Issue #
No news is good news. That’s the report that the West Hills Community College District Board of Trustees received in February from the district’s financial auditors. Bill Williams, representing the accounting firm of Vavrinek, Trine, Day & Co., told board members that a review of general funds, special revenue funds, debt service, capital projects, student financial aid, scholarships and loans, student organization funds and trusts of the college found that all accounts were in order.
Williams noted that the district’s general fund reserves exceeded the five percent required by the State Community College Chancellor’s Office. At the end of the 2004-2005 fiscal year, for which the audit was conducted, WHCCD’s general fund reserves were $4.3 million, more than double the reserve of any of the previous five years.
The district’s operating budget for the fiscal year was $62.3 million. Of that, $22.3 million was in general operating funds and $10.1 million was in restricted funds (primarily grant-funded programs), and the remaining $29.9 million was other funds such as capital outlay, bookstore, residence hall, financial aid and cafeteria.
At the February 24th WHCCD Risk Management Committee, the WHCCD Chemical Hygiene Plan was approved for submittal to the Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet. Members of the Districts’ Risk Management Committee are Anne Jorgens, chair; Keven Backman; Kathy Watts, Stephanie Atkinson; Eliseo Gamino; Brian Abela, chemistry instructor; Clifton Harris, biology instructor; Vince Montoya; Shaun Bailey and Larry Rathbun.
The WHCCD Risk Management Committee serves in an advisory capacity and helps in the development of safety plans, policies and regulations, and exercises oversight over all health and safety programs in the district. The committee also assists with development of in-service training programs including the district’s Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP).
The February 2006 Chemical Hygiene Plan is a complete re-write of the District’s 1991 Chemical Hygiene Plan to meet current OSHA requirements but also includes facility and administrative changes at the District. The purpose of a Chemical Hygiene Plan (CHP) is to protect laboratory instructors, students and staff from harm due to chemicals while they are working in a laboratory.
The committee is currently working on the WHCCD Occupational Exposure Control Plan (formerly the Bloodborne Pathogens Plan) and the WHCCD Emergency Response Plan.
This month the Business Services office has been busy sending past due student accounts to collections. In addition to sending accounts to the Chancellor’s Office Tax Offset Program (COTOP), accounts are also being sent to either Western Control Services or Coast Professional. If your students have any questions regarding whether their account has been turned over to collections, please have them contact Debbie Gore at extension 2121.
We also want to remind everyone that the 2005 Tuition Payment Statements (1098-T forms) were sent to each student’s West Hills College student e-mail account. The information contained on the 1098-T forms has been submitted to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS uses these statements as a validation tool to determine if the student qualifies for one of the education tax credits, the Hope Tax Credit or the Lifelong Learning Tax Credit. More information regarding the 1098-T forms is available on the college websites. Questions regarding the 1098-T forms should be directed to Tammy Weatherman, extension 2117.
The staff is also busy working on updating the Business Services Procedures manual, and developing a “Business Services” section on the West Hills College website. When the updates are finalized, hard copies of the manual will be made available to district staff. Once the website is completed and live, the procedures manual will be posted and available on-line.
The West Hills College Lemoore 2B and the CDC Building Projects are nearing completion. Final claims to the Chancellor’s Office and other funding agencies are in progress. Stop by and check out the new facilities in Lemoore if you get a chance.
see photos of PreK learning to sign
An American Sign Language class has just completed a second session at Coalinga’s CDC. We have about 20 staff members participating who will be implementing the use of sign language in classrooms at CDC. Money for the program was supplied by the Coalinga Parent Advisory Committee. Kelli Barnhart from Fresno is teaching the class. We are looking for funds to provide this training in others sites as well.
Plans are underway to celebrate Week of the Young Child, which is April 2-8. Coalinga will kickoff April 1 with an Oklin Bloodworth outdoor children’s concert in the area behind the CDC. Other sites also have activities planned. Lemoore and Avenal will have visits by police and fire departments for parents and children. In all centers, children’s art will be displayed. Displays are also planned at First Five in Fresno.
The licensing process for the Lemoore site is underway and we are waiting to hear about a date for our pre-licensing visit from the State Department of Social Services. We’re hoping that it will in the next few weeks.
Dedication ceremony for the expansion of the Coalinga site is April 4th and the dedication ceremony for the Lemoore site is coming soon.
District Strategic Planning
The District Strategic Planning Committee met on Friday, February 24th, for a review of the goals and objectives that were developed as a result of last September’s strategic planning session. The goals and objectives are featured in booklet called the West Hills Community College District Strategic Plan 2006-2010 that all employees should soon receive in the mail.
Attending the February session were 34 members of the committee including community and business members and representatives from all West Hills locations. It was suggested that the committee be expanded to include representatives from the K-12 system. The group is scheduled to meet again on March 31st in the district office board room. Board policy mandates that it meets at least three times each academic year.
