October 2005 Board Meeting Report

Illinois Valley Community College board of trustees heard a presentation from Dr. Jerry Corcoran, vice-president for business services and finance/treasurer and Cheryl Roelfsema, controller on the financial forecast for fiscal years 2007-2011 at Wednesday night’s board meeting.

The forecasting assumptions were based on the district's projected equalized assessed valuation, technology fees, tuition, fees, salaries, benefits, conferences, contingency funds and the elimination of the hold harmless grant. Revenue-increasing opportunities and expenditure reductions will be examined by the board and employees based on institutional priorities.

“Each year we try our best to improve all of our financial reports and this year's five-year financial forecast is no exception. From a strategic planning standpoint, we need to look beyond year-to-year budgets. The more feedback we receive from our board on these kinds of reports, the more confident we will be in meeting our stakeholders' expectations,” said Dr. Corcoran.

The board heard from Dr. Charles Novak, interim president on the beginning of the strategic plan for IVCC. In September the board reviewed the environmental scan and the implications. “As a consequence, the current step in this planning process is to engage the board and the entire college family in discussing the implications as they relate to the beginning work the representative group did in August.” stated Dr. Novak. “The next steps will involve discussions at the board level and at the strategic leadership planning council level,” concluded Dr. Novak.

Bernadette Donders, a visiting professor from the Illinois Consortium for International Studies Program was introduced to the board. Donders is partaking in a two-week professional and cultural exchange opportunity with IVCC from the Netherlands. Organized as a non-profit organization, ICISP provides member exchange institutions study abroad programs for students, short-term cultural exchange opportunities for faculty members and other options.
The board adopted a resolution to prepare a tax levy for calendar year 2005 to be collected in calendar year 2006. The plan is to present a tentative tax levy for approval in November and to finalize the district’s levy in December.

The capital renewal project for IVCC was revised and approved for the repairing/replacement of roads and paving in the amount of $998,573 and authorized the submission of the appropriate resolution to the Illinois Community College Board. “IVCC previously submitted a capital project application to repair and replace roads and paving for $550,000 which was approved by the ICCB on June 16, 2003. This project has been put on hold by the state of Illinois for some time now. During that time, we have updated our master plan and find that it could be in the college’s best interest to revise the scope of work before the project proceeds.” stated Dr. Corcoran.

The east campus parking lot is widely used and has been in disrepair for some time due to ongoing concerns as to how it would fit into the master plan. Students park in the west half and the truck driver training program uses the east half which creates a severe dust problem. The parking area appears more like gravel than pavement, there are no restrooms close to the truck driver training course and the area lacks site lighting even though truck driver training takes place in the evening hours.

The board approved the proposed 2006-2007 course fees as listed for each course. Dr. Harriet Custer, vice-president for academic affairs after consultation with the deans, proposed the development and application of guidelines with a provision for extra-ordinary instructional costs and clarified the fees resulting from the application of the formula.
The board approved an articulation agreement with Starved Rock Associates for Vocational and Technical Education in nursing. This agreement establishes procedures for students at the secondary level enrolled in the certified nursing assistant program to obtain equivalency credit at IVCC.

In other action, the board authorized the business office to seek bids for ten room control systems at an estimated cost of $11,000; to seek bids for approximately 912 square yards of carpeting for the upper and lower corridors and offices in the gymnasium and the entrance hallways, building F Rooms 113 and 114 at an estimated cost of $50,000; and seek bids for welding lab equipment at an estimated cost of $26,000.

A second reading took place approving the new board policy on policy formulation and adoption as presented and repeal board policies 1026 – policy formulation and review 1027 – interim policies; new board policy on board meetings and operations as presented and repeal board policies 1008 – board operations 1009 – quorum 1020 – order of business, 1021 – rules of procedure and 1022 – minutes; and new board policy on tuition and fees as presented and repeal board policies, 2017 – partial student support (chargebacks), 2026 – trustee tuition waivers and 2027 tuition.

The board heard the first reading of a recommendation by the administration to change the board policy in section 2000 of the board manual on the honors designation concerning president’s honors; academic honors, part-time honors and graduation honors.

The board approved:

The fall 2005 part-time faculty payroll as presented.
Through the Illinois Public Higher Education Cooperative the purchase of 880 cartons of multi-purpose white paper from Midland Paper, Wheeling at $18.98 per carton for a total of $16,702.40 and the purchase of 19 Epson Powerlite 835P LCD projectors from CDW-G Vernon Hills for a total of $47,606.81.

In other matters the board:

Authorized Dr. Novak to enter into contract with Dr. David Pierce to provide consulting services in the IVCC presidential search.
Authorized the college to reinstate the following fulltime instructional and academic support staff at the Sheridan Correctional Center: Colleen Aeppli, Ken Carothers, Bruce Markwalter, Pamela Masterson, Keith Stevenson, and Steve Swett.
Learned of the appointment of Laura L. Moyle as counselor for student support services/Project Success.
Learned that Frances Whaley, collection development librarian received notification of approval from the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois of full project funding of $16,500 for the “Allied Health: Special Populations Materials”.