California Community Colleges - Chancellor's Update

Springtime is almost here and I am sure most of you are happy about that. Out my way, the baby lambs are in the fields and all the fruit trees are beginning to bloom so the drive to work is much more pleasant than it was in the fog!

We completed our Board of Governors meeting for March yesterday. Most of you know that the Board acted on the funding formula revision and the accountability framework recommendations. Both of these will now go into the legislative process which provide additional time to “tune and adjust” the formats. For me the most important thing is that we retain the integrity of the proposals while trying to marginally improve them. I also feel that if either or both are successful in getting through the political process we need to continue to monitor the performance and usefulness of the plans as they are put into operation. We should form some sort of evaluation/feedback process to monitor and evaluate these and other regulatory requirements so we can attempt to constantly improve overall system performance. I intend to discuss this at Consultation and with the CCLC.

At our Board dinner on Sunday evening I signed the final MOU with National University. This will offer our students an additional access route to a handful of select baccalaureate degrees. For place-bound students this offers a valuable alternative in that degree completion in the student’s home locale is assured, and the overall cost has been somewhat mitigated.

Most of you are also aware that Vice Chancellor Donna Boatright will retire and leave the office at the end of the week. We will miss her and surely wish her well in her future endeavors. Marlin “Skip” Davies, who served for many years in the Los Rios District, most recently as Deputy Chancellor, will be stepping in to the fill the gap until a full search is conducted for that position. Since Skip was one of the driving forces in the Agency Review done last year I expect him to oversee the process of finalizing the changes recommended for the System Office.

We are about to begin what will be a rather fast-tracked process for developing a system strategic plan. Although I do not expect the plan to be finalized and accepted much before the end of the year, we do need to send teams into the field and gather as much input as possible before summer break. This will give us the summer to complete any needed research, and to compile the findings. I expect a draft plan to be ready for review and comment by early fall. The plan is intended to be a high-level statement of purpose and system priorities and micro direction to districts will be avoided. The plan will be simple yet forceful, and will provide the Board of Governors a guide for budget planning and regulatory change. Please plan to participate in work sessions as they occur in your region.

The remainder of the “budget season” promises to be full of action, change and at times to be unsettling. With all of the potential ballot propositions for the Special Election being called for by the Governor there will be many deals, many disputes, and measures that could affect our future reaching the ballot. This will test our resolve and also our patience and loyalty to our mission. Being an optimist I have to believe that most of the highly threatening and difficult issues will be resolved through good-faith negotiations. However, it is also likely that some will not be resolved, and it is those we must pay close attention to.

Finally, we are very close to a final agreement with DSA regarding plan check processes. We believe we have crafted a process that will put much more control over timing in the hands of the districts and the System Office and that the result will be greatly reduced time periods for plan review and approval. We will have to see if this comes true and give it “our best.” If we cannot find substantial improvement through these altered processes working with DSA then we will have to once again consider a legislated alternative. Relying once more on my optimism, I believe that what we have agreed to will work, and that it will save districts a good deal of time and money.

I look forward to seeing many of you on my upcoming campus visits along with David Viar and Kate Clark.