The board of trustees met to discuss issues about the schools’ funds and the upcoming election on Oct. 15. The members didn’t influence people to vote for a specific candidate, but let the audience know what the repercussions would be of voting for either.

Mark Macdonald, legislative advocate, did a presentation about the Sacramento update. The five goals that Mark Macdonald has set for the college are; to protect the base funding, to get an augmentation, keep the fees low, and redirect student completion models into a student success model. They also wanted to create a guaranteed transfer pass.

Macdonald says, “Of those five goals, we have completed three. Which direction the assessment bill goes is yet to be seen, but the goal is to have a statewide bank for all colleges to pull funds out of. We’re looking at three growth budgets. We have a billion in funds that need to be deferred and need to be augmented for new students. There was a flurry of activity and we hope that Glendale gets the accommodations.”

“We were able to protect base funding. We voted no on a $40 per unit fee increase. We provide Glendale’s eyes, ears and voice within Sacramento as well as acting as ground troops during the legislative bills,” said Macdonald. Glendale is set to get a $2.8 million augmentation. Most of that money is deferred. The actual money will be determined when the chancellor’s office does their final runs.

According to Macdonald, five to six billion has been withheld from all community colleges due to Prop 98. The state isn’t going to give the money back. The state is also going to cut Physical Education funds from the school. If Meg Whitman is elected, there will be a tax cut. If Brown is elected, GCC will enter into negotiations by January. When students transfer to a state university, it will not be to a particular campus, but into that system.
The issues for next year will be three more tough budgets. There will be an augmentation for all the new students. L.A. County will have a declining number of graduates. Community colleges will be getting 3.9 million dollars. The downside will be the 89 million dollar referral and Glendale will be self sufficient for the next year. There is a $10 million deficit.

Sarah McLemore, assistant English professor, Francien Rohrbacher, English instructor, Lin Griffith, ESL professor and Narineh Frankian, math instructor stepped up to talk about their respective subjects.

McLemore talked about the English Bridge program, which became the English High School collaborative Program. The math and ESL programs also took this path. In fall 2009, only 39 percent of all students placed into English 101. About 54 percent of students who are in the high school collaborative program placed into English 101.

Narineh Frankian, math professor, went up and said “No one took math in his or her senior years. Statistics have improved. In 2005, 28 percent of students entering college have placed in the intermediate level. The lower the level, the less likely the student will complete an AA Degree or complete a transfer level math class. “We provide placement tests for high school juniors and seniors to encourage them to stay in math. We provide workshops for development. We provide alternate math programs to prepare students for an AA level class. Only 54 percent of Grad students placed in AA level math.”

She added, “Being in math helps students maintain or improve their level.”

The collaborative classes are encouraged to juniors and seniors. Seven high schools are in the program. Armine Hacopian, board of trustee’s member said: “My daughter who was in seventh grade took a course here and passed.”

During the first presentation, Makiko Nakasone and Andre Nikitan from the Kofu Rotary club in Japan came to visit the meeting. The club Kofu supports the Glendale Rotary Club Sunrise. $11,000 was donated to the program by Kofu. Makiko was surprised at how much the Japanese program in GCC had grown.

For more information on the Oct. 18 meeting, visit www.glendale.edu under Board of Trustees.