Quincy Reporter

John Wood Community College Board of Trustees Executive Committee met Aug. 12.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

The Executive Committee met at 8:00 a.m. in room C252. Attendees were Ms. Diane Ary, via Zoom, Mr. Bob Rhea, via Zoom, Mr. Larry Fischer, in person, trustees, Mr. Michael Elbe, president and Ms. Leah Benz, executive assistant, note taker, in person.

Board Agenda Items - discussed by President Elbe

Consent items:

•Regular Board minutes

•Financials, bills, and employee travel expenditures

Grant items:

•Authorization to submit a grant application to Department of Education for a TRRO Upward Bound grant – Funding $297,600 annually, or $1,488,005 over a 5-year grant period.

•Authorization to accept grant funds from the Department of Education for TRIO – Academic Talent Search – Funding $371,632 annually, or $1,858,160 over a 5-year grant period.

Business items:

•Academic calendar (this item was removed from the August agenda and will be presented in September) Juneteenth and Election day are two new dates being looked at in the academic calendar. Juneteenth officially became a holiday in Illinois starting 2022. Interpretation of the status requirement of paid holidays are be researched.

•Transfer – Administration is requesting to transfer $1,521,478.78 from the Operating Funds to the Operations and Maintenance Restricted funds.

•Trust Agreement – The Capital Development Board selected the College’s parking lot repair project to fund. Estimated cost is $460,000. CDB does 75% and the college does 25%. Administration is requesting to transfer $115,000 to trust agreement for the 25% match.

•Board Policy 411 Revision - The noted changes to this policy is so the college can align with ongoing practices of some higher standards in some specialized programs on our campus.

Discussion items:

Capital project prioritization/ Bond Issuance Update – The Executive Committee was provided a proposed list of prioritization projects required for a bond issuance. It was categorized by type, cost, funding option, and timeline and included new capital projects, deferred maintenance projects and renovation/updates of current spaces. Administration is anticipating issuing new bonds in the amount of 5 million and consider another bond issuance in the next 5 years. Mr. Welker and Mr. Elbe met with area bank officials where this topic was discussed as an option to keep this business local.

USDA/RISE grant - The College received notification of a grant opportunity for consideration. This grant is for a rural development from the USDA. After further investigating and navigation through the grant process Administration decided to no longer pursue this grant.

Orr Corporation/Multi-Purpose Facility groundbreaking - An invitation was sent to all Board members for the groundbreaking event regarding the Orr Corporation Multi-Purpose facility. The date is scheduled for August 24, 2021 at 10:00 a.m.

Administration/Faculty contract negotiations - This group reconvened a second meeting. Several tentative agreements have been signed. The next meeting is August 20th. A complete list of tentative items agreed upon will be shared with Board members in closed session as well as items still being discussed for finalization.

Summer and Fall enrollment update - Credit hour numbers are tracking behind last year at 5.19% as of August 2. Summer credit hours also are running behind last year at 5.30%.

Renormalization Plan - With the Delta variant outbreak in the region and new mandates being implemented by the governor’s office, JWCC revisited their renormalization plan. A copy of this updated renormalization plan was provided to the Executive Committee for them to review.

HLC visit - Our 10-year site visit with the HLC is scheduled for October 24 - 25, 2022. Dr. Klinkenberg shared that our current Board Policies should be reviewed prior to this visit. Board policies are the ownership of the Board. Discussion was held on who should review the policies for any updates. Further discussion will be done with all Board members on the best approach. Administrative procedures will be reviewed by Administration.

YMCA Board member - President Elbe was approached to become a Board member on the YMCA board. Discussion was held on this ask with the Executive Committee.

https://www.jwcc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/08.18.21-Employee.pdf