to others in this community. So, thank you so very much for allowing me just to share a little bit about me, a little bit about this program that gave me a new lease on life and this wonderful faculty that has been a part of me. I call my family.

(6:31 - 6:44)
And they allowed me to get an opportunity, to have an opportunity to come here and share that. Are there any questions you all would like to ask me or anything like that? Say, keep up the great work. We're proud of you.

(6:44 - 6:49)
And be with us anytime you want to be. Thank you so very much. Go Lee College.

(6:54 - 8:05)
Okay, Charles, don't go too far. We've got a presentation to make. Okay, next we have disposition of minutes, Audit and Investment Committee from October 8th, Building Committee meeting from October 16th, Board meeting from October 17th, and Policy Committee meeting from October 31st.

(8:05 - 8:23)
Do we have a motion to approve the minutes as submitted? Chair, I did not find the minutes available online to review. I cannot make a motion. We'll dispense with the minutes and take them up at the next meeting.

(8:23 - 8:48)
We'll move right into report of the chairman. So recently, in October, several of us had the pleasure to go to Seattle for the ACCT National Conference. And I wanted to take a few minutes at this time to get a report back from those of us that attended on what our takeaway was from the National Conference.

(8:49 - 9:06)
So we'll start with Susan. It's always exciting for us to go to our ACCT Conference because it is our national conference. I wish you could hear me.

(9:08 - 9:34)
At ACCT, there were 1,800 participants. As you know, I was elected last year to serve on the National Board of ACCT. And I'm proud to report that Prietta Vandible Stallworth, who is a board member at Houston Community College, was elected our vice chair of our board.

(9:34 - 9:47)
So we have great Texas representation. In addition, Carol Scott, who is our regional director, was elected regional director. She was elected to represent the region.

(9:48 - 10:03)
Our region includes 13 states. And so Carol was our previous chair of PAT. And you will hear more from her as she provides information about things that are going on at the National Conference.

(10:03 - 10:18)
We have a new CFO search that's in process at the ACCT. And proud to say that ACCT's budget is healthy. So it's going to be a great opportunity for us to find someone.

(10:21 - 10:41)
All of us know Dr. Ponce, who was with us at Lee College, who is now the president of Temple College. She was elected as the CEO of the Year for ACCT, which is a great accomplishment. And we're very, very proud of Dr. Ponce.

(10:42 - 11:04)
We had another winner. Board secretaries and board professional leaders like David Molman, Texas, the one from Dallas College, was elected as the national winner. So Texas had a strong showing at ACCT.

(11:08 - 11:35)
Next year, the conference will be in New Orleans. I had the pleasure of presenting two different sessions while at ACCT, the first of which was Unlocking Opportunities, Unlocking Opportunities, Financial Aid for Swift Transfer. And that was with our own Dr. Moreno and Dr. Villanueva.

(11:36 - 12:15)
We did a panel presentation, which was well attended and received, I think, by the conference attendees. The second session was Data-Informed Governance, a framework for trustee decision-making. And in that particular session, it was with Nicole Eversman, who is our director for CAPT. And I want to just point out that I provided, David has given you a handout, which is in your folder, and there's some great information on this particular session on Data-Informed Governance.

(12:16 - 12:33)
I want to just point out one thing. Oh, also, there is another handout in there which shows all of the Texas presentations. There were 17 Texas presentations that were conducted at the ACCT conference.

(12:34 - 13:09)
If you'll look at the top of the last page, that's where the Data-Informed Governance framework for trustee decision-making occurs. We just had a meeting with Ray Martinez, who is the president and CEO of the TAC organization, and he talked to us about the importance of data and the financial picture of Texas. So he gave a great overview.

(13:10 - 13:58)
But over the course of the year, we have presented Data-Informed Governance for sessions that were through Zoom, seven sessions all across the state. What we looked at and what we presented in this session was a mock presentation of what we presented throughout the year and talked about the importance of Data-Informed Governance as regents, the type of questions that we need to ask and be aware of as we are approving our budgets, as we're looking at student success, and how we are making sure that we are budgeting so that our students will succeed. So I gave you a copy of the presentation.

