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, MemberADMINISTRATION
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 PepicelloCALL 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 MurphyGroups One, Two and Three:
- Have year round calendar
- School-to-work partnerships
- Reasons for truancy/dropping out
- Problems at home - Problems at school
- Teen pregnancy
- How do we make education valued?
- Use community college students as peer counselors
- Roadblocks
- Funding of support programs
- Low priority in truancy enforcement
- Start early (kindergarten or before) with early childhood education
- Use Big Brothers/Big Sisters as a vehicle
- Parenting education
- Funnel information through children
- Cable TV information programming
- Challenge students to take tougher curriculum
- Involve kids in school organizations at a younger age
- Emphasize early career planning
- Internships/mentoring
- New educational delivery methods
- Colleges train more good teachers
- Community must demand change
- Grassroots organization
- Involve whole family in school activities
- Deregulate lesson plans to promote flexible teaching
- Parenting is role of family, not school
- Higher standards for students
- More accountability of teachers and parents
- Turn off TV
- More flexible class schedules
- Who's responsible for making good citizens?
- Family? - What about dysfunctional families?
- Village? Who builds it?
- Discipline
- Family
- Law
- Need affordable child care (community colleges can contribute)
- Professional apprenticeship programs (community colleges)
- Dispersed families
- Extended families farther apart
- Individual assessment/learning plans
- Cater to talents/needs
- More alternative schools
- Community colleges can make trades noble with formal training/degree
FAITH COMMUNITY
Reporter: Lynn TaylorGroup One:
- Faith community must get involved with colleges
- Inter-faith classes; conflict comes from lack of understanding of each other
- Supporting campus ministry
- Strength in family life, Marital relations
- How to raise children
- Character education
- Serve the great diversity
- Clubs
- Religious separation
- Stop being ashamed of who we are; accept others for who they are
- Look at commonalty, not differences
- Mentor for ethics
- Respect for differences
- Learn from other generations - young vs old
- Different ways to truths - define
- 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:
- Comparative religion required, so you can understand each other
- Opposition
- All diversity to be addressed
- Spread through curriculum
- Treated like a philosophy class, so they can get an understanding
- 80% of population believes in religion - why not teach it?
- If we are going to live together, we better know about each other
- Mistake to allocate dollars to teaching religion
- Public building - get together and talk about it, facilitated by community members
- Values: adults screwed them up, teach them again
- Religion creates how people behave
- Provide forums and then decide where to go for more knowledge
- Afraid to offer religious classes
>HOUSING COMMUNITY
Reporter: Susan McRaeGroup One:
- Affordable housing
- Collaborative effort
- College a catalyst (open facility)
- Current grant is a collaboration
- GCC, City of Glendale, Gary Tang Institute
- Question: Are you restricted to non-profit participation? No.
- Question: Can for-profits give? Yes.
- Question: What housing issues do you see related toward welfare reform?
- Focus on welfare (or near) status, to home ownership status.
- Expose their children to the concept of college
- Exposing more community to college and its opportunities
- Dispel distrust
- City of Surprise: transportation is a barrier
- EMCC is close to Surprise
- Habitat for Humanity is a success in Surprise
- City of Glendale Master Plan - supportive of the issue of affordable housing needs
- Not-for-profits need to step in for the target area (back to the collaborative effort of intentional attention
- Give away houses
Group Two:
- Down payment too much for low income. How to accumulate?
- Can community college resources stretch to include housing?
- EMCC: partnerships with developers to provide space, meeting rooms
- Access to the community colleges, transportation is a barrier, go into the community
- Idea: Use community rooms to teach personal finance, build a down payment, etc.
- Should cities be in the housing business?
- Idea: Family self-sufficiency program is a linkage. Education - better job - able to afford
- Idea: Community colleges hold sessions about housing
- Offer classes in the community - community colleges visible in the community
- Community meetings reduce the sense of the college being an unknown, intimidation
- CAD classes, landscaping, students do projects for the members of the community
- Colleges doing many things - not well attended. Example - theater productions, art projects
- Low income neighborhoods will not come to you. You go to them
- Developers mentioned as partners - do not represent low-income housing
- EMCC area encompasses many demographic groups. Young families, future college students
- Collaborate with lenders to come to classroom and talk about how to qualify
- Taxpayer education is too slow. Why aren't more tax dollars going to better the educational process.
- How many students wrote to legislators? Dollars go to prisons.
- Let your school know if you are not being served.
Group Three:
- What is being done re: migration from low income housing to a better area?
- Glendale Community Housing offers education and counseling about the responsibilities of home ownership and keeping the appearance up
- Live and work in the area.
- Drive by only time - needed to prompt (a private company)
- Real estate - showed a property last week. Appearance was terrible - who reports?
- Role of community colleges in housing?
- Educate people on what makes a neighborhood? A strong neighborhood is self-enforcing
- Offer courses how to acquire a home
- Take a role in teaching how to keep up your home
- Move into the neighborhood and offer classes, offer transportation
- We have allowed the deterioration; go into the community to help fix up homes and teach how to do it
- Some community colleges are currently offering services in the communities. This becomes a catalyst for some specific needs
- Be a vehicle for such resources as retired persons, business members
- 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
- Offer skill training - Example: carpentry - go into the community and apply it
- Form partnerships with community-based organizations
- Be a hub for people to go into the community
- Classes on parenting are related to stewardship of home
- EMCC currently serving many groups and K-12 schools, with service learning projects
- Projects in the community bring people out
- 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 sectionDelta
* 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 toMrs. 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.