The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened Sept. 20, during which Northland Pioneer College President Dr. Chato Hazelbaker announced that the college received a $1.6 million Department of Education Title Three grant. “This is the type of grant that really helps us be sort of transformational,” he stated.
The Title Three grant will be used to create a virtual one-stop-shop to go along with the physical ones throughout the campuses, that will allow students to get information quickly and efficiently to accomplish the one stop shop strategic initiative.
Hazelbaker also wants to use the grant to continue to develop the holistic relational model for academic advising. “So that when you sit down with an academic advisor, they’re not just talking to you about what classes you need. They’re talking about things like, ‘do you have food security, do you have housing security, do you have transportation?’ If you say you don’t have any of those things, our advisors’ job then is to direct you to a resource, or make sure that you have the right schedule for those things.”
Learning Communities will be using the grant as well, which are groups of students who come together around topics that are not always considered academic. “They get together, they talk about those things, but they also share meals, they also share field trips and really the research shows that this is a way to really keep people engaged.”
Due to receiving the news the day prior to the meeting, the grant was unable to be placed on the agenda for approval and will be on the October agenda.
NPC Friends and Family Director Betsyann Wilson gave a report, in which she stated a new streamlined application process for scholarships will be available for students to use next month. “That application window will take place from Oct. 1 and close on Nov. 17 at noon Mountain Standard Time.” More information can be found at their website /www.npcfriendsfamily.org.
“I’ll be able to match (students) to everything for which they’re eligible, and then submit the applications to a review committee to be considered and scored,” added Wilson.
There are currently several scholarships that will be closing soon according to Wilson. “We currently have applications open for the CASO (Classified Administrative Staff Organization) Student Scholarship, which I’m managing for CASO, and we’ve received 12 applications.” That scholarship will close Oct. 1.
Wilson reminded the board that Pedal the Petrified will also commence on Oct. 1. “We have 225 riders registered for the ride.”
The board also received a construction update from Director of Construction David Huish. Huish stated the White Mountain Skills Center in Show Low is still on schedule to be substantially completed Dec. 27. “A lot has taken place on the project except the weather keeps making it a mudhole.” Despite the weather making exterior work difficult, work is continuing to be done inside the Skills Center, such as electrical and air conditioning ductwork.
“APS (Arizona Public Service) is telling us that they’re not going to give us permanent power until November. Which makes it kind of tough to hook up some things. We are trying to see if we can expedite that.” Huish added that while it is an inconvenience, it should not affect the center’s completion date.
The Little Colorado Head Start building on the Winslow campus is also making progress. Contractors have begun backfilling around the building, as well as extended the water line and installed the sewer line.
Huish also gave an update on Winslow campus’ one-stop-shop front office. “That’s all ready to go except we don’t have a permit from the city of Winslow. So as soon as we get that, we can get started the contractors ready to go.
“Then the last project we have going on right now is the NATC (Northeast Arizona Training Center) Project. The NATC Project is part of the construction program at NPC, where students build tiny houses for police cadets who attend NATC in Taylor to reside in while working toward their certification. “Everything is almost complete. Five tiny houses have been installed and put on the slabs and been connected,” said Huish, “after the installation the contractor will finish all the sidewalks that roll to the individual tiny houses and do their final grading increment of the site and that’s it.”
The board also heard from Gallagher Benefit Services, which was awarded the contract for a Compensation Structure and Analysis in the August board meeting. The company gave the board an introduction to their company as well as the process in which they will be doing the compensation study. The study is expected to take up to six months.
During the president’s report Hazelbaker addressed challenges in relation to hiring within the district. Hazelbaker stated the college is currently looking for a recruitment firm to help fill opened positions, but a large issue is lack of housing. “Remember, we had a CIO (Chief Information Officer) candidate that we were very excited about coming back to campus very early on in the process, they actually were so excited, they came down and looked at housing in the region, and then chose not to go forward in the search,” He continued, “We had the exact same thing happen in the last three weeks.”
Hazelbaker believes that to mitigate this issue, NPC will have to invest in workforce housing. “I don’t have any proposal before you today, this is more of a warning that at some point, you’re going to see a proposal where I’m actually asking us to make an investment in some housing.” Hazelbaker hopes that investing in transitional housing for future employees to live in while looking for more permanent housing will help acquire more employees.
Other issues the college is dealing with include pandemic related learning loss and lack of motivation.
“In the pandemic, when students went fully online, there were many students that were missing. The educational experience is just different online,” said Hazelbaker, “not only our faculty, but faculty at other colleges that I’m in contact with have pretty consistently reported that it has been a more difficult fall in terms of getting back into the swing of things academically.”
Although nothing can be done about these challenges at this time, Hazelbaker believes its important the board be aware of these new challenges.
The board received a report on the financial position of the college from July 1, 2021 to July 31, 2022 as well as a report from Human Resources.
The board also reviewed the board’s self-evaluation process and received an update on the activities from the Arizona Association of Community College Trustees (AACCT) from Board Chairman Kristine Laughter.
In other business, the board:
* Approved a 2022-24 TALON to consortium intergovernmental agreement between Navajo County Community College District and Ganado Unified School District (USD).
* Approved a 2022-24 Concurrent Enrollment Agreement between Navajo County Community College District and EdKey, Inc – Sequoia Village School.
* Approved a 2022-24 Dual Enrollment Intergovernmental Agreement between Navajo County Community College District and St. Johns USD.
* Approved annual SMARTnet renewal in the amount of $215,091 for an additional year.
* Approved construction contract for the 8th Avenue sidewalk at White Mountain Campus to Navapache Construction in the amount of $243,000. Board member Frank Lucero voted against, stating that there’s no board policy to approve the contract, while Laughter, Elias Jouen, Everett Robinson and Derrick Leslie voted in favor.
* Approved the 2023-24 budget development calendar.
* Approved Fiscal Year 2023 revised budget. The total revenue budget remains the same as the budget approved in May 2022.