(13:58 - 14:12)
It is also in that folder. And hopefully, if you have any questions, it's pretty thorough. You will see it probably is a session all by itself because there's so much information in it.

(14:13 - 14:38)
But the key part of here is for us to look at the type of questions that we as board members should be asking in the area of looking at data. Thank you. Okay, Regent Warford could not be here, but she did send me her comments that she wanted to inform us on, and so I will read that at this time.

(14:38 - 15:06)
She attended a session that was titled SNAP Employment and Training Grant Innovative Solutions for Student Supports and Offsetting College Expenses. The Associate Vice President for the Center for Policy and Practice and the Senior Project Associate, both with ACCT, presented this session about additional federal support available for students. Their support would offset college expenses already being expended by the college on behalf of the students.

(15:07 - 15:40)
SNAP Employment and Training is a federally funded, state-administered program for which community and technical colleges can apply to serve as third-party providers. A significant number of students on our campus are potentially eligible to receive this benefit, so we are looking into this opportunity to leverage this underutilized funding stream. When your institution is covering the cost of student expenses as SNAP Employment and Training third-party providers, you are eligible for up to 50% of institutional costs that support students.

(15:40 - 16:07)
Three distinct advantages of this program are that it enhances partnerships, strengthens student success, and generates strong return on investment and sustainable funding for both student and the college. Lee College has already been included in the cohort for this program, and one of the presenters is already in conversations with Kelly Ford Spears. The potential is promising, and the wheels are turning to see if Lee College will be a fit for this grant opportunity.

(16:11 - 16:50)
I attended a very interesting session, and it was for a, I forget the name of the college, but it's a community college in the suburbs of Seattle that is offering a certificate in social work specifically for folks that are going to work with the homeless population. I was surprised to learn in this session that Seattle has the third-largest homeless population in the country. They are far from being the third-largest population in the country.

(16:51 - 17:26)
So New York has the largest homeless population, L.A. has second, and Seattle is third. And so what struck me about this is not that, oh, we need to come back to Lee College and start a certificate in social work for homelessness, but what I was struck by is it illustrates the adaptiveness of community colleges to address the problems in the communities that we serve. I think that's what I got most out of that, is how here was a college that saw a problem in their community and has created this program to address it.

(17:28 - 17:49)
Regent Hall? When you go to the West Coast, you're going to see or hear things that you probably haven't seen or heard before. And so one of those things, which was quite good, was a term, futuring. And the title of this particular session was Futuring Before Strategic Planning.

(17:49 - 18:15)
And it's just a process where you begin to imagine what, based on the knowledge that you have, what things are going to look like down the road. And one of the big topics that we discussed was the impact that K-12 students being out of school are losing a year. And eventually those students are going to end up here at Lee College, in our particular case, or at colleges across the country.

(18:15 - 18:30)
And how are we going to deal with that problem? And how do we build that into our strategic planning? So that was a new term for me, futuring. You may have heard it before, but I haven't. And a couple of other sessions I went to.

(18:30 - 18:43)
Artificial intelligence, there's a lot of legal issues surrounding that, and we discussed all of those. Augustine Rivera is the counsel for Delmar College, and he led that session. It was very interesting.

(18:44 - 18:57)
And we have to be careful about how we let AI, artificial intelligence, do some of our tasks, because we can't legally stand by and say, well, AI did that, therefore we're not liable or anything. Yes, yes. It's not a defense.

(18:57 - 19:10)
We're completely responsible. And another legal session that I go to every time I go, this one dealt with Title IX regulations. And I'm holding this map up because it shows three different colors.

(19:11 - 19:28)
The green stands for go, yellow is wait and see, and red is stop. And you see the countries kind of evenly split into the three groups. And the outcome of that session was they couldn't give us any answers about what's going on in the national scene, because it all depended on who won the election.

