 "Photo: Destiny Mata")
Grace Langford, coordinator of student development at Northeast Lakeview, asked trustees, Chancellor Bruce Leslie and senior staff how they planned to reconcile an obvious disconnect with the faculty and staff across the district after presenting a more than 90 percent vote of no confidence at the September board meeting.
At the fifth and final town hall meeting with the board of trustees Tuesday in the performing arts center at Northeast Lakeview College, board Chair Denver McClendon, District 2, said many people question the board’s and district administration’s operating procedures. “We are going to continue to do things the way we do it because we want what’s best for the students.”
Roberto Zárate, District 5 trustee, said employees must understand that they signed a contract with the district, not the colleges, and the board is responsible for the district and areas under an umbrella of its emphasis, like Helotes, Floresville and Kerrville.
He said as the board chair in 2003, the district had trouble balancing its monthly budget alone. Now, the district is experiencing rapid growth in enrollment that surpassed 60,000 students this semester and compelled trustees to consider the difficult question of whether quantity or quality of education is a better practice for the district, he said.
Zárate also reminded faculty and staff that the board worked to maintain employment and salaries across the district over the last year at the same time property appraisals, taxes and state allocations have decreased.
He said Leslie and his staff have done a masterful job and that is why the board passed its own resolution with a vote of confidence in the chancellor. The chancellor has done a tremendous job to save jobs and been positive and proactive, Zárate said.
District 8 trustee Gary Beitzel agreed with Zárate’s assessment that the district needs to remain proactive before the state Legislature steps in.
He said the district must develop its own metrics, rather than awaiting a state mandate that forces a different expectation on the colleges.
Beitzel said the district cannot continue to perform business the way it has done, otherwise the state Legislature’s learning outcomes might be dependent solely on graduation rates.
The board and district must find more measures to convince the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board they are doing right by the students and community, Beitzel said.
McClendon said trustees and administrators would prefer to work with faculty and staff to develop a plan to increase student success, rather than allowing state and federal government to dictate policy.
He said President Barack Obama has publicly said he plans to send an influx of financial support to community colleges across the nation in an effort to ready students for the workplace, but first they must meet a quantifiable level of student success and increased efficiency.
McClendon also said Gov. Rick Perry wants to discover ways to reduce textbook costs and directed the Coordinating Board to explore inefficient programs at public universities and cancel those that are failing students.
But he said if people look at the last four years, there has been vast improvement in management and student success.
McClendon said faculty is very important to the district.
“You are where the rubber meets the road,” he said. “You have the No. 1 influence when talking to students.”
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