By China Cassidy During the Nov. 17, Navajo County Community College Governing Board meeting, NPC Friends and Family Director Betsyann Wilson highlighted the continued effort to provide students with resources to help them relieve some of the day-to-day obstacles such as where they will get their next meal or pay for the courses needed to obtain their degree. Wilson announced that with the help of the former chair of Early Childhood Development, Claude Endfield, NPC Friends and Family has been able to establish a more cost effective, and efficient way to retrieve and disperse food goods to students. Wilson explained, “She (Endfield) hooked us up with a gentleman at the state level that is part of the Arizona Community Food Bank Network. We were able to partner with United Food Bank of Arizona to serve campus and center locations south of Interstate 40 and another food bank that will help us serve our locations north of Interstate 40. The partnership means that we can purchase high quality nutritious nonperishable food items for 19 cents a pound, which is amazing.” Wilson also announced to the board that the organization has received an $82,000 grant from the Del E. Webb Foundation to help students who are pursuing their education in allied health and nursing. Wilson offered, “This is to serve the students in the nursing assistant programs who are seeking a gateway into healthcare professions. We’re targeting students that may have a need for college level developmental skills or their GED.” Wilson said they hope to pilot the integrated education and technology program in the spring at the Winslow and Whiteriver campuses if they are able to staff instructors for the program. Wilson explained, “We are having some struggles at the White River Center with getting faculty for the position. Many of our faculty for certified nursing assistant are working health care professionals and frankly, due to the pandemic they’re just burnt out right now. Our Director of Nursing and Allied Health Ruth Zimmerman is having a little bit of a difficult time finding faculty but we are confident that we can work this out and hopefully start the program by the fall semester at the latest.” Wilson also announced that a new scholarship has been established for students in the name of Doris Reid, who was a nurse for more than 50 years. Wilson offered, “Doris Reid is the grandmother of one of our allied health faculty and he wanted to establish a scholarship for students in allied health and nursing in honor of his grandmother who is 80 years young and worked for 50 plus years as a registered nurse. We will be rewarding the first $1,000 scholarship for the spring semester and we’ll be opening that competition this week for those students.” In other business, the board: * Approved a recommendation to appoint staff and personnel to take park in the college’s presidential search group. They include Frank Pinal, Ryan Jones and Dr. Xander Henderson from the Faculty Association; Donna Krieser, Rebecca Hunt and Ben Sandoval from the classified and Administrative Staff Organization; Betsyann Wilson, Gail Campbell and Rickey Jackson from the Leadership Council; Matt Weber from the Navapache Superintendents’ Group; and a student to be determined from the Student Government Association. * Approved a recommendation to set the new president’s salary at $185,000 to $220,000, based on qualifications for the position, which the Presidential Search Committee is working on filling. * Approved a recommendation to move forward with the Association of Community College Trustees to support NPC’s presidential search process. Anticipated cost is $25,000, plus any consultant travel expenses or, shipping costs, for a comprehensive full-service search. * Approved the adoption of Policy 1431, Hazing Prevention, which was updated to align with state statutes. * Approved a request by the Northeast Arizona Training Center (NATC) Board to release $75,000 of the state appropriation funds to contract LEA Architects, LCC, a state approved architectural design firm, to design phase one of the architectural plan for projects such as tiny home sites and virtual firearms training simulator buildings, and additional design services such as civil engineering, topographic/architectural site survey, septic system and design site visits. * Approved a recommendation to award a contract to Armstrong McCall and The Burmax Company, Inc. for cosmetology supplies and student kits. Annual spending for cosmetology supplies and student kits range from $60,000 to $90,000.