Summer and fall sessions are just around the corner. The 10-week long summer session classes will begin on May 30th. Far more eight-week courses are scheduled though and those begin on June 12th. A six-week session also begins on June 26th.
Priority registration for summer/fall begins on April 17th, the day after Easter, and open registration begins the following Saturday, April 22nd.
Enrollment Services is working with the deans and marketing to finalize plans for printing the class schedule, which should be mailed to all homes in the district and surrounding communities the week priority registration opens.
Farm of the Future is never short of activity. February and March are exciting with the first hints of spring prompting lots of activity on the farm. Larry’s list includes:
1. UC Riverside has completed the tomato trial layout for 2006 and the first transplants are in the ground. UC will reimburses our costs and involve our students in field research.
2. A new bulldozer was purchased for the heavy equipment program utilizing part of the reserve held by the Foundation from the sale of the old dairy herd. Merlin has 31 students enrolled this Spring, and the Sports Complex construction is moving ahead.
3. We have an abundance of nut buds on our almonds, bloom has been good, and the weather and bees have helped set the basis for an exciting crop.
4. Ag Ambassadors continue visiting high schools telling the story of our program and promoting enrollment. They have visited 21 schools so far this year from Weaverville to Calexico.
5. Recent graduates are accepting employment at salaries above $35,000 plus incentives.
The Financial Aid office has been very busy over the last month reaching out to students and encouraging them to complete their FAFSA by the March 2 deadline. We offered nine Cash for College workshops during the month of February and assisted over 400 students.
We were very excited to be able to offer one $1000.00 scholarship to one lucky participant at each one of the Cash for College workshops. Once the March 2 deadline has passed we will be following up with our $1000.00 winners.
West Hills College Foundation Departments that have just finished fundraising events:
- Basketball program had a great turnout for Big Monday dinner/auction in December
- Football program is planning their annual Golf Tournament scheduled for March 11
- Rodeo program had a super crowd last Saturday night at their annual boosters dinner/auction
- WHC Annual Rodeo is planned for March 31 - April 1. Be sure to come out and watch our students
WHCL Community Education class students are raising money to go to Costa Rica in Spring 2006
Plan to attend the Foundation Annual Silent Auction on May 21st , purchase a ticket for $25 and get a “Taste of the Valley” by sampling good food and wine from many local restaurants and wineries. Don’t forget to schedule Monday May 22nd for the golf tournament.
The Grants office is submerged in its peak period-- “every grant in America is due right now!” We started by submitting the Talent Search on December 30th (due January 6th), this was record-breaking; we usually have one-day to spare! The rest of January, we finalized end-of-grant reports such as, the MetLife Leadership grant and the USDA Rural Business grant.
For February, we continue to steadfastly submit grants. We assisted Dr. Larry Rathbun with a USDA CSREES grant for agriculture and Joy Cowden with a Hewlett Packard grant. We also submitted a Learn and Serve grant, very tedious electronic submission with the one day to spare! (Due February 27th) We are entering the month of March racing to the finish with a USDA Rural Business Development grant, a Vocational Training grant for Fresno County and a Title V and CAMP grant, with the majority being submitted electronically, we have become finger tapping queens as we wait for the forms to upload!
The Human Resources department has been busy with several open recruitments since the New Year. However, they haven’t been too busy to plan some fun and entertainment for WHC employees. Both hockey and baseball are on the activities calendar and all WHC employees and their families are invited to attend the events. The Fresno Falcons are hosting the Long Beach Ice Dogs on Saturday, March 18th, at 7 p.m. Tickets are discounted for WHC employees and are only $14 each if purchased in the Human Resources Department.
Employees have been asking and the HR department has delivered. Put on your sun block and head to the ball field. The Fresno Grizzlies baseball team is hosting the Portland Beavers on Saturday, May 6th, at 7:05 p.m. WHC has obtained a group of field box tickets for the discounted price of $12 each. Make it a date, mark your calendars, and get ready for an evening of entertainment and excitement. Just contact the HR department to get your tickets today!
In addition to planning extracurricular activities, the HR department is also coordinating a mandatory Accident Investigation Training session for all management and supervisory employees. The training will be held on March 21st (Lemoore), 22nd (Coalinga), and 23rd (Firebaugh). Since the training session is mandatory, it will be held multiple times throughout the day to accommodate busy schedules. This training is designed to enhance awareness of factors that cause accidents and injuries. The two hour training session is an interactive process that motivates employees to take action and become an active part of the injury and illness prevention program. Watch for the HR announcement that will list all the specifics and the RSVP information.
The ITS department is excited about the new SAN system that is on order with HP. The equipment is in the process of being shipped, assembled and tested and should be in place and serving West Hills by the end of this summer. Attached is a Power Point presentation Michelle did for the board of trustees to explain the SAN system. Highpoints are:
- It’s a $1.3 million system that keeps West Hills at the forefront of technology.
