February 12, 2021 - BOD Minutes

ECTC Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting

Time/Location

• Elizabethtown Community and Technical College
• Microsoft Teams Meeting
• Friday, February 12, 2021, 9:30 a.m. EST

Attendees

CALL TO ORDER

For the record, the Board of Directors meeting held February 12, 2021 was held via Microsoft Teams due to COVID-19 restrictions and safety recommendations from national, state, and local authorities.

Chair Stan Routt called the regular board meeting to order at 9:35 a.m. EST.

DISCUSSION

Welcome, Introductions, and Announcements

• Chair Routt welcomed everyone via Microsoft Teams.

Approval of Minutes

• MOTION: Ms. Kim Huston made the motion to approve the November 13, 2020 minutes as presented and Mr. Howard Williams and Mr. Paul Witten seconded the motion.
• VOTE: The minutes were approved by unanimous consent.

Old Business

COVID-19 Update:

• There have not been many changes in our COVID status over the last few months.
• Higher Education employees can expect to receive the COVID-19 vaccine soon, if they choose to participate. Currently, phase 1B is in process of receiving the vaccine, higher education is in phase 1C.

New Business

8-Week Communication Plan:

• Ms. Megan Stith, Dean of Institutional Advancement, will cover the 8-week communication plan during her report.

Action Item -Strategic Needs Analysis (SNA) Request:

• Mr. Brent Holsclaw presented the Strategic Needs Analysis (SNA) plan to the Board.
• Each odd numbered year, we submit our SNA plan to the Capital Planning Advisory Board. The SNA plan is a comprehensive list of our capital needs over a six-year period and includes information regarding new construction, renovation needs, capital maintenance, equipment, and information technology requests.
• ECTC facilities staff has gathered feedback from Dr. Pate, the President's Cabinet, and the System Office.
• Information included in the Six-Year Capital Plan includes:
  • New construction, renovation or property acquisition of $1,000,000 or more.
  • Equipment costs of $200,000 or more.
  • Information technology systems costing $1,000,000 or more.
  • A list of construction needs for the next 3 biennia's (22-24, 24-26, 26-28).
  • An estimated cost for each project.
  • A college president assigned priority for each item.
• Six-Year Capital Plan (SYCP) Timeline: ECTC is first in line for funding requests.
  • The President and facilities staff begin the SYCP process in the fall of 2020.
  • The SYCP draft is presented to the System Office by December 15, 2020.
  • The SYCP is presented to the Board of Directors February 12, 2021.
  • The SYCP is presented to the Board of Regents for approval on June 10-11, 2021.
  • KCTCS (including all 16 colleges) Six-Year Capital Plan is combined and prioritized and submitted to the Council on Post-Secondary Education during fall 2021.
  • Selected Requests from SYCP will be forwarded to the General Assembly during January 2022.
  • Approved projects are included in the G.A. budget, April 15, 2022.
• ECTC's 2022-2024 Proposed Capital Requests:
  • 1st biennium (2022-2024)
    • Occupational Technical Building renovation phase I - $14,000,000
    • Construct and/or procure transportation center - $5,000,000
    • Science building lab renovations - $2,000,00
  • 2nd biennium (2024-2026)
    • Occupational Technical Building renovation phase II - $21,000,000
    • Site development improvement and modifications - $3,000,000
    • Science building renovation - $7,600,000
    • Academic Technical Building renovation - $2,500,000
  • 3rd biennium (2026-2028)
    • LRC Building renovation - $2,500,000
    • Springfield campus Health Sciences expansion - $4,600,000
    • Leitchfield campus expansion - $8,000,000
    • Construct Business and Information Technology Building - $7,700,000
    • Construct Performing Arts Center - $5,900,000
• Action Item: Mr. Howard Williams made a motion to approve the Strategic Needs Analysis as presented, Dr. Steven Sargeant seconded the motion. The motion carried.

REPORTS

Provost/CAO Report:

Interim Provost/CAO, Mr. Darrin Powell, shared his report with the board:

• Registration begins March 1, 2021 for the new 8-week schedule. Faculty and staff have put a tremendous amount of work into developing the new schedule and in the coordination efforts to prepare information to distribute to the public.
• Our Fall 2020 success rates have improved slightly compared to those of Fall 2019. Our Fall 2019 completion rate was 87.16% and our drop rate was 12.84%. Our Fall 2020 completion rate was 87.47% and our drop rate was 12.53%. Therefore, our overall success rate for Fall 2019 was 70.06% and our Fall 2020 success rate was 70.50%.
• Question - Is our data consistent with other KCTCS colleges?
• Answer - Yes, our data is consistent statewide. Currently, our data is slightly below the national level, but continues to steadily improve. Our hope is for our success rate to continue to improve once the 8-week schedule is fully implemented.
• ECTC is currently searching for a new Nursing Director, an Industrial Core instructor, and a Psychology instructor.
• Our Respiratory Care program underwent a site visit recently and received a good report. We anticipate accreditation approval sometime this summer.
• A new system wide initiative is underway and requires a new definition of digital literacy. This is a graduation requirement for KCTCS.
• A cultural competency study will be implemented.
• The KCTCS system received a system-wide grant for the ALIGN project, an outcome-based education model.
• The Council on Postsecondary Education recently released a draft for assessment and placement for 2022-2023.