(19:28 - 19:49)
And so, literally, there's just, it's like diametrically opposed concepts about how to handle higher education. So all of that to say it was an interesting discussion. We came away with no knowledge out of that one other than stay tuned and wait and see.

(19:49 - 19:52)
So thank you. All right. Thank you very much.

(19:53 - 20:00)
Now we'll move into committee reports. Chairman Santana, Building Committee. Yes, sir.

(20:00 - 20:21)
The Building Committee met Monday, November 4th, from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. The meeting agenda was to interview three firms to consider hiring them to assist with our facilities master planning process. I'm going to give a little background on how we arrived at this point. In 2018, we hired SLEDGE Engineering to perform a facilities condition assessment.

(20:21 - 20:38)
From this assessment, we identified around $11 million of critical needs that became the 2018 revenue bond. All those projects have been completed. Fiscal year 2021 excess revenue, the board funded $3.8 million for ADA and other projects.

(20:38 - 20:50)
Those are just about 100% complete. In fiscal year 2022, from excess revenue, the board funded $4 million for ADA and life safety projects. Those projects are ongoing today.

(20:50 - 21:11)
McKenzie Scott grant of $5 million and some additional lost revenue funds totaling $6.7 million were used for the Student Resource Advocacy Center renovations. CARES Act funded another $4 million in projects. And lost revenue funds of $3 million were used for the McNair Workforce Renovation Project.

(21:11 - 21:28)
From fiscal year 2023 excess revenue, the board has funded $1.7 million for site-wide furniture fixtures and equipment. I bring that up just to summarize. These projects represent around $34.2 million in facilities investment in the last six years.

(21:29 - 21:43)
And although the COVID period delayed our master planning effort, we are very fortunate to have had these funding sources. However, they were one-time events and not continuous. The board has been involved in and supported and approved all these facility improvements to date.

(21:44 - 22:02)
So for the last few years, the building committee and the board have been struggling with buildings requiring demolition and opportunities to purchase properties adjacent to the campus. These decisions are difficult without a facilities master plan. So the building committee interviewed three firms that were recommended by the administration after the RFP process.

(22:03 - 22:18)
Interviews included presentations from each firm and follow-up questions from the building committee and the administration. Later in tonight's meeting, there's an agenda item to authorize negotiating a price with a firm to provide these services. The final approval will be later.

(22:19 - 22:35)
When the master planning process begins, the selected firm will present the process details and schedule to the board. The building committee will update the board on progress and include the entire board when determined or requested. The building committee also met on November the 11th.

(22:35 - 22:41)
It was a special called meeting. The building committee also met on November 20th. The building committee met.

(22:41 - 22:54)
We reviewed furniture purchases that will be presented in an action item later in the evening. We reviewed proposed parking lot refurbishments that will be an action item later in the meeting. And we received an update on current projects.

(22:54 - 23:03)
So we've been busy this month. Anyone have any questions? Thank you. Regent Guillory, Policy Committee.

(23:04 - 23:18)
So we've met. And later on in the agenda, you'll see several items that we'll ask you to support us in approving. One is in relation to our internal auditor.

(23:18 - 23:31)
And so we now have an auditing plan. The auditing committee has looked at that plan, and we're going to collaborate with the internal auditor. We'll collaborate with the internal auditor, and we will have a say.

(23:31 - 23:54)
So just kind of collaborating and having a full plan strategically of how we're going to go through the auditing process. You'll see, again, DIA and FFDA kind of comes around every year on DIA. Title IX, as mentioned before, it causes us to have to specifically name the person inside of that.

(23:54 - 24:10)
So every time you have to specifically name not just a position, but the actual person specific about addresses and all of that. So we'll see that each time. And then also we have one where we have a student conduct administrator.

(24:11 - 24:21)
So we're going to have to engage with addressing some of the issues. All of those things will be later on in the agenda. Thank you.

