Agendas & Meetings

NPC Minutes of the Board of Trustees Meeting

October 27, 2021

The National Park College Board of Trustees met in a regular session on October 27, 2021. The regular meeting began at 3:30 PM in the Student Commons Conference Center on the National Park College campus. Trustees present Larry Bailey, Mike Bush, Joyce Craft, Gail Ezelle, Jim Hale, Bev Joe, Forrest Spicher, and Raymond Wright.

Staff and faculty members present in-person and virtually were Bill Allison, Juanita Brewer, Wade Derden, Jessie Ellis, Kelli Embry, Michelle Godwin, Bruce Hankins, Nicole Herndon, John Hogan, Brad Hopper, Julie LaRue, Melony Martinez, Nathan Ritter, Jerry Thomas, Darla Thurber, Steve Trusty, Jill Houlihan, Amy Watson, Nathan Poor, Mike Wiles, Brian Kroening, Kurt Markish, Tim Ward, Scott Post, Samantha Christian, Kristin Thompson, Yolanda Cox, Janet Smith, Janice Ivers, Latisa Beason, Sara Caldwell, Bill Ritter, Darlene Gentles, and Lynn Valetutti.

John McMorran of Lewis Architects and Engineers attended the meeting as a guest.

The media was notified of the meeting. Brandon Smith and JB Ford from the Sentinel Record were present.

Chair Forrest Spicher provided a welcome and provided the invocation.

Items for Action

1. Trustee Bush made a motion to approve the September 22, 2021, minutes as Trustee Wright seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
2. Trustee Bailey made a motion to approve the Financial Statements and the Legislative Audit as presented by Bruce Hankins, Chief Financial Officer. Trustee Wright seconded, and the motion passed Chair Spicher thanked Bruce Hankins for his leadership and the good work of his team.
3. Kelli Embry, Vice President of Administration and John McMorran of Lewis Architects and Engineers, presented Resolution 2021-G to approve the National Park College Campus Master Plan. Embry noted that NPC hosted 6 public forums, and that the feedback was almost all positive. Attendees appreciated that NPC is taking a long-term view at what is needed for our students and community. Embry noted that one of the anonymous online responses stated that “the plan is trying to reach the holistic wants and needs of the student body.” McMorran was asked to present the Master He stated that a good Master Plan has room for growth and room to go with the changes, to expand in some areas and shrink in some areas. Trustee Bailey made a request to amend Resolution 2021-G to add “and Marine Technology Programs…” Trustee Wright made a motion to adopt the National Park College Campus Master Plan, Resolution 2021-G as amended. Trustee Joe seconded, and the motion passed unanimously. Chair Spicher expressed appreciation for participation and thanked Kelli Embry for her leadership and Trustee Wright for his service as Trustee Chair for the Master Plan.
4. Darla Thurber, Vice President for External Affairs, presented proposed revisions to NPC policies 000 and 8.400. Trustee Wright made a motion to approve the policy revisions as presented. Trustee Craft seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
5. Wade Derden, Vice President for Academic Affairs, presented academic program changes. First, Dr. Derden proposed an introduction of a new technical certificate in Criminal Justice which is imbedded into the Associates of Applied Science in Criminal Justice. Second, Dr. Derden proposed deletions to include the technical certificate in Aerospace Fabrication Repair and the Associate of Science in Business Information Systems. This certificate would still exist but will be listed under the Associate of Science in STEM. Trustee Bush moved to accept the academic program changes as presented. Trustee Wright seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
6. Julie LaRue, Director of Human Resources, presented the ratifications of personnel Trustee Bailey made a motion to approve the ratifications as presented. Trustee Bush seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.