- It provides virtually instantaneous back-up in the case of an emergency like a power outage at any of our locations.
- It provides more storage space on the network for individuals within the district.
- It’s our backup in case of a catastrophe (think Coalinga earthquake of 1983).
- It will increase our capacity to pass information from one site to another. Someone described it as the equivalent of changing from a garden hose to a 10 foot water pipe.
We’re busy working on adding courses to the second nine weeks of spring semester. There are 14 short-term online courses scheduled to begin after March 20th. We still have at least three we’re hoping to add—philosophy, geography 3 and history 20. That will put us at over 110 online courses this spring semester.
The Summer/Fall schedule of classes will have a strong compliment of online courses as well.
The first draft of our program review is complete. Many thanks to institutional research for the help with that. Our staff will now take another look at it and then it will go to the chancellor for review.
Like everywhere else at West Hills, the Marketing Department and Duplicating Services are juggling a number of projects all at the same time. Many of the accreditation documents require duplicating services and during the entire process, Tom and Karan kept the paper flowing. Dave Bolt put it best when he said that Tom is one of the unsung heroes at West Hills. He just quietly (most of the time) does his job. Same holds true for Karan.
Tom and Karan spend about 90 percent of their time on graphic design. Frequently, many of our employees don’t see the results of their efforts since the ads or other materials are distributed outside our organization. We’re adding a new link to the website this month under the News and Events section of the website that will profile the print ads and the beautiful work that Tom and Karan do. Watch for it soon.
The website also has links to all of our news releases, which are accompanied by the pictures that went with them. These are archived on the website at http://www.westhillscollege.com/district/news_&_events/news_releases/index.asp. A couple of important releases that went out recently involve the board of trustees’ decision to place our bond measure on the June ballot and a report by our district auditors for the 2004-2005 fiscal year. I also had some fun last Saturday taking pictures of bees on the farm and the newspaper editors love them.
Early in the month we participated in a booth representing West Hills at the Academic Game Plan event sponsored by KMJ Radio. Thanks to Vince Montoya who delivered and set up the booth and then took it down at the end of the day. Thanks also to Sandy McGlothlin, Erin Terranova and Jana Cox for helping "woman" the booth and thanks to Dr. Gornick for stopping by to support the West Hills’ effort. In case you haven’t seen the booth, a picture is attached. It’s available for use at indoor events. We also have a beautiful bright yellow canopy for outdoor events. I’ll try to include a picture of that next month. There’s also a picture of Jana’s son, Trey, with Philadelphia Eagle’s tight end Steven Spock, who was at the Academic Game Plan event.
West Hills College Coalinga will be hosting the Coalinga Citizens’ Institute for a dinner and tour of the campus on Monday, March 6th. I’ll be helping Dr. Tricoli with that event and on March 23rd, West Hills College Lemoore will hold a dedication ceremony for Phase 2 of campus construction and marketing and duplicating will both have roles in that.
Following the dedication, we will be hosting city leaders and school officials for a gathering of the Regional Development Initiative, which will be in the WHCL conference. Co-sponsor of the event is Fresno County EOC. That project is being supported in part by our leadership grant from the MetLife Foundation. It should be an exciting event and will give many community leaders a chance to visit the Lemoore campus and our beautiful new facilities there.
Pedro has an excused absence this month. It’s called ACCREDITATION! Congratulations to Pedro on an outstanding job of compiling all the data and charts that have been so important in the accreditation process for both Lemoore and Coalinga. We’ll probably never know if it’s turned his hair gray in the process….
Pedro, his “twin” Jose Lopez and Brian Thiebaux, a visiting team member from Palo Verde College during a breakfast reception at West Hills College Lemoore Tuesday morning.
Several promising ventures that will extend workforce preparation opportunities for student are unfolding during the month of March. After months of grassroots lobbing of radiology departments at local hospitals, the Hospital Council of Northern and Southern California has decided to fund the continuance of the Rad Tech cohort in Lemoore. This will be their final year of training and it is expected that all 16 students will graduate from the program. As you may recall, this is a joint venture between Fresno City College and West Hills College Lemoore. The CEOs from Adventist Health in Hanford, Corcoran District, Kaweah Delta, Sierra View and Tulare District Hospital have all pledged money and would like to see the program continue to enroll 16 students per year. Discussions are underway now at both Fresno City College and West Hills College Lemoore to determine if it is feasible to enroll another cohort.
West Hills College Coalinga and Hartnell College have discussed the possibility of extending the Psychiatric Technician Program via distance education. This possible grant-funded endeavor may be a win-win for both colleges!
Healthcare is certainly a hot topic, The California HealthCare Foundation has initially agreed to provide funding to complete a multi-county, comprehensive feasibility study to examine the extent of the region’s RN shortage and need for increased RN training capacity to improve healthcare access and economic prosperity.
Stay tuned for more updates….