1. Home
  2. Board Operations
  3. Minutes
  4. Minutes 04/08/1997

Minutes 04/08/1997



GOVERNING BOARD
APRIL 8, 1997
MINUTES

An executive session was not conducted.

A strategic conversation of the Maricopa County Community College District Governing Board was scheduled to be held at 6:30 p.m. at Glendale Community College, 6000 West Olive Avenue, Glendale, Arizona 85302.

PRESENT

GOVERNING BOARD
Nancy Stein, President, Ed Contreras, Secretary, Linda B. Rosenthal, Member, Donald Campbell, Member, Gene Eastin, Member

ADMINISTRATION
William Waechter for Paul A. Elsner, Alfredo G. de los Santos Jr., Ron Bleed, Rufus Glasper, Janice Bradshaw, Larry Christiansen,John Cordova, Art DeCabooter, Stan Grossman, Homero Lopez, Tessa Martinez Pollack, Carol Scarafiotti for Linda Thor, Arnette Ward, Phil Randolph, J. Marie Pepicello

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by President Nancy Stein.

EXECUTIVE SESSION
There was no executive session.

SESSION (I-A) STRATEGIC ISSUES REGARDING THE ROLE OF THE COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN COMMUNITY AND NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT

The outcome for the conversation was to develop a better understanding of the role(s) the community colleges play in the community and identification of services/curriculum relating to the needs of the neighborhoods/community that we serve. Participants went directly to one of three areas designated as three communities (education, housing, and faith) for discussion that were assigned to them upon arriving. Groups were rotated to the next area for discussion at designated times. Jean Ann Abel led the reporting from the group discussions. Dean Abel indicated that the conversation was intended to be a conscious raising effort to identify issues, come back to those issues in the future and come to some conclusions. The topics for discussion and the feedback from the groups is as follows:

EDUCATION COMMUNITY
Reporter: Mike Murphy

Groups One, Two and Three:

  1. Have year round calendar
  2. School-to-work partnerships
  3. Reasons for truancy/dropping out
  4. Problems at home - Problems at school
  5. Teen pregnancy
  6. How do we make education valued?
  7. Use community college students as peer counselors
  8. Roadblocks
  9. Funding of support programs
  10. Low priority in truancy enforcement
  11. Start early (kindergarten or before) with early childhood education
  12. Use Big Brothers/Big Sisters as a vehicle
  13. Parenting education
  14. Funnel information through children
  15. Cable TV information programming
  16. Challenge students to take tougher curriculum
  17. Involve kids in school organizations at a younger age
  18. Emphasize early career planning
  19. Internships/mentoring
  20. New educational delivery methods
  21. Colleges train more good teachers
  22. Community must demand change
  23. Grassroots organization
  24. Involve whole family in school activities
  25. Deregulate lesson plans to promote flexible teaching
  26. Parenting is role of family, not school
  27. Higher standards for students
  28. More accountability of teachers and parents
  29. Turn off TV
  30. More flexible class schedules
  31. Who's responsible for making good citizens?
  32. Family? - What about dysfunctional families?
  33. Village? Who builds it?
  34. Discipline
  35. Family
  36. Law
  37. Need affordable child care (community colleges can contribute)
  38. Professional apprenticeship programs (community colleges)
  39. Dispersed families
  40. Extended families farther apart
  41. Individual assessment/learning plans
  42. Cater to talents/needs
  43. More alternative schools
  44. Community colleges can make trades noble with formal training/degree

FAITH COMMUNITY
Reporter: Lynn Taylor

Group One:

  1. Faith community must get involved with colleges
  2. Inter-faith classes; conflict comes from lack of understanding of each other
  3. Supporting campus ministry
  4. Strength in family life, Marital relations
  5. How to raise children
  6. Character education
  7. Serve the great diversity
  8. Clubs
  9. Religious separation
  10. Stop being ashamed of who we are; accept others for who they are
  11. Look at commonalty, not differences
  12. Mentor for ethics
  13. Respect for differences
  14. Learn from other generations - young vs old
  15. Different ways to truths - define
  16. Who and how to teach morality

Group Two:

  • More collaborative efforts for positive results
  • Meetings with religious community and business
  • Seems like a competitive approach to religion
  • Are the cities and towns in conversation with faith groups?
  • Assistance in welfare reform
  • Required class on religions
  • Lack of understanding
  • Community college heads and faith community meet together
  • Is there a place for faith on college campus?
  • Question church vs state
  • We are best when doing good
  • Looking for common roots
  • What values do you want people to have?
  • How doe we attack value problems with church vs state?
  • Parenting classes on TV
  • Religious community require parenting classes before marriage
  • Building - where different religious groups meet and learn about each other

    Group Three:

