Child Development Center staff members have been busy with the open house at the new CDC at West Hills College Lemoore, the dedication ceremony for the expansion of the CDC at WHCC.

Dr. Tricoli addressing the guests at the Coalinga CDC Dedications	Special Guest Speaker Patty Scroggins	Children singing and signing songs for the guests

Week of the Young Child activities on Saturday, April 1st in Coalinga when about 400 children and family members turned out for a concert with Oklin Bloodworth and activities on the lawn. 
(see photo album)

SAVE THE DATE! Sunday, June 25th 4:00 - 8:00 p.m. Employee Recognition Picnic Jack Stone's Barn in Lemoore Please watch for additional details in the coming weeks.

We have been working on the Summer 2006 and Fall 2006 schedule of classes and will now begin working on the 2006-2007 college catalog for both colleges.  The class schedules will be mailed to all homes in the district and in surrounding communities about the third week of April.  Extra copies will be available for use on campus.

Petitions for graduation have been received and we are busy making lists for the program and senate awards.

The farm has initiated a micro-nutrient research project with Floratine Corporation, an industry leader in soil micro-nutrient fertility. We are hoping to demonstrate the impact of zinc for improved growth on our almonds. While zinc has been applied in the past by spray onto the tree, this test will measure the ability of the "baby" roots to take up chelated zinc as a part of our drip irrigation procedures.

Demands for our students far exceed our current number available.  They keep trying to recruit them before they complete the program!  We have stepped up our recruitment efforts and introduced the opportunity for a $1,000 scholarship funded by the sale of farm products.

Among those committed to attend in Fall 2006 is a young Hispanic woman from Calexico who wishes to be an agronomist and two cowboys from Northern California who have been recruited by current students.

This month four employees from West Hills Community College District--Jill Stearns, Tammy Weatherman, Jana Cox, and John Wright--attended the 2006 Datatel Users Group Conference in the Washington DC area.  Over 2,000 individuals from the higher education industry throughout the United States and Canada attended the Annual DUG Conference & Expo, the largest group in the 24 year history of the Datatel Users Group.

This conference features a technologically sophisticated and topically diverse program that enables higher education professionals to explore and share their use of the Datatel Colleague and Benefactor information management systems, and related technologies at the Expo. The conference is designed for meaningful interaction among attendees, presenters and exhibitors. 

Attendees benefit from the many networking and professional advancement opportunities and the unique partnership Datatel shares with DUG. This partnership fosters an interactive program where knowledge is shared between Datatel Users and Datatel's Employees, who both participate in the event by presenting sessions, facilitating roundtable discussions, and staffing hands-on workshops. During this 24th Annual Users' Group Conference & Expo, more than 200 individual sessions were presented across 10 separate conference tracks. Datatel utilizes the feedback gathered during the annual conference to ensure products and services are superior. 

In addition to receiving exciting information on the Datatel product and future direction, the networking with other peers in Higher Education will be an invaluable resource for the days to come.  The hope is that we can implement just some of the new ideas that we learned at the Conference. 

In addition, as part of the conference, the annual DUG organization meeting is held and includes the installation of officers for the coming year.  California community colleges will be well represented on the DUG Governing Board with Mojdeh Mehdizadeh from Contra Costa Community College District as the new Board President.

March is gone!  Whew-e e e how did we survive?  We submitted a U. S. Department of Education Title V Collaborative Grant for WHC Coalinga and UC Merced.  We worked closely with Robert Ochsner from UC Merced and Jill Stearns, Michelle Kozlowski, Carole Goldsmith and Tom Winters; we appreciate their valuable input and team effort. 

Then came the challenge . . . submitting the U.S. Dept. of Ed CAMP grant for renewal!  Due to the Paper Reduction Act, instructions were to reduce from the original 70 page narrative to a mere 25 pages and still answer all the questions from the original grant!  We greatly appreciate the hard work and team effort demonstrated by Eliseo Gamino, Juan Rubio, Anna Silvestre and Pedro Avila.  Thanks to this team effort the grant was electronically submitted this morning!  Check with us next week to see if we are sane again.

To regain our sanity, Cathy flew out to Arkansas to see her daughter Jill and granddaughter, Joelle.  María will be attending her son’s first home baseball game.  We are on “Reset-Button.”  Time to get ready for April’s endeavors.

In March, HR hosted a visit by Datatel Corp. and received training on the District Colleague HR information system. Also attending were selected personnel from the Business Office and the Payroll Department. The two-day training included among other things duplicating pay period set ups and running test payrolls, then comparing distributions, contributions, and other results with actual pay warrants. In addition the system personnel records were examined and analyzed for performance enhancements. No decisions about using the payroll capabilities of the system were made, but the training gave good insight into how benefits are built, maintained and how payments are made to vendors in real time.

Also during March, HR shouldered the bulk of its yearly recruiting projects for hiring regular WHC employees. There are about 32 open recruitments from all areas currently underway, and every day we see additions made to the list and new employees hired. Last year there were approximately 311 regular employees in the district. Currently there are approximately 330, so HR is recruiting, hiring, and orienting aboard new employees at about a six percent clip; a pretty good growth rate that is among the top of the organizations in the community college system. At that rate, this time next year we should include another 20 or so employees who will help us share the mission, vision, and goals of WHC. It is an exciting, rewarding time for HR to assist in these efforts.

We have been busy this month getting our server rooms at Coalinga and Lemoore ready for the SAN equipment.  We have had to update the electrical, reconfigure some wiring, and rearrange equipment to make space.  It was quite a shock when we realized that we had to have enough room for both the new equipment and the old equipment to live for several months.  In our vivid imaginations, we simply saw the old equipment being removed and the new equipment taking its place.  When reality set it, we realized both systems would need to run side by side for several months, as we migrate one application at a time from the old to the new.

