By Talaina Kor The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened Tuesday, June 15, with BetsyAnn Wilson, Director of the NPC Friends and Family reporting on upcoming events. She stated that disc golf will not be happening this summer due to conflicting time schedules and Pedal the Petrified is still on hold. “I was told by the chief ranger Heather Yates that the issue is no longer COVID, it is now staffing,” said Wilson. She added they are still looking at the Sept. 25 date but will potentially wait until early October and she plans to update accordingly. Wilson added that six scholarships have been awarded to students of NPC. Five were provided by Summit Health Care and one by Beehive Homes of Snowflake. Director of Enrollment Services Jeremy Raisor presented the annual scholarship update. Some scholarships were reallocated to help off-set the cost of the Early College Program Tuition Waiver. The amount reallocated totaled in $290,000. “Some of these are complete reallocations, others are just reductions,” stated Raisor. The Finish Line and housing scholarships have seen a reduction in the number of applications, which Raisor believes is due to CARES Act funding and primarily online teaching. There was also $12,000 reallocated from the housing scholarship to create a technology scholarship that allowed NPC to award 24 laptops to students who demonstrated financial need. The board heard from Director David Huish about the update on facilities. The bid for the new Skills Center for the White Mountain Campus in Show Low closed last Friday and began being reviewed last Monday. Vice President of Student and Learning Services Dr. Michael Solomonson responded to a board member’s question on if Critical Race Theory, a theory that examines social, cultural and legal issues as they relate to race and racism, is included in college curriculum. According to Solomonson, Curriculum Coordinator Dr. Michael Broyles did an extensive search and found no courses that mention Critical Race Theory or Critical Theory. In the search database Broyles used, he did find that 63 permanent courses mention “race” and/or “racism” as part of the curriculum. “This however is not surprising, given that race and racism might be natural topics to be studied in such classes as anthropology, sociology, or history,” stated Solomonson. He also added that the Higher Learning Commission stipulates for accreditation that colleges acknowledge diversity. “In order to accomplish the HLC criteria, there is the necessity that our college classes, when appropriate to the subject, will examine issues related to diversity, such as race gender and ethnicity.” This is also a requirement for some class credits to be considered transferable to state universities as part of the Arizona General Education Curriculum. The board passed the consent agenda which included the May 18 meeting minutes and the intergovernmental agreement between Navajo County Community College District and Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) to provide joint technical education courses as a part of a joint technical education program. The agenda also contained the intergovernmental agreement amendment between Navajo County Community College District and Apache County for services. The board approved the purchase of an Infant Model Patient Simulator at a cost of $51,000 using 2021 Perkins funds, which is a grant that is federally funded to support secondary and post-secondary education programs. The board approved the purchase of SMART board displays with mounts, Cisco telepresence endpoints, displays, computers and laptops for science classrooms totaling in the amount of $333,200 and will use the CARES funds that have been allocated to the college. The board also approved proposed college strategic goals which include broad goal areas of increase enrollment, improvement of student outcomes and improvement of college sustainability. Also approved was the purchase of a refurbished modular building for childcare facility at the Winslow Little Colorado Campus with up to $800,000 of reallocated funds from cosmetology remodel and parking lot expansion funds. The board approved the purchase of Ad Astra course scheduling software in the amount of $203,500 for a five-year term using the CARES funds that have been allocated to the college. The board approved adding a July meeting to the calendar to approve the bid for the Skill Center. Specific day and time to be decided at a later date.
