The Navajo County Community College Governing Board convened for a regular meeting Tuesday, May 19, during which Executive Vice President of Learning and Student Services Dr. Mike Solomonson presented on the district’s spring semester 45th census day. The 45th day is the mid-semester date used to report student enrollment and compare to previous years. Dr. Solomonson explained the results, stating, “In this FTSE (Full Time Student Equivalent) report you’ll see that we’re down slightly 1.8% in multi-student equivalency from this past spring to the spring of 2025, and we were slightly down in unduplicated headcount at 1.7% in Spring 26.” Spring 2026 semester had a total of 1,438.70 FTSE, and an unduplicated headcount of 2,941, which is 51 less students than Spring 2025. Before the regular meeting, the board held a special meeting to approve the 2026-27 primary property tax rate and levy of 1.7478%, the 2026-27 operating budget and the 2027-2029 proposed capital budget. The tax rate will generate approximately $20 million. Although the Fiscal Year 2027 budget is expected to exceed the expenditure limit, the $26.9 million carryforward balances will cover any overages. Public hearings for the truth in taxation and the proposed budget were held prior, during which no one from the public spoke. A representative from SPS+ Architects presented 3D renderings of the blueprint plans for the college’s cosmetology building at the Little Colorado Campus in Winslow. Retiring NPC staff members John Deaton, Tamara Osborne, Dawn Johnson and Mindy Neff were awarded Emeritus status for their years of service with the college. Following the regular meeting, the board entered into two executive sessions for discussion and consideration regarding the employment, assignment, promotion, salary, demotion, dismissal, disciplining or resignation of public officers related to President Von Lawson and Chair Everett Robinson. After the first executive session regarding President Lawson, the board directed Vice President of Human Resources Nicole Ulibarri to proceed with the items corrected in executive session. As for the second executive session, Chair Robinson briefly stated, “Chair is announcing that at the end of his term in December 2026, I will not be seeking re-election to the board.” Board Member Derrick Leslie was not in attendance. During the meeting, the board: * Approved new board Policy 1049 Completion Ceremonies. The policy codifies the requirement that completion ceremonies be conducted within the college district. This is in response to multiple times where the Winslow nursing class has conducted their pinning ceremony in Flagstaff, despite verbal requests to limit those events to locations within the district. This would also apply to the Northeastern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy cadets requesting to receive their badges at the state capitol during the annual Fallen Officers Observance. * Accepted the Single Audit Report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. This report focuses on the district’s compliance with requirements applicable to each major federal program the district administers and on its internal control over compliance. The audit opinion for this report is that the district maintained adequate internal control over compliance and complied with federal compliance requirements for the one major federal program tested. * Authorized acceptance of $40,000 of grant funding from Advancing Indigenous Science and Engineer Society (AISES) to advance cybersecurity training at NPC. * Approved to increase Anthology Student licensing to 1,900 licenses from 1,432 for an initial amount of $12,528 to make the district’s licensing current and an annual increase of $50,114. * Approved the Sparklight network infrastructure services agreements for a 36-month term totaling $546,931. This is a budgeted expense under the college’s telecommunications and network infrastructure budget. * Approved Ellucian Quote B for Hybrid TAM Managed Services. FY 25-26 ERP budgeted funds will be used to engage Ellucian Managed Services for a six-month period for one full time (FTE) equivalent of application administration consultants for $101,160, and 0.5 FTE of Technical Account Management for $72,120 to directly support the ERP system post go-live in the total amount of $173,280, to be prebilled in FY 25-26. * Approved using FY 25–26 ERP budgeted funds to purchase Ellucian’s read-only backend data access subscription, at a prorated cost for the remainder of FY 25–26 (approximately two months) at a cost not exceeding $5,000, and to approve the ongoing annual subscription cost of $30,000 for the duration of the college’s Anthology contract. * Approved Board Member Porter Black to travel to the ACCT New Trustee Governance Leadership Institute in Anaheim, Calif., Aug. 5-7.