We are in the midst of the end-of-the-year technology purchasing flurry that always occurs in the spring.  Everyone wants to spend their money before it “goes away”.  Odd industry shortages have caused all receiving to be backed up.  Many of our orders have been taking 4 weeks or longer to arrive.  We are used to having to wait 2 weeks at the most.

ITS is trying very hard to clear our schedule so we can actually close Spring Break week like everyone else.  The staff needs a break, so we figured this would be the best time to try to do it.  All systems will continue to be monitored as usual.

Editor’s note:  Michelle failed to mention that her son, Corey, who is a West Hills student, was featured in a banner headline story in the March 22nd issue of The Coalinga Record along with members of his band—My Second Chance.  Four of the band members are West Hills’ students.  In addition to Corey they are Dexter Markely, Justin Maynard and Cash Cadena.  The fifth member, Josh Warren, is still in high school.

Video Conference Classes at WHCCD
In many ways, video conferencing at WHCCD is at an all time high.  Back in the day, instructors were looking at a monitor placed at the back of the room while facing their students.  On a good day the system would have an interruption or two during class.  On a bad day one or two classes couldn't be held. 

Now we have state-of-the-art, high technology video conference classrooms running over a voice/data/video network that, with the help of the IT department, has almost 100% consistency with our connections. Document cameras, AMX panels, video data projectors, faculty and student cameras, microphones, Polycom video conference units, and screens are all integrated into an automated one-touch system for faculty.  We have eight classrooms throughout Coalinga, Firebaugh, and Lemoore with over 20 courses running district-wide this semester. 

We hope to keep growing!  Contact Joe Savopolos at 925-3408 for more information.

March has been a busy month for marketing and duplicating.  We participated in planning and hosting the open house for phase 2 construction projects at WHCL and the Rural Development Initiative that was also held there.  Several outstanding speakers at that conference talked about the challenges facing rural educators in today’s world.  We also worked with the Coalinga Citizens’ Institute to plan the evening on education, which included dinner in the dining hall at WHCC and a tour of the campus.

KFSN-TV visited the campus of WHCL and did a news story on the casino program there.  Subha Ravindhran, the reporter, has done several stories on our Coalinga and Lemoore campuses.  She will be leaving the valley soon to marry a man from Southern California.  We’re going to miss her. 

We also helped coordinate a West Hills’ booth at a Hanford High School District’s first career fair at the Kings County fairgrounds.  Thanks to Mike Rodriguez, the Career Center coordinator at WHCL, and Donna Todd, the health careers coordinator at WHCC, for staffing the booth on a Saturday morning.  Mike is another wonderful addition to the West Hills’ team.   Stop in at the Career Center in Lemoore and check out all that they’re doing.  The recently hosted an evening presentation on domestic violence that drew coverage from all the local television stations. 

 Tom and I are working with Darlene, Maria and the deans on the class schedules.  Tom is sending them to the printer the day before we leave for spring break.  They will be delivered in homes around the time open registration begins later in the month. 

We’ve also had a number of ads including a full page ad in a Hanford Elementary School District publication that was mailed to 5,000 homes in their district.  The idea is to encourage parents and their children to start thinking about college early.

Karan has been busy working on Mosaic, the Coalinga-only version of Kaleidoscope (which is now Lemoore’s literary magazine).  The WHC Foundation supports the publication of both of these.  They will both be printed as well as published on the web. 

On a personal note, I’m going to New York City and Washington, D.C., for spring break with my son, Wesley, who will graduate from Fresno State in May.  Wes is hoping to land a job in D.C.  This will be our first visit.  Any suggestions on things we MUST do?

During the month of March we spent some time with faculty and administrators working on student learning outcomes (SLOs). Both Coalinga and Lemoore have established SLO implementation teams. I have been invited to participate on their SLO implementation efforts. My role in this process is to serve as a resource on assessment and data collection. To learn more about SLOs please see my presentation below.

The following presentations were delivered during the month of March.

Student Learning Outcomes - Presentation given to WHC Coalinga faculty, staff and administration.

The following presentations were given at our Strategic Planning Retreat.

1. Online Student Demographics and Success Rates
2. WHCCD Fall 2005 Success Rates by Program
3. CAMP Student Progress Report
4. Presidents’ Scholars Student Progress Report

Reporting
During the month of March the following reports were generated as requested by the colleges or district office departments.

• Presidents’ Scholars Student Progress Report - Foundation
• College Assistance Migrant Program Student Progress Report - Grants
• WHCL Spring 2006 Male Student Enrollment by Ethnicity – Don Warkentin
• Liberal Arts Majors & CSU, Fresno Transfers – Susan Kincade
• WHCCD Demographics Report by Location – Frances Squire

We have received official notification that the vocational training grant from Fresno County was funded.  This will include $209,063 for training to begin June 01, 2006, and run through May 31st 2007.  Training will be provided in seven categories: precision agriculture, water management, heavy equipment operator, welding technology, corrections, office technology and janitorial skills. The project will provide services to 138 West Fresno County residents.

Supplementary services will include job search and job placement and Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL).  The VESL classes will combine trade specific language and literacy needed for that given vocation with focus on basic communication skills.

All training will take place in multiple locations throughout West Fresno County including Mendota, Firebaugh, Kerman, Coalinga, San Joaquin, and Huron. (Coalinga and Firebaugh classes will be conducted on WHCCD property).
Outreach and recruitment will occur in the communities of Five Points, Three Rocks and Tranquillity. 

Training will be offered during both traditional and non-traditional hours/days and will be designed to maximize hands-on opportunities.