(24:21 - 24:29)
Thank you. Regent Geralds, Audit and Investment Committee. We did not meet in November, but we are scheduled to meet December 12th.

(24:30 - 24:36)
Okay. Report of the President. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(24:36 - 25:05)
I want to begin by tagging on to Regent Morfantino's point about our invitation and hosting of Ray Martinez, the President and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges. I just wanted to thank the Board for coming to the dinner and allowing us to host them and spending extra time. I know you guys find it very important, and this has been a very long day for you guys, and so I just want to appreciate and thank you guys for coming to that.

(25:06 - 25:45)
I wanted to briefly share that Regent Santana and I yesterday attended the Mont Bellevue Chamber of Commerce monthly meeting, which was a legislative update, and the presenters were Senator Creighton and House Representative Terry Leo Wilson. And I was very surprised and pleased that he mentioned Lee College a couple times. One was to praise our partnership with Mont Bellevue and Barbers Hill ISD in the formation of a branch campus, but also to praise us on our performance with House Bill 8. So I'm just happy about that.

(25:45 - 25:59)
It was just wonderful. We have had a lot of great things going on, so I'm just going to have to go in order. First, I want to mention that on Friday, November 8, we had the Puente Program, the Honors Program, and the TRIO programs.

(26:00 - 26:24)
We took our students to the University of Texas at Austin for a transfer tour, and they had a packed charter bus with 50 students and four different chaperones. The tour was absolutely amazing from what I was told and the pictures I was able to see. Jessica was our UT guide, and she provided our Lee College students with valuable transfer information.

(26:25 - 26:49)
After our tour, several students actually verbally committed to attending UT, while a few others expressed motivation to improve their academic standing at Lee College so that they could transfer to UT in the future. So we were really pleased to see that. The trip would not have been possible without the support of Dr. Janina Norris, Kelly Ford Spears, Dr. Leonore Calderon, and Brianne Daly.

(26:49 - 27:08)
Special appreciation goes to Jo Greathouse. Her encouragement and support for transfer tours and enrichment opportunities have really improved Puente's ability to serve its students. And in addition, the transfer tour could not have been made a success without the help of Catherine Amaya and Rio Cummings.

(27:08 - 27:21)
They ensured students were engaged and, more importantly, safe. While on the transfer tour, they all behaved really well, right? Wonderful representatives. And finally, I offer my sincere gratitude to Dr. Javier Ramirez.

(27:21 - 27:48)
He is the Puente program director, and he's also an English faculty member here at Lee College. So thank you to this very large group of amazing team members who made this trip so successful. In another area of transfer, today marked our... Was it our very first transfer Thursday? Okay, so we are having what is called Transfer Thursday to increase our college's transfer culture on our campus and across the Baytown community.

(27:49 - 28:29)
So the Transfer and Educational Partnerships Division and the Marketing Department collaboratively brought together over 25 of us today, faculty, staff, and admin, for a huge group photo, photos forthcoming, right? And it included rivalry photos. So we had those of us, for example, who were at UT or U of H or A&M, they all got together and they... No one threw any angry signs towards one another or anything like that, but it was neat to have those photos. Sporting their alma mater gear and... Where's Dr. Bennett? Is he here? He even had his diploma out there.

(28:29 - 28:39)
He wanted to show his diploma. So we had rally towels, pennants, flags, foam fingers, and degrees in taupe. So a degree from Dr. Bennett, anyway.

(28:39 - 29:07)
But the goal is to encourage students to transfer with the supports that we provide on campus, and we truly are appreciative to those who participated and look forward to increasing transfer opportunities for our students. I wanted to piggyback on Regent Warford's comment about ACCT and the SNAP program. We have actually been only one of two community colleges in Texas to be named as a part of that cohort.

(29:08 - 29:31)
Kelly and I have visited with folks already to discover the very cumbersome and bureaucratic process that it's going to take to get to be a part of this program, but we're very determined. It's going to happen, and our goal is to achieve the status by October of 2025. So ambitious timeline, difficult from what it sounds like, but we're going to do it.

