The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened for a regular meeting Tuesday, Jan. 20, during which Chair Everett Robinson stated that no one has yet filled the open position for the board’s District 3 seat. “I would address this to residents of District 3, which consist of the towns of Holbrook, Snowflake and Taylor. If you would be interested in serving on this board, please contact Navajo County School Superintendent, Miss Lewis, at 928-524-4204.” Robinson noted that college employees and their significant others are not eligible for the position.
The board elected officers for 2026, with Chair Robinson to remain as chair of the board, and Board Member Kristine Laughter as board secretary. Board Member Derrick Leslie was elected as Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) representative, with Chair Robinson as the secondary.
Associate Vice President of External Relations Rich Chanick presented a legislative review to the board. One Chanick noted was to exempt community colleges from expenditure limitations, and as well as another stating, “The second big win we had the first week is that Representative (Walt) Blackman introduced a bill for us for $4.3 million for our Northeast Arizona Training Center.” Chanick explained that although the bill has been introduced it still must be approved through legislature, then go to the ballot.
NPC President Dr. Von Lawson shared highlights from the Arizona Governor’s budget, noting that it was not what he had hoped for. “So we’re going to rub some elbows to see what we can do, not necessarily to get more money than we got last year, but to keep what we have now.” Dr. Lawson stated the draft proposal includes $1.5 million for dual enrollment, $9 million for adult education, and $6 million of which will go to community college.
The board received a Fiscal Year (FY) 2026-27 budget review. Some revenue assumptions include state appropriations for equalization, maintenance and operations will increase compared to current fiscal year and rural will to be flat. Assessed valuations for setting the primary property tax levy will be available in February and an increase is expected. To protect the equalization funding, the levy needs to be set at the maximum allowable of 2% increase over the prior year. For FY27 the levy will be set at the maximum allowed. It was noted that overall expenditures will match revenue.
Classified & Administrative Staff Organization (CASO) President Cynthia Blevins reported on CASO’s non-food drive at the beginning of the month. Items related to hygiene, personal care, cleaning supplies and medical were collected. “Our totals were 555 items collected and our number total was $1,285.” The amount is not dollars received but the value of the items collected.
Director of Facilities and Transportation Justine White discussed the various projects in the district as well as the hurdles with building the college’s Kayenta center, citing issues with getting water to the site and the procurement of grant funds, but assured that the project is moving forward.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Associate Vice President/Chief Information Officer Michael Jacob will provide an implementation update. He reviewed the company providing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), a type of system that integrates and manages core business processes like finance and human resources support, previously known as Anthology, has now transitioned over to Lucian. Another change he noted was the college’s institutional partner in the ERP implementation, Cochise Community College, has put their ERP project on pause.
“We’ve agreed that we’re going to go ahead and move forward with pursuing a change order to our contract or statement of work so that they are no longer tied to our implementation and we’re not tied to theirs,” stated Jacob, adding that a change order will be before the board in the next month or two.
Faculty in Instructional Support/Department Chair Dr. Michael Broyles presented on the recent instructional support department restructuring.
The board entered an executive session to discuss the annual evaluation of Dr. Lawson, to which there was no action following.
During the meeting, the board:
* Approved an amendment to extend an intergovernmental agreement between Navajo County Community College District and Apache County for programs and services.
* Approved modifications of general education course options. The modifications are additions of relevant courses and are intended to allow students to access general education courses that are relevant to their academic and professional goals. All added courses have been vetted to ensure they align with AZ Transfer criteria and the NPC General Education Values.
* Authorized renewal of SolarWinds services for a three-year term, through HyeTech Network & Security Solutions, LLC, in the amount of $111,895.
* Approved the purchase of an account automation package for the Anthology ERP system in the amount of $15,000. The amount includes implementation and the first year of service.
* Approved to renew VMWARE services for an additional one-year term, through HyeTech Network & Security Solutions, LLC., in the amount of $124,911.
* Accepted $48,500 in funding from Local First Arizona to fund the continuation of Northern Arizona Good Jobs Network activity.
* Authorized the NPC president, or designee, to formally explore possibilities for a joint-use facility partnership between the City of Holbrook, Navajo County, Holbrook Unified School District No. 3 and NPC to explore the possibilities of a shared joint-use facility with all formal actions coming back to the board for approval to proceed.
* Approved Chair Everett Robinson to travel to the ACCT National Legislative Summit in Washington, D.C. in February.
* Tabled the executive session to discuss the annual board self-evaluations for the next board meeting.
The next regular meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 17.