    1. Comparative religion required, so you can understand each other
    2. Opposition
    3. All diversity to be addressed
    4. Spread through curriculum
    5. Treated like a philosophy class, so they can get an understanding
    6. 80% of population believes in religion - why not teach it?
    7. If we are going to live together, we better know about each other
    8. Mistake to allocate dollars to teaching religion
    9. Public building - get together and talk about it, facilitated by community members
    10. Values: adults screwed them up, teach them again
    11. Religion creates how people behave
    12. Provide forums and then decide where to go for more knowledge
    13. Afraid to offer religious classes

    >HOUSING COMMUNITY
    Reporter: Susan McRae

    Group One:

    1. Affordable housing
    2. Collaborative effort
    3. College a catalyst (open facility)
    4. Current grant is a collaboration
    5. GCC, City of Glendale, Gary Tang Institute
    6. Question: Are you restricted to non-profit participation? No.
    7. Question: Can for-profits give? Yes.
    8. Question: What housing issues do you see related toward welfare reform?
    9. Focus on welfare (or near) status, to home ownership status.
    10. Expose their children to the concept of college
    11. Exposing more community to college and its opportunities
    12. Dispel distrust
    13. City of Surprise: transportation is a barrier
    14. EMCC is close to Surprise
    15. Habitat for Humanity is a success in Surprise
    16. City of Glendale Master Plan - supportive of the issue of affordable housing needs
    17. Not-for-profits need to step in for the target area (back to the collaborative effort of intentional  attention
    18. Give away houses

    Group Two:

    1. Down payment too much for low income. How to accumulate?
    2. Can community college resources stretch to include housing?
    3. EMCC: partnerships with developers to provide space, meeting rooms
    4. Access to the community colleges, transportation is a barrier, go into the community
    5. Idea: Use community rooms to teach personal finance, build a down payment, etc.
    6. Should cities be in the housing business?
    7. Idea: Family self-sufficiency program is a linkage. Education - better job - able to afford
    8. Idea: Community colleges hold sessions about housing
    9. Offer classes in the community - community colleges visible in the community
    10. Community meetings reduce the sense of the college being an unknown, intimidation
    11. CAD classes, landscaping, students do projects for the members of the community
    12. Colleges doing many things - not well attended. Example - theater productions, art projects
    13. Low income neighborhoods will not come to you. You go to them
    14. Developers mentioned as partners - do not represent low-income housing
    15. EMCC area encompasses many demographic groups. Young families, future college students
    16. Collaborate with lenders to come to classroom and talk about how to qualify
    17. Taxpayer education is too slow. Why aren't more tax dollars going to better the educational  process.
    18. How many students wrote to legislators? Dollars go to prisons.
    19. Let your school know if you are not being served.

    Group Three:

    1. What is being done re: migration from low income housing to a better area?
    2. Glendale Community Housing offers education and counseling about the responsibilities of home  ownership and keeping the appearance up
    3. Live and work in the area.
    4. Drive by only time - needed to prompt (a private company)
    5. Real estate - showed a property last week. Appearance was terrible - who reports?
    6. Role of community colleges in housing?
    7. Educate people on what makes a neighborhood? A strong neighborhood is self-enforcing
    8. Offer courses how to acquire a home
    9. Take a role in teaching how to keep up your home
    10. Move into the neighborhood and offer classes, offer transportation
    11. We have allowed the deterioration; go into the community to help fix up homes and teach how to do it
    12. Some community colleges are currently offering services in the communities. This becomes a  catalyst for some specific needs
    13. Be a vehicle for such resources as retired persons, business members
    14. Cities must be involved. Example: Tolleson Pride Day - City picks some needs and coordinates efforts, including the colleges to fix up homes and also build homes
    15. Offer skill training - Example: carpentry - go into the community and apply it
    16. Form partnerships with community-based organizations
    17. Be a hub for people to go into the community
    18. Classes on parenting are related to stewardship of home
    19. EMCC currently serving many groups and K-12 schools, with service learning projects
    20. Projects in the community bring people out
    21. Code requirements do help

    ** Plus/Delta was not publically held at the meeting, but comments were gathered from participants and forwarded to be included in the notes for this meeting.

    Plus
    * Very innovative, creative
    * Helped to get people thinking about issues
    * Well organized, with obviously a great deal of planning and coordinating
    * Good discussion opportunities
    * Good turnout
    * Raised some issues worth considering
    * Once people understood the format they were very involved and attentive.
    * People were willing to participate and give us feedback.
    * Topics were interesting to the community.
    * Setups for the "villages" were good (interesting environment).
    * Well conducted; on-time
    * Different format from usual boring Strategic Conversations
    * Great event!  
    * Good array of voices heard in each area
    * Clever introduction to each section

    Delta
    * Some of the "soapbox" people could have been more outgoing.
    * Some of the board members did not participate by moving from group to group.
    * Noise level was too high.
    * Community "speakers" had to go over a few of the issue three times (once for each group).
    * Someone from the community was asking if there was a plan as to how to

    Mrs. Stein thanked those who came and participated in the evening's conversation and providing their contributing their input.

    ADJOURNMENT
    The meeting adjourned at 8:10 p.m.