Debbie Gore earns big kudos this month for her work on delinquent accounts.  We have sent to collections a total of 4,778 accounts amounting to $905,383.  We have collected on 907 for a net to WHCCD of $57,180.  Way to go Debbie.

The board of trustees has adopted the budget for 06-07.  Anne has worked very hard on this project and needs to be recognized for her efforts.  This budget has been loaded into Datatel and all managers are able to see their budgets.  Anne is also still doing training on budget transfers for those who need it.

ACCREDTATION GRANTED:  Lemoore received notification on August 28th that the Lemoore Child Development Center had been given their accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).  NAEYC is the nation’s leading organization of early childhood professionals.  By becoming an accredited program, our community and our college is being acknowledged for providing a developmentally safe environment led by educated staff who have a dedication to providing the highest quality of care for young children.  By earning accreditation we have become a leader in a national effort to raise the quality of early childhood education and to help give all children a better start.  This accreditation occurred because of the leadership provided by Nancy Jeffcoach, Lemoore site supervisor.  The Lemoore Child Development Center is the second center Nancy has successfully led through the accreditation process, the first being Coalinga in 2001.  Congratulations to Nancy and her staff.

ENROLLMENT:  August has been a busy month for the Child Development Centers and we have nearly met our enrollment goal of meeting 100% of our enrollment potential.  Only Lemoore and San Joaquin have a few open slots.

GROWING AGAIN:  The Coalinga Child Development Center is growing again.  Construction started August 19th.  Some of the work being completed is the conversion of a classroom which will accommodate an additional 9 infants, bring the capacity to 21 infants.  This is a great need for the community.  Currently, we have 56 infants on the waiting list.  We are also installing rubberized play areas for the infant and toddler classes, adding additional parking and discovery centers to the preschool classrooms.

BACK TO SCHOOL:  To meet the new standards for accredited programs, all site supervisors and teachers are back in school to meet the new standards to hold a bachelor’s degree in Child Development.  Most of the assistants have also enrolled in courses in order to become CDC teachers.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION VISIT:  All of the CDC sites are gearing up for our California Department of Education Review the week of Sept. 11th.  The CDCs major funding comes form the California Department of Education.  Dr. Martinez will begin his visit on September 12 with visits to Firebaugh, San Joaquin, and Coalinga.  On September 13, he will visit Lemoore and Avenal and on September 14, again in Coalinga.

Enrollment Services is now entering the Spring 2007 schedule into the Datatel System.

Darlene Georgatos will be participating in a Physical Education Accreditation visit to Porterville College late September 2006.

Clint has 26 GPS students; Merlin has 30 in Heavy Equipment.

The sports complex is progressing with the recent installation of the fresh water lines. The well is scheduled to be drilled in early September. The Heavy Equipment class will be installing the sewer line in September followed by sprinklers, backstops, dugouts... etc.

In early October, we intend to split part of the heavy equipment class to work on the grading plans for the new ag and rodeo facilities including the building pad for the first shop.

We are having a good almond harvest and our pistachios are more than we planned.

We have concluded our research agreement with Professor Walker of U.C. Riverside related to the  leaf hopper effects on tomatoes.

We have been visited by representatives of Topcon a manufacturer of GPS equipment for construction equipment. They will be proposing a memorandum of understanding enabling us to provide some short course instruction for their engineers and technicians.

Representatives of Fresno Equipment Company visited us on August 29 to explore short course opportunities for John Deere dealers.

The Financial Aid department would like to welcome Lisa Hayden to our team. She is the new financial aid coordinator on the Coalinga campus. She comes to us from Fremont, CA, with a background in student services and higher education. Her first day at West Hills was on the second day of school-- talk about diving in head first. We are excited to have her join our team. When you have time please stop by the Student Services building and give her a West Hills welcome.

The foundation office is busy helping plan Measure W information events on Sept. 6th in Coalinga, 7th in Lemoore and 12th at NDC. 

Cheryl is also working with WHCC on the 10th Annual Athletic Hall of Fame dinner that will be on Nov. 4th.  Since this is the 10th anniversary, all previous inductees are being invited back for a reunion.  This is also the date of the homecoming football game against COS.

The Grants Office is now in a continuous state of JOY and CELEBRATION, unlike our spring and summer frenzy of non-stop grant writing and submissions. Maria and Cathy do a lot of shrieking in excitement when the awards are announced! West Hills College Coalinga just received news of funding for a partnership grant with UC Merced as our partner in a five year grant that will bring $1.5 million to each institution for retention services and technology.

West Hills College Lemoore just received a USDA Rural Enterprise Development Grant for its culinary and hospitality programs as well as a renewal of their Middle College. The Lemoore K-12 programs on campus now have students ranging in age from fifth to tenth graders and these students are testing at the highest standardized testing level. Good job Lemoore!!! Lemoore also received a Chancellor’s Office grant for career exploration for seventh and eighth graders, which adds an extra dimension to their highly acclaimed 5Cs Summer Camp.