Items for Report

1. 2020-2021 HPO Final Report/Strategic Plan Update – Kelli Embry, Vice President of Administration presented the 2020-2021 High Priority Objectives Final Report. Objective 1 Student Access Enrollment: Approximately 80% our classes were moved to an online or hybrid format and classroom maximums were decreased due to social distancing in our face- to-face classes. While the pandemic impacted our fall enrollment, I am extremely proud to say that all our efforts kept the covid numbers to a minimum and we never had any campus spread event. Objective 2: Student Success Persistence: Our persistence from fall to spring was significant considering we were in the middle of a pandemic and students were still adapting to new instructional delivery formats. We adjusted course delivery a bit from fall to spring based on lessons learned from fall 2020, but overall students returned in good All in all, we were very pleased to maintain our high level of persistence. Objective 3 Student Success Completions: (267 Associate, 279 Technical Certificates and 238 Certificates of Proficiency). We are pleased with this number of completions since we weren’t sure what the impact of COVID would be on student completion. This is only down 8 students from last year, which is amazing. Objective 4 Student Success Equity: This is the first year to report this equity measure. We measured first time, full time, degree seeking students only. It was pleasantly surprising to learn that there is almost no gap, overall, in our completion rates. The total graduation rate of students who completed on time was 27% (116 students) and the underrepresented was 26.7% (31). The national average for on time student completion is 22%, so we are doing great in comparison to the national average for all students! A closer look at the underrepresented breakdown by ethnicity and gender did show some variance, so we are planning to focus our efforts on raising those completion rates across the board. Overall graduation rates for 150% (on time graduation) May 2019 (23%) May 2020 (26.3%) May 2021 (27%), so we are seeing a continuous improvement in these numbers, much of which is based on strategic retention and student success endeavors. Objective 5 Student Success Transfer: Highest number of transfers and the highest percentage of transfers. Last three years it was between 37-43 percent. This year we are right at 50%, AY 20-21 Actual – 135 out of 267 (37%) AY 19-20 Actual – 122 out of 284 (43%), AY 18-19 Actual – 202 (corrected – 112 out of 294 degrees 38%), AY 17-18 Actual – 201 (corrected – 90 out of 245 degrees 37%), AY 16-17 Actual – Objective 6 Workforce Development: While workforce exceeded its training goals in 2018-19, COVID severely impacted the ability to provide training in 2020 and spring of 2021. However, training has steadily been increasing the last 6 months, with a record number of new training contracts! Many companies have resumed providing professional development for employees. We continue to see strong numbers in our apprenticeship programs, especially since adding the plumbing apprenticeship this fall. The launch of the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Institute will also make an impact this year on training hours. Objective 7 Fund Raising: The Foundation continues to steward and cultivate new and established donors. While the pandemic provided us with continued challenges regarding traditional cultivation and relationship growing, we experienced several successes. We secured two new naming opportunities last year: the Ray and Willodene Donathan Pavilion and the Bob Luciew Veterans Center. Both spaces build on the visions of these families to leave a tangible legacy of their loved ones and to support student success. Through funds secured from grants, some older outdoor seating was replaced to providing more socially distanced spaces and water fountains were converted to water bottle filling stations. Objective 8 Fiscal Responsibility: We met this HPO, which is a significant decrease from the previous two years. This is because of decreased administrative spending overall, and because COVID relief funds have offset some of our administrative expenses. Highlights of 2020-2021: Fall 2020 was the first time in history for NPC to have residential students on campus! SAU degrees in computer science, biology and biochemistry started fall 2020. Steve Trusty set the record for longest retirement in NPC history. Hired Bill Allison for VP for Workforce (Dec 2020). Elected a New Board member – Rhonda Harrington (Jan 2021). Virtual board meetings. Updated all our alarm systems. COVID measures ensured the campus safety – we never had a campus outbreak unlike many campuses across the state. BIG Virtual Events: Dogwood Hall virtual ribbon cutting August 2020. Makerspace Open House October 14, 2020. Lab Science Grand opening Nov 2020. Hospitality grand opening Nov 2020.
2. Board Chair Report – Chair Spicher discussed that learning is our focus and we have learned more than we expected this past Chair Spicher also noted that we, either met, exceeded, or closely came to all the HPOs despite the flood waters coming in and having to fight through it. He thanked Kelli Embry, the team, and faculty for all the hard work.
3. President’s Report – President Hogan commended the team for the work to meet our HPOs and strategic plan initiatives. He shared that our work is integrated – master plan a result of strategic plan, which is a result of establishing our budget premises, which is based on our HPOs, which evolve from those strategic plan He emphasized that we continue to listen to the needs and desires of our students and our community. What we heard is that investments in facilities that support student success should be our priority Including investments in housing, nursing, welding and other skilled trades, and athletics. President Hogan expressed his gratitude for the positive and encouraging feedback that confirmed we are headed in the right direction. He stated that the voice of the students and community from the previous generation made today’s campus possible and the voice of this generation is creating success for the next. He thanked everyone for their vision and leadership in the process, and that the next step will be to bring Phase I to the Board for approval.

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:49 PM.

Forrest Spicher, Chair
Joyce Craft, Secretary/Treasurer