Chief Finance and Facilities Officer Report:

Mr. Brent Holsclaw, Chief Finance and Facilities Officer, shared his report with the board:

Finance:

• Our budget is in good shape at this time.
• Fall revenue was approximately $74,000 less than projected and currently, spring is $450,000 less than projected. We may see an improvement in our spring revenue.
• Compared to this time last year, we have reduced our expenses by 9%.
• We can expect additional cuts from state appropriations.
• Our budget has been supplemented with restricted COVID stimulus funding.
• We have negotiated a new copier contract which will result in a savings of $35,000/year.
• The draft proposed budget will be presented to the Board during the May 2021 board meeting.

Facilities:

• Areas of the Academic Technical Building have received new paint, new flooring, and some ceiling tiles have been replaced.
• The Coding Academy lab is complete and includes a lounge area. The design of the lab was a team effort and was led by Ms. Carla Hammonds. The Coding Academy lab is located in RPC 142/143.
• The ECTC Master Plan was presented to faculty and staff and all employees were given an opportunity to share comments, thoughts, and suggestions with Cabinet members. The feedback is currently under review by the architect.
• The IT department in the Occupational Technical Building is currently under renovation. The renovation includes lighting upgrades, paint, new flooring, and new furnishings.

Chief of Student Affairs Officer Report:

Dr. Dale Buckles shared his report with the board:

• Our students are working hard to be successful throughout this pandemic.
• Our food pantry is going strong and is being utilized by many of our students.
• ECTC scholarship applications open March 1. Students will apply directly through ECTC. Students may also find scholarships of interest through the Central Kentucky Community Foundation's website.
• A virtual graduation will be developed for Spring 2021.
• The Work Ready Kentucky Scholarship program is going well and many of our students are enrolled in this program.

Institutional Advancement Report:

Ms. Megan Stith, Dean of Institutional Advancement, shared her report with the board:

• Our recruitment team continues to focus on working in-bound leads, people who have contacted ECTC via phone or website seeking information. We have conducted over 1,800 web leads this fiscal year to date.
• A texting communication plan was implemented in January 2021.
• Senior Days is a virtual enrollment event offered to all seniors within our service region. Outreach is currently underway through guidance counselor resources, promotional videos, direct mail campaign for high school seniors and their parents, and webpage/CRM registration.
• The Allied Health Showcase has been modeled after the Advanced Manufacturing Showcase this past fall. The showcase reinforces ECTC as the best choice for students who want to train for a career in healthcare. This will be a YouTube Live virtual event on March 2 at 1:00 p.m.
• An 8-week communications plan was implemented on February 3, 2021. Various opportunities were organized to collect feedback from students, faculty, staff, and secondary partners.
• The student emergency fund has awarded $5,400 since its implementation. These funds can be used by students where needed...education and books, transportation, food, childcare, housing, etc.
• $1,213,367 in CARES funding has been awarded to 809 students.
• 199 unduplicated students received a total of $196,237 in ECTC scholarships last year.
• 10 new scholarships have been established since 2020.
• The scholarship priority deadline is April 1, 2021.
• The ECTC annual report link will be sent to all board members upon the conclusion of this meeting.
• Question: Are we in contact with seniors who are homeschooling and those in parochial schools?
• Answer: ECTC reaches out to all schools within our service region and this includes parochial schools. We are continuing to work on ways to reach out to homeschool students.
• Question: Do we anticipate additional CARES funding?
• Answer: Yes, we do anticipate additional funding from CARES funds. Currently, we are waiting for clarification on how these funds are to be used.

Human Resources Report:

The Human Resources report was covered earlier during the COVID-19 update.

President/CEO Report:

Dr. Juston Pate shared his report with the board:

• KCTCS has decided to remain in the Kentucky Education Retirement System (KERS), so all employees enrolled in this plan will not be negatively impacted.
• The Beacons of Light ceremony is scheduled for February 26, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. EST and can be viewed via Facebook or YouTube.
• During our last SACSCOC accreditation we had recommendations to address. These recommendations will be finalized this spring along with all monitoring reports.
• The upcoming legislative session is important to ECTC as we advocate for legislative investment for key infrastructure.
• We anticipate a strong one-time fund balance via carry forward money. This is largely due to unfilled positions.
• At this time, we do not see any indication that our sources of revenue will increase for 2021-2022.
• Cabinet is exploring various ways in which ECTC can address our employees need for a raise.

MEETING ADJOURNMENT

A motion was made by Ms. Kim Huston and seconded by Dr. Steven Sargeant to adjourn the meeting, motion carried.

The meeting adjourned at 10:46 a.m. EST.

NEXT BOARD MEETING

The May 14, 2021 board meeting will be held via Microsoft Teams due to the status of COVID-19 restrictions and safety measures.

Minutes respectfully submitted by,