(29:33 - 30:04)
We wanted to share with you that we celebrated National Apprenticeship Week, a celebration where a host of partners showcases successes and value of registered apprenticeships for strengthening our economy and meeting the need of industry by creating pathways for our students to acquire good jobs. Earlier this week, we celebrated Lee College becoming a registered apprenticeship site. Mr. James Carnes from the Department of Labor was present to officially recognize us as a registered apprenticeship site.

(30:05 - 30:35)
Judge Lucia Bates was in attendance and read a proclamation from Apprenticeship USA, and I'm proud of the work that Calbright Haynes, our work-based learning director, and Renita Price, our program manager, had done to make that whole event possible. I also want to recognize members of our board who were in attendance, Regents Daryl Fontenot, Weston Cotton, Gina Guillory, and Gilbert Santana. So thank you for your time.

(30:38 - 30:57)
There's a lot more. There's a lot that's happened. Okay, so immediately following the ACCT conference, Dr. Moreno had the privilege of representing Lee College by presenting multiple times, she apparently just never gets tired of presenting, at the National Alliance for Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships, or what we call NACEP.

(30:58 - 31:38)
There she presented about academic advising dual credit students, NACEP program evaluation standards, findings from the Dual Enrollment Research Fund Project, awarded to Lee College with fellow researchers, and she served on a plenary panel to discuss, what's DESI? Oh, the Dual Enrollment Student Success or Student Engagement Findings, with our Texas Association of Community College Coach, Dr. Linda Garcia. So thank you for that, Dr. Moreno. The Texas Dual Credit Alliance hosted its first annual summit at the Baytown Hyatt Regency, the first week in November, welcoming district and college partners from across the state.

(31:38 - 32:09)
Regent Santana and Dr. Moreno served on a panel that included a former dual credit student and father, Goose Creek CISD School Board Member, Tiffany Guy, Goose Creek Independent School District Superintendent, Dr. Randy O'Brien, and Temple College President, Dr. Chrissy Ponce. Each participant shared their experiences with district and college partnerships, dual credit experiences, and the support provided in their roles at each institution. Regent Santana, thank you for serving on the panel.

(32:09 - 32:35)
Do you have any insight that you'd like to share from serving on that panel? I'm thankful to Dr. Moreno for providing me some talking points before I got there. I think I stuck mostly to those talking points, but it was great to be recognized, along with our partner, Goose Creek CISD, and the work that's going on. It was important for everyone to know that anything big and successful takes a lot of time and effort and a lot of work.

(32:36 - 32:49)
And I think we were able to share the experience that we've had, the processes we've gone through, with the folks that we're visiting, and I was just glad to be a part of it. Proud of Lee College that day. Thank you, Regent Santana.

(32:49 - 33:14)
So, Lee College was well-represented at the Texas Association of Community Colleges Pathway Institute in Fort Worth last week, and that was led by Nicole Tunmire. Thank you, Nicole. The team included Leslie Gallagher, Dr. Laura Lane Worley, Jessica Haney, Lance Bird, Dr. Carl Husband, Maria Sierra, Curtis White, Sarah Tidwell, and Dr. Marissa Moreno.

(33:14 - 33:34)
She's everywhere these days. But we had actually four different sessions during that conference, which is really outstanding, and I wanted to share just briefly what those were and who they were presented by. So we had a personalized pathway planning presentation by Sarah Tidwell and Carl Husband.

(33:34 - 33:56)
This was a session that provided information on how Lee College implemented and adopted FlightPath as a component of our advising system. We described our software needs, attributes of that FlightPath system that met those needs, and how we worked to customize it to our students' advising needs. The second presentation was a community college research fellowship presentation by Sarah Tidwell.

