The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened April 18. During the NPC Friends and Family (NPCFF) report, Director Betsyann Wilson announced the organization brought in $33,350 during Arizona Gives Day on April 4, which is an event that connects people with causes they can donate to.
Wilson added that although they didn’t make as much this year as they did last year, at about $42,000, she believed it was due to outside sources. “We thought this was going to be a lean year because of inflation and because of the volatility in the markets,” adding that it seemed like all organizations seemed to accrue a little bit less than the previous year.
NPCFF finished second for the most money raised by a mid-sized nonprofit, which awarded them a bonus prize of $3,000 and scored high in overall earnings as well. “We actually finished in 13th place among all the nonprofits across the state, and 875 participated this year.”
Wilson also discussed NPCFF fall semester scholarships, which closed Thursday, April 20. At the time of the meeting there were about 20 applications. “We don’t have as many applicants as we had last semester and the reason is last semester, I had 20,000 extra dollars that we had to give away so I was doing a pretty hard push to be sure we had applicants for that,” she added that she does anticipate more applicants who will apply last minute before the deadline that was last week.
Director of Construction David Huish provided a construction update, in which he stated that Show Low is finally having good enough weather to resume work on the exterior of the White Mountain Campus Skills Center, which was postponed due to rain and snow.
Northland Pioneer College (NPC) President Dr. Chato Hazelbaker provided the board a progress report on the college’s strategic plan. He also stated that two candidates were to be interviewed for Associate Vice President of Human Resources that week. “We will actually try to get an offer out to a candidate by the beginning of the next week,” stated Dr. Hazelbaker. He added that the college held their first round of interviews for the Chief Information Officer (CIO) position and have the second round at the beginning of May.
Vice President for Administrative Services (VPAS) Maderia Ellison presented a high-level analysis of the current budget information for 2023-24. And the board also received an enrollment report from Director of Enrollment Management Frank Orona, during which he announced that spring semester enrollment has increased since the previous year. The full-time student enrollment count increased by 3% at 1,1158.53 and headcount increased 2.6% at 2,465.
Chair Kristine Laughter stated she was disappointed in the lack of involvement NPC has in Kayenta high schools, specifically at Monument Valley High School’s career event. “I know that they had other obligations, but when we’re looking at increasing enrollment and NPC is nowhere at the largest high school in that area, it’s kind of disappointing.” She added that she would like to see more being done in the Kayenta community moving forward.
Board member Frank Lucero requested clarification on procurement policy and procedure related to an item from a meeting last February. VPA Ellison provided a nonspecific clarification with an unrelated example stating that the college has contingency funds if projects are slightly overbudget or have additional sales tax in order to compensate for discrepancies that may occur over the procurement amounts approved.
Board member Elias Jouen was absent from the meeting. In other business, the board:
* Approved the following new Behavioral Health Studies certificates and degree: Behavioral Health (CP), Behavioral Health Technician (CAS), and Behavioral Health Studies (AAS).
* Approved the following new Health & Physical Education certificates and degree: Sports Medicine (CP), Personal Training & Rehabilitation (CP), Physical Health & Performance (CAS, AAS).
* Approved Board Secretary Everett Robinson to travel for the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) annual Leadership Congress in Las Vegas, Nev. The approximate cost to send a participant will be $2,500 and money is available in the proposed 2023-24 budget.
* Approved the 2023-2024 Preliminary Budget.
* Approved the 2023-2024 Preliminary Capital Budget.
* Adopted the 2025-2026 academic calendar. The structure of the recommended calendar follows the General Guidelines for Academic Calendars approved by the Instructional Council.
* Approved the purchase of servers, tape drives and accessories from SHI International Corp. for the total cost of $62,981. Current backup servers, tape drives and auto loaders are 10 years old, making them outdated and no longer up to industry standards. The new tape drives will provide a larger capacity and take less tapes to complete bi-monthly backups.
On April 19, the governing board held a special meeting where they awarded a contract to Restore Pro to remodel the Snowflake Student Center not to exceed $155,000. An evaluation by the procurement manager has found that the regular competitive purchasing activity would significantly disrupt timelines and the work currently in progress. Restore Pro is already contracted by the college’s insurance company and already performing work on the Student Center. The cost for the remodel would be covered from contingency funding.
The remodel would accommodate a more functional floor-plan, the project would address the college’s One-Stop-Shop layout and provide additional office spaces. It would also capture lost floorspace and make it usable for offices and a student commons area. This project would have to start immediately to have the building available for fall classes. Board member Lucero was not present during the special meeting.