Grant award notices are like an Easter egg hunt.  There is a great thrill in “collecting” grants for the colleges, knowing that good things will come to the students as a result of additional grant funding. Thanks to college staff for their help in writing these grants and providing all the good ideas!

HR is working with the Chancellor and Board of Trustrees in recruiting a new president for WHCC.

ITS has been busy over the summer implementing the new SAN and server system. Our two biggest changes to this point are the new version of Microsoft Exchange (email), and the new spam filter. The most noticeable feature of the upgraded email is the Outlook web access that now looks more like the Outlook on your desktop. The new Barracuda spam filter has made a tremendous impact on the number of spam messages actually allowed into your mailboxes. There has been some confusion as to how to use the new spam filter. Below are two different user guides to assist in your use. The first (the word document) is a condensed, straight forward way to manage your spam messages. The PDF file is the actual Barracuda user guide that was originally sent when we implemented the system. The user guide will provide more detail and some more advanced ways to use your spam filter. We will slowly be moving over applications and data from the old servers to the new servers over the next several months. We do expect things to break, but we will correct these issues as expeditiously as we can.  Barracuda Spam FYI Barracuda Spam User Guide

Congratulations to Tom Benedict for receiving big kudos from Business Services for giving “1,000 percent” in helping them meet their deadlines to publish the 2006-2007 budget.  Tom and Karan Folsom are among the unsung heroes at West Hills.  A printer we work closely with recently complimented them as well.  They work quickly and efficiently to present us in the best light to the public.  They are great graphic designers and masters at producing large volumes of quality materials.  Thanks to both for doing a great job on a daily basis.

August was a very exciting month for marketing as we launched our first e-marketing campaign using banner ads and search engine optimization.  We have focused outside of our normal service area since these ads are aimed at driving enrollment to our online courses.  We targeted the Bay area and L.A. plus cities that have a U.C. and San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly).  Thanks to Susan Kincade, Pedro Avila and Suzy Shirk for helping with this project that was being launched just as I left the state for a 50th anniversary celebration in Alabama.  We will be tracking the success of the programs closely through the zip codes of students who enroll.

August also marked the beginning of a new format for Dialogue--our external newsletter.  Formerly it was done on a quarterly basis.  We were able to cut printing costs dramatically and have been able to increase our circulation from about 3,500 to 40,000.  It will now be printed in full color on newsprint and we’re going to give it our best to produce one issue a month for this semester.  Jim has been producing some great stories that will make interesting reading.  If you would like extra copies to share with family and friends, stop by the marketing office.  Also, please pass story ideas our way.  We’re planning articles that highlight our programs and the success of our students, faculty and staff.  We’re also planning a few articles each month in Spanish.

Fall semester is always a busy time.  In addition to generating lots of good news about West Hills, we’ll be focused on sharing information on Measure W.  Please remember that during regular business hours, you can share information but you are not allowed to “advocate” (encourage a yes or no vote).

Watch for a new member of the marketing staff in mid-Sept.  Monica Santino will be joining us as a 19-hour marketing assistant.  She comes with great background working at the Coalinga Record and for a local law office.  She’ll be helping with coverage of events on the Coalinga campus.

On a personal note, I now have two beautiful “grandpuppies.”  Grandkids are years away but these two little Labradors have stolen my heart.  They came to the office for a visit recently and Cheryl wanted to talk my son out of one!  Take a look at the picture and you’ll see why.

In addition to raising a new pup (Sugar Pie), this summer has been a busy one for me and everyone associated with Workforce Development.  The West Fresno County training grant is up and running with over 60 students receiving additional supportive assistance.  The grant also helped with the recruitment for agriculture, GPS, heavy equipment and computer classes at NDC.   The most exciting aspect of the West Fresno County Training grant is that WHC Coalinga will be now offering a welding class at Tranquillity High School.  Leonard Bass and the crew at the One Stop are recruiting for the welding class now and it looks like it will be a full class!

The Federal Earmark grant made possible with support of Fresno County Workforce Investment Board and Barbara Boxer's office has resulted in new courses for WHC Lemoore.  The first cardiovascular (EKG) technician class started in August with 24 students.  The class was so popular that we will be offering an additional course in October.  The sterile processing course is also scheduled to begin in October.  

The Psych Tech Program is off to a great start with 32 students.  Through the hard work of Liz Repp and her staff at the Coalinga One Stop, over 20 students are co-enrolled in the WIA system and will gain additional supportive services that will help them stay in college.  Kudos to Liz Repp, Cecilo Mora, Robert Pimental, Jerry Escalante, April Chavarria, MaryAnn Rodgers and Omar Mendoza!  Great work!

Hopefully all of the grants and creative partnerships with local agencies can help both colleges meet their FTE goals and support students in the process!