(33:57 - 34:24)
Sarah highlighted current challenges to students in transfer and how extant literature, and her research mentor, John Fink, helped her craft an interview protocol for community colleges to use with current standards to understand their perceptions and needs to make transfer a reality. The third is a problem of practice that was also by Sarah Tidwell and Nicole Tunmire. Nicole and Sarah facilitated Lee College's problem of practice, mandatory advising.

(34:24 - 34:57)
After exciting discussions with colleagues, it was real that instead of finding ways to make students come to us, that we need to reimagine our campaigns to elicit student participation. And finally, there was a presentation entitled Caseload Connections to Pathway Success by Sarah Tidwell and Dr. Marissa Moreno. This session explained the process Lee College advising and transfer programs implemented when shifting to caseloads in 2014, and how caseloads evolved to align to pathways, and a discussion on the challenges and solutions with the caseload model.

(34:57 - 35:25)
I wasn't able to attend the conference, but it was wonderful to receive a text from the former Chancellor of the Maricopa Systems in Arizona, telling me what an outstanding job our team was doing at this particular conference. So it was just wonderful to hear that, and I'm so grateful to our team for representing our college so well, and doing an outstanding job with four presentations. I don't know of any other community college that had that many presentations.

(35:25 - 35:50)
So, outstanding. I wanted to update the board. Last month, I shared with the board that Dr. Walser and Donna Zuniga were invited by the superintendent of Windham School District, Christina Hartman, to provide comments at the public hearing of the Sunset Advisory Committee in Austin, and on November 14th, they discussed recommendations to improve and expand incarcerated education programs in Texas.

(35:50 - 36:25)
I shared last month that the Sunset Commission was made up of five state senators, including Mays Middleton, five state representatives, and two public representatives. We were delighted to learn that our longtime friend and Lee College supporter, Roger Elswick, was one of the two public representatives on the Sunset Advisory Commission, and we had the privilege of sharing aspects of our own Huntsville Center, as well as incarcerated education in Texas, in advance of their testimony, so it was great to visit with them. But it's immensely gratifying to know that Lee College is nationally recognized for our incarcerated education program.

(36:26 - 37:02)
We have been in the business of offering second chances and saving lives to individuals for over 60 years. And while we're well known for our Huntsville Center educational program, it's probably less known but equally special that two of our employees, Dr. Walser's and Donna Zuniga, are nationally recognized for their subject matter expertise in the field, and I just want to thank both of them for their attributions and additions to that scholarship and that work, and leading the charge in that area. On that very positive note, that concludes my report.

(37:05 - 37:16)
Okay, we'll move right into report of Lee College resignations and or retirement. I have one to report, Abby Moore, Coordinator of Talent Acquisition and Human Resources. Okay.

(37:19 - 37:33)
Next up, we'll bring up our fabulous CFO, Annette Ferguson, to give us the financial report. Go ahead, babe. We say she's fantastic every time she comes through the door in our office.

(37:34 - 37:59)
I just want to tell you that. Yeah, I mean, say it. We'll be talking about the financial results through October 31st, which is only two months into our fiscal year, 16% of our operating expenses.

(38:00 - 38:30)
Our cash still remains very strong. We did receive our payment, our first payment from the state in October, which you may recall is 50% of our funding from the state, but that still remains very strong. Our tuition and fees, typically with fall alone, we would want this number to be somewhere around 48 to 49% of our total budget.

(38:31 - 39:01)
We're a little bit ahead of that. The main reason we're a little ahead of that right now is that we started our registration for spring earlier this year than we have in the past, but we're still looking strong on enrollment. As I mentioned, we have received our first payment for state appropriations in October, and taxes are not yet coming in, so that's still low.

(39:03 - 39:32)
Other revenue, you can see that we are just a little bit behind our overall budget, but we will catch up with that. Restricted funds, you can see we've got about $450,000, $460,000 that we need to pull down, and most of that is coming from Title IV. As soon as those funds are available, we will be pulling those down.

