Business Services has been busy preparing budgets for submission to the board of trustees for approval for the 2007-2008 year.

A major effort is underway to train staff at the district office and both colleges for emergency events. Working under the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the primary management system required to be used by all public agencies in California, drills are planned for Sept. 26th in Coalinga and Oct. 16th in Lemoore.  Watch for details in coming newsletters. Free online training is available at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/crslist.asp.

We're celebrating Week of the Young Child with Oklin Bloodworth in Coalinga this Saturday morning and other activities planned this week in Lemoore.  Please join us.

The wait is over!
Child Development has been notified that we have been awarded $321,552 in funds from the State’s AB172 Grant. This grant will allow us to better serve the children in our communities. The grant will fund 24 slots in San Joaquin and 44 slots in Coalinga. In additional to the grant awarded, we will also receive $10,000 to enhance our literacy program. These slots are designated for four-year old children transitioning to kindergarten. The award of these funds will allow us to shift much needed funds to Firebaugh, Avenal and Lemoore.

Growing Again!
Beginning in August with the 2007-2008 school year, West Hills College Child Development Centers will be operating the Reef-Sunset Unified School District’s State Preschool Program. This will include a brand new site on the Tamarack Elementary School campus. With the addition of these new projects, we will be serving just over 700 children at eight sites in the San Joaquin Valley, making a huge impact on school readiness for the children in Coalinga, Avenal, Lemoore, San Joaquin and Firebaugh. Additionally, we are collaborating with the City of Huron to offer State Preschool opportunities to the children of Huron to develop kindergarten readiness skills needed for a successful transition.

Ask Donna about her trip to Washington, D.C.

Dr. Gornick has been elected to chair the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and will host a group of college and community leaders from throughout the Valley on Monday, April 23, for a special education forum at WHCL with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings' regional representative, Christopher Wright, and Terry Hartle, v.p. of the American Council on Education, scheduled to speak.  The new UC Merced chancellor is expected to attend as part of his listening tour in our area.

West Hills was recently named one of the fastest growing community college districts in the State.  We were sixth on the list with the three districts above us growing less than one percent faster. Santa Monica led the list with an increase of 37.6 percent since 2003-2004.  Mt. San Antonio was next at 20.8 percent and then West Kern with 19.7. Mt. San Jacinto and Imperial each had 19.1 percent and we followed at 18.8 percent.

Summer and fall schedules are now available on the web and will be printed in the May issue of Dialogue that will be delivered to all homes in our service territory.

The heavy equipment program hosted a field day for several implement manufacturers. One of the highlights was a catfish fry that brought a taste of the South to Coalinga!

Ag Ambassadors represented West Hills College Coalinga at the State FFA convention in Fresno where more than 4,000 students were on hand.

We are having a financial aid appreciation day on May 2nd on the Coalinga campus. We will be barbecuing for the students and EECU will be here to open new accounts.

WEST HILLS COLLEGE FOUNDATION
11TH ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT
Monday, May 21, 2007
Kings Country Club, Hanford

Proceeds benefit President’s Scholar Program

Entry Fee $175 per person
Events: 10:00am Registration begins Don’t miss out on the clinic
11:00am-12pm Clinic with Tommy Masters with Tommy Masters,
11:30am Lunch Director of Instruction,
12:30pm Shot Gun & Putting Contest San Joaquin Country Club
5:30pm Dinner and Prizes tommymasters.com

BUS TRIPS PLANNED

Please join us on the following bus trips to theatre performances, shopping, events, museums, etc. Ride in comfort on a luxury bus and receive coffee and pastries in the morning and play an exciting game of bingo.

Saturday July 7, Los Angeles - Jersey Boys Theatre Performance- 2pm matinee
2007 Lunch on your own, Dinner in Bakersfield –7:30pm Wool Growers family style Basque dinner
Leave 8am Harris Ranch, Return about 11pm Harris Ranch
$175 per person

Saturday August 18, Simi Valley – Ronald Reagan Library
2007 Lunch under the wing of Air Force One
Leave 8am Harris Ranch, Return about 6pm Harris Ranch
$75 per person

Sunday September 23, San Francisco – Beach Blanket Babylon Theatre
2007 Performance – 2pm
Lunch on your own, select from many good Italian restaurants in North Beach
Leave 8am Harris Ranch, Return about 7pm Harris Ranch
$75 per person

