NPC enrollment is down but potential for change is on the horizon

Hazelbaker is hopeful that improvements to the overall pandemic situation, and specific outreach efforts for Fall 2022, should see reversals in the COVID-19 enrollment decline and put the college back on track to a more sustainable enrollment.

Hazelbaker also noted that NPC was featured in the latest edition of “Diverse Issues in Higher Education,” with the article featuring NPC student Ashlyn Adakai who lives near Page. The story notes that Adakai makes a 300-mile round trip (a six-hour drive) to attend a three-hour chemistry lab each week at NPC’s Little Colorado Campus in Winslow.

Adakai is one of six siblings and the first in her family to attend college, with a dream to become a doctor. The article notes, “There is hardly any accessible health care where I live on a Navajo reservation,” said Adakai. “You need to drive hours to get to a hospital. I’ve had personal experience with that problem in my family. They have been through a lot. My dream is to hopefully be a doctor and come back to serve my community.” In order to remove barriers in attendance, Attakai receives an NPC scholarship that covers her travels costs. The full article can be found at https://www.diverseeducation.com/.

With Adakai’s story so similar to many on the reservation looking to improve their lives and the lives of others, Dr. Hazelbaker is hoping that a generous donation may change that distance for students on the reservation. “We may have the opportunity in a short period of time of redoing the center in Kayenta. We potentially have a donor that is willing to come to the table with some funds.”

He emphasized that it was still very early in the process and this may be a two to three years endeavor. He explained that the next step is to talk to the donor and other potential partners about how funds would be best used. “From an enrollment perspective, a science lab would make a world of difference. If we could teach nursing assistant, biology or chemistry, it’s those students who are traveling those three hours, it would make a huge difference in our enrollment. It would benefit our entire district and it would benefit our nursing program in Winslow. It just really makes sense as a hub for us.” There are other potential options for spending donated funds and the cost estimate of such an endeavor still needs to be explored.

In an effort to remove deterrents for enrollment, the board approved the removal of the $30 late registration fee, as it has become its own obstacle with students not having the ability to pay and is likely becoming bad debt, preventing students from registering in future semesters. The revenues for late registration fee for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, were $7,295 and $4,390 respectively. It was noted that the revenue streams are not significant and has no real impact to the budget.

Hazelbaker is also hopeful for the passage of House Bill 2691, which would allocate $15 million from the state general fund through fiscal year 2027 for the Arizona Nurse Education Investment Program, which is established to increase the capacity of nursing education programs in the state. This is an effort to address the nursing shortage throughout the state and provide more opportunities for those interested in the nursing field.

Hazelbaker also informed the board that he took part in a meeting last week with Congressman O’Halleran and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm that was held at Holbrook High School to address the impact of the closure of coal fired plants. “It was encouraging to hear that the federal government is still engaged in these issues and they’re talking about them. I don’t think it’s an underestimation to say there could be $100 million dollars flow through the two counties (Navajo and Apache) with these coal plant closures and some of this money will flow to the college.”

During the budget discussion CFO and Vice President for Administrative Services Maderia Ellison discussed property valuation, comparing the current year to the prior year. It was noted that valuations have declined $48.4 million for centrally assessed property, which is related to continued closure of the Cholla Power Plant.

She explained that this is offset by an increase in locally assessed property of $12.3 million, leaving a negative net balance of $36.1 million in new construction. “As discussed for several years the closure of the power plant will impact property tax revenues for future years. Navajo County taxpayers continue to deal with the economic downturn and it may be years before any improvement is seen. NPC’s proposed tax levy and rate is below the maximum allowed by statute; setting it below the maximum is meant to help ease the burden of county taxpayers,” stated Ellison.

She presented several options for setting the property tax levy rate. Option 1 would be to set the levy rate at the maximum of $1.8178 generating just under $16.7 million in revenues. This will require TNT notices and a hearing. Option 2 would be to set the levy rate at the same rate as the current year of $1.7505 generating just under $16.1 million in revenues. This will also require TNT notices and a hearing. Option 3 would be to set the levy rate at the TNT rate of $1.6708 generating just under $15.4 million in revenues. This would not require TNT notices nor a hearing.

The recommendation by Ellison is to utilize Option 2 and set the primary property tax levy below the maximum allowable but above the TNT rate. This represents a levy or revenue increase of $128,654 from the prior year with no change in the levy rate. Final action on the primary property tax levy will be taken at a Special Meeting on May 17.

The board also recognized former student and adjunct faculty Tabitha Stickel for the college’s prestigious Outstanding Alumnus award. Stickel is a current research fellow at Georgia State University’s Adult Literacy Research Center and recently received her Ph.D. from Penn State in the Lifelong Learning and Adult Education program. She worked as a data analyst and adjunct faculty member for NPC, traveling several times a week to teach developmental reading, writing, and math classes at locations throughout the Hopi Tribe and Navajo Nation. During her tenure, Stickel helped establish the college’s Eagle Club, a student organization that promotes awareness of multiculturalism at NPC.

In other business, the board:

* Approved amendments to board policies.

* Approved increasing salaries and wages by 5% for all eligible employees for an estimate of $870,000 and adding new positions/adjustments for an estimate of $550,000. The total estimated impact is $1.4 million, including benefits/taxes.

* Approved the purchase the high-fidelity SimMom Childbirth Simulator from Laerdal for a total cost of $55,176 for the Paramedicine/EMT program.

* Approved the purchase a Security Enterprise Agreement through Hye Tech Network & Security for a three-year term, starting July 14, for a total cost of $320,874 as a renewal of the original Cisco Security Enterprise Agreement purchased five years ago. This renewal is for software and support only. The original agreement also contained hardware.

* Approved an increase of $140,000 to the original budget for the Winslow Head Start building project, with the additional budget to come from the contingency fund. The original budget for the Winslow Head Start Building was set at $800,000 based on an estimate of $796,384. The original budget was expected to cover the renovations and remodeling of a 2400-square-foot modular building and site improvements. A request for bid (RFB) was recently issued to address the site improvements for the civil infrastructure, which includes a new 8-inch water and domestic line to the building, sewer line, parking lot, misc. concrete and trash enclosure. Based on the costs associated with the RFB, the budget is showing a projected shortfall of $140,000. The shortfall is primarily related to cost increase of materials and labor and supply chain issues.

* Awarded a contract to Navapache Construction for $314,535, including taxes, related to the Winslow Head Start Building project for infrastructure and site improvement.

* Approved the purchase of 150 laptops and nine carts for students to use totaling $274,192 using CARES Act funds. During the pandemic, the college supplied students with more than 116 laptops, and students continue to need access to computer resources. These laptop carts will be kept at all nine campuses and center library locations and made available for students to check them out.

* Approved the purchase of 172 desktop computers, 22 laptops, eight room kits, 20 video conference devices, 11 printers and 100 monitors from CDWG and eight Smart Boards from CCS System Presentation for a total cost of $746,253 for various campuses to replace faculty, staff and classroom equipment.

* Approved the preliminary budget and preliminary capital budget.

* Approved the academic calendar.