(39:33 - 40:18)
When we look at our revenue projected out, again, it's very, very early in the year, so it's really kind of hard to say, but right now everything is looking good. Overall, we're projecting a net revenue of about $700,000, but again, it's very early in the year. For expenses, our expenses are mirroring our budget, and so I think last month, that first month, we showed operating expenses being above our budget, and I told you then that it would catch back up, and you can see here that it has.

(40:19 - 40:43)
And when you look at the year-to-date, you can see we're pretty much right on target. And year-to-date projected actuals, again, we're looking really good, really strong, and that is it unless anyone has any questions for me. Thank you.

(40:46 - 41:36)
Next up, we have public comment. We have one speaker, Mr. Chairman, Paula Lee. Hello. 

How are you tonight? So my name is Paula Lee. I am the Blackboard System Administrator here, but I'm also a member of the Southeast Texas Choral Society, and so this is kind of a shameless plug for the Christmas concert that's coming up on December the 7th at 730 over in the PAC. So I would like to invite you guys because it has the Lee College Symphony Orchestra that we now have, which is a lovely, wonderful organization.

(41:37 - 42:02)
Clarence Frank is the director, and in case you didn't see that he won the American Prize in Conducting for the Community Orchestra Division for this year, so he's a very talented musician and just a wonderful person. And he directs the symphony, but he also directs our Southeast Texas Choral Society. So I hope that you will make it a date night.

(42:02 - 42:18)
Go to dinner, go to the symphony, have a lovely evening, right, and hope to see you there. Thank you. Okay, next up is consent agenda, consideration of new hires.

(42:19 - 42:26)
The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. I won't read the detail. You all see it there.

(42:26 - 42:42)
Do we have a motion on the consent agenda? Okay, I have a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Cotton. Any discussion on this? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(42:42 - 43:23)
Any opposed? Okay, moving on to new business. Consideration of third year payment to timely care per contractual agreement. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to allow payment for year three of the three-year agreement to timely care for a total cost of $220,000.

(43:24 - 44:06)
Do we have a motion? I have a motion by Regent Hall and a second by Regent Morfantino. Any discussion on this item? I would just like to say mental health for our students is a very, is a board to their best interest. A couple years ago, Dr. Vee and I and someone else presented at ACCT along with timely care.

(44:06 - 44:39)
It was a well-attended session. One that Kelly, we're looking at statewide what our community colleges are doing in this area. So, I know the time's not right to make this request, but I would like for us maybe to receive kind of like a state of report of what services have provided for us and how it's met our needs.

(44:39 - 45:06)
That would help as a member college that is actually using timely care and as an example for other colleges that might be wanting to address this. Any more comment or discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(45:08 - 45:44)
Next item is consideration of the purchase of three-year license to watermark course evaluations and surveys for a total cost single payment of $49,612.50. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the purchase for $49,612.50 of a three-year license at $16,537.50 per year to watermark course evaluations and surveys. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second.

(45:45 - 45:54)
Okay. I have a motion by Regent Guillory and a second by Regent Morfantino. Any discussion on this item? I just have a clarifying question.

(45:54 - 46:10)
It says a total cost single payment of $49,612.50. Are we paying all three years at once or paying three years at the $16,000? All three years at once, so okay. Okay. Thank you.

(46:11 - 46:31)
I think we had the option also of paying over a five-year period, but we chose the three years. Is that what it was? To get the better discount. Just to confirm, we chose that option to receive a discount, to do pay at once.

(46:31 - 46:42)
Yes. And it is indeed a single payment. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye.

(46:43 - 47:34)
Aye. Any opposed? Next up we have consideration of contract to refurbish parking lots 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11. The administration recommends that the Board authorize the President or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve core stone paving and construction to refurbish parking lots 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 for $170,346.27. Do we have a motion on this item? I have a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Hillary.

(47:35 - 47:57)
Any discussion on this item? Good for Crackfiller. I'm assuming that's called for. Your assumption is correct.