Saturday October 20, Los Angeles – Shopping @ LA Fashion District
2007 (previously called Garment District)
Lunch and dinner on your own
Leave 8am Harris Ranch, Return about 9pm Harris Ranch
$65 per person

Saturday November 3, Los Angeles – Shopping @ The Grove shopping mall
and take a trolley to the Farmers Market
Lunch and dinner on your own
Leave 8am Harris Ranch, Return about 9pm Harris Ranch
$65 per person

Saturday December 8, San Simeon – Hearst Castle Christmas Tour
2007 Lunch prior to tour
Leave 9am Harris Ranch, Return about 6:30pm Harris Ranch
$80 per person

Thursday January 24, See the elephant seals in Piedras Blancas, visit Cambria, bus will 2008 stop at a few wineries for a tasting
Lunch on your own in Cambria
Leave 10am Harris Ranch, Return about 6:00pm Harris Ranch
$55 per person

Call Cheryl @ 559-934-2129 for more information or to reserve your spot on the bus. Seats are limited, first come, first serve.

Cathy and Maria are waiting for chocolate before they issue their next report!

Recruitments are underway for 17 positions in the district including new psychology, Spanish/ESL, PE instructor/wrestling coach instructors in Lemoore and a replacement in Coalinga for  Dave Hedgecock who is retiring after 25 years with the district (full time since 1991). 

Becky Cantu has accepted the position as administrative assistant to Vice Chancellor Ken Stoppenbrink and so will be leaving the HR Department.  

HR Director Keven Backman has also resigned and his replacement is also being recruited.

ITS is working with potential ventures to implement text messaging capabilities for the district to reach students.

The district's enrollment passed 6,000 at the start of short-term classes in March.  Of those students, about 2,500 are taking at least one online class and almost 900 of them are enrolled full-time online.  Online enrollment is up 50 percent from one year ago.

March was an exciting month for the Marketing Department as we helped host comedian Ernie G during a visit to the district. Ernie stars in WHCCD television commercials.  Ernie started his appearances at a student leadership conference in Lemoore, followed by evening appearances in Coalinga and Firebaugh. He did a news spot and the morning show on KFTV-Channel 21 (Univision) in Fresno.  He also visited Coalinga Middle School, Firebaugh High School (where he did an assembly for the entire student body) and our leadership class at North District Center.  Ernie is funny, charming, witty and best of all, has committed his career to helping spread the word about the importance of education to students--especially Latinos. It was a very busy and rewarding three days.  Special thanks go to Jose Lopez, Jill Stearns, Eliseo Gamino, Marlese Roton and Monica Santino for all the work they did to help make his visit a success.  Watch for more of Ernie G in the future.

Another highlight of the month was covering the visit of author Daniel Chacón.  A Valley native, Daniel is now a University of Texas, El Paso, creative writing instructor.  He shared his personal story with students as well as read on of his short stories. At the end of his Coalinga presentation, I joined other members of the audience who would have gladly listed to Daniel read another story or two.  He was great.  Thanks to former West Hills student Holly Blair (wife of ITS' Paul Blair) who helped bring Daniel to West Hills.  Holly is working on a master's degree at Fresno State and first met Daniel while he was Distinguished Writer in Residence last fall.  Our libraries have books by Daniel available.

Filling the time between these exciting events, we've been working on a 75th anniversary publication, Dialogue and a new Career Focus magazine and planning for ad campaigns for summer and fall registration.  Watch the May issue of Dialogue for the summer/fall class schedule.

 

Suzy is working on a redesign for the college homepages on the web site.  Watch for an exciting new look soon.

Partnerships are the name of the game and West Hills is working with partners throughout the region to implement training for careers that will be in high demand in the southern San Joaquin Valley.  Much of this work is focused around logistics and food processing. Short-term classes are being developed that can be rotated throughout the region so training can be offered at a variety of locations without replicating expensive training equipment.

Each of our colleges will receive $200,000 as part of a partnership with State Center CCD for the Career Advancement Academy.  The funds will be used to do local outreach and recruitment, purchase WorkKeys, purchase the remediation software WinSolution and identify, assess and enroll 60 students in at least one new or expanded program.