/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
During last week’s meeting of the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board, NPC Friends and Family Director Betsy Ann Wilson updated the board on scholarships available for fall. In particular, one provided by Dr. Mark Duncan, a former White Mountain resident and recent Mayor of Farmington, N.M.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Wilson explained, “I was contacted by Dr. Duncan in May. He is moving back to the area. He and his wife are going to be opening up a couple of assisted living facilities called Beehive Assisted Living. They were very interested in giving scholarships to students in the nursing program.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
“His wife, Becky, always wanted to be a nurse. She went back to school at the age of 50 and obtained her nursing degree. Through that process, she said, she saw so many women struggle without the support of a family like (she) had. She wants to now pay it forward and help women like that.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Wilson told the board that she received an application for a scholarship from a single mom who is raising five of her own children and three of her late sisters. “She has been working for a number of years as a CNA in Springerville. She has been accepted in to our nursing program and she has been awarded one of two $1,000 scholarships from the Duncans.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Fundraising is important to the scholarship program at NPC Friends and Family. The annual Pedal the Petrified bicycle race will take place on Saturday, Sept. 14. Registration for that event is closed.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Wilson continued, “We had a disc golf tournament a few weeks ago and we raised just short of $4,000. Those proceeds will go toward veteran’s scholarships.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The governing board also heard the annual financial report from Northland Pioneer College Vice President of Administrative Services Maderia Ellison. In her report Ellison said, “This is the cash-based budget. You will be seeing the accrual-based budget and the actuals in the coming months as our annual audit is complete. The revenues collected were 105 percent of our budget, at $29,497,137. The primary tax levy is our largest revenue source, it hovers around 40 percent of our entire budget. The state appropriation is the second group, then to a lesser extent the tuition and the grants and contracts. This gives you some sense of where our revenue streams come from. We have received everything we were anticipating for the fiscal year in the primary tax levy.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Ellison then went on to explain that expenditures are at around 86 percent of the college’s budget. “We have not yet accrued all of our expenses, things that we have obligated to do but not yet paid as of June 30.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Jeremy Raisor of the Financial Aid Department at NPC also provided a report to the board. “As of last week, we now have 266 students awarded Pell Grants for the fall semester. You can see from those basic numbers that we are ahead of schedule.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
Northland Pioneer College is preparing for a visit from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) in November. The visit will confirm the institution’s accreditation status.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
During the meeting a presentation was given outlining the criteria for accreditation and the process in which it happens.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
NPC is on a 10-year cycle for accreditation, meaning the last visit to the sites was in 2009. This year, the HLC intends to visit NPC campuses in Winslow, Holbrook and Show Low.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The criteria that the HLC will be looking for are how well the college is meeting its mission, acting with integrity, providing quality teaching and learning, providing instruction to students and effectiveness in resource planning.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
NPC has been a nationally accredited college since 1979. Director of Institutional Effectiveness Dr. Judy Yip-Reyes said, “Right now, our college is on the HLC’s Open Pathways Cycle. It spans 10 years. Throughout that 10 years, every year, the college has an annual institutional update. Right now, we are in the final content review process. Once we are finished with that, we will submit it to the peer review team. They will then visit in November.”
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
In other business, the governing board:
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Appointed Dr. Jessica Clark as chair of the Northeast Arizona Training Center board.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
* Released funds from the state appropriations budget in the amount not to exceed $26,525 to SRS Plus, a design firm, for updated infrastructure plans. The plans will blueprint the new “tiny house compound” set to exist on the Northern Arizona Training Center campus.
/wp:paragraph
wp:paragraph
The next meeting of the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board will be held at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Tiponi Community Center, located at 2251 E. Navajo Blvd. in Holbrook.
/wp:paragraph