(48:02 - 48:27)
Okay. Is there any other discussion or clarifying items for this agenda item? Quick question. How many other parking lots are in need? Do you want to come to the mic? What was the question? How many other parking lots? I see we have five that we're looking at now, but how many other parking lots are in need? We have a couple other that may be in need.

(48:27 - 48:37)
Right now these are worse. They're taking up on the east end of the school, coming westbound. Trying to make an assumption of what we need right now.

(48:38 - 48:51)
If you notice on this we're doing 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11. That covers everything from 2D1 all the way out to Tucker Hall. All the asphalt will actually be repaired.

(48:51 - 49:03)
All the tracks taken care of and completely sealed just like we did on Gulf Street. Anything that is made out of concrete will be completely cleaned, redone, cleaned up. Repairs as needed.

(49:03 - 49:16)
Small repairs and restarts as well. So we can actually have a better looking and better drivable parking lot. Whenever we do these kinds of renovations, we always look at the impact on instruction.

(49:17 - 49:26)
What's the impact in this case? What we're looking at is we're going to be doing this on off hours. We're going to try to do most of it on holidays and weekends. That's why we're trying to get it passed now.

(49:26 - 49:40)
With our breaks coming up, the faster we can get this approved, the sooner we can get them to move. We can even start over the Thanksgiving holiday if possible. Staying on P.O. If not, we have the Christmas holidays to come in and try to get most of the work done.

(49:40 - 49:54)
All we have to do is minimal once we actually come back to town. Any other questions? Okay, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(49:54 - 50:20)
Any opposed? Okay, motion passed. Next we have consideration of selection of architectural services firm for college master plan. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final term with the firms to be considered in the following order for professional architectural services for the creation of the Lee College Facility Master Plan.

(50:20 - 50:25)
Number one, PBK. Number two, Broadus Planning. Number three, Pfluger.

(50:26 - 50:42)
If a contract is not successfully negotiated with the top-ranked firm, then Lee College must cease negotiations with that firm and move to the second-ranked firm and so on. The district may not reconsider a firm once negotiations have been ceased. Do we have a motion on this item? So moved.

(50:43 - 50:55)
I have a motion by Regent Santana and a second by Regent Hall. Do we have discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye.

(50:56 - 51:45)
Any opposed? Next up we have consideration of furniture marketing group furniture updates. The administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the furniture updates for John Britt Hall office spaces from furniture marketing group for $133,455.55. Do we have a motion on this item? I have a motion by Regent Cotton. Who was the second? And a second by Regent Geralds.

(51:45 - 51:56)
Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay.

(51:58 - 52:15)
On behalf of faculty and students in that building, we are very grateful for your support. Okay. Consideration of adoption of board policy revisions for local policies.

(52:15 - 52:40)
The administration and board policy committee recommend that the board approve and adopt revisions to local board policies as presented and recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards, TASB, update 47 and five other policies. Do we have a motion on this item? I have a motion by Regent Giller and a second by Regent Morfant. No.

(52:40 - 52:55)
Do we have discussion on this item? I do. Please elaborate on what these policies cover. So CDC is for the internal.

(53:09 - 53:19)
And that's where we have specifically. I'm sorry. I'm talking directly to Daryl.

(53:20 - 53:38)
Where you have to specifically put the contact information for the contact for Title IX representative. And FFDA local is the portion where, again, this is Title IX. And you have to have the coordinator named in that section as well.

(53:39 - 53:59)
FLB is the section where we have to appoint. We're going to appoint some students in order to assist with the student conduct administration. And then FM local is to deal with disciplinary and penalties for students who may have some form of misconduct.

(54:03 - 54:08)
Anybody else have anything on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

(54:09 - 54:31)
Any opposed? Okay. At this time, the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above listed 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.

(54:32 - 54:58)
Meeting is adjourned and the board is reconvened into open meeting. Next agenda item, matters of concern for future's agenda. Do we have anything? Presentation on the timely care program? Yes, for murder litigants.

(55:03 - 55:05)
All right. Meeting adjourned.