Why California Can’t Raise Taxes to Balance the Budget
Because the yellow line’s salaries are paid by the red line’s taxes.
Illustration Credit: SacBee via Both Sides of the Table
Sierra College Scores on 2010 Accountability Report
In 2004, Assemblyman Rod Pacheco passed AB 1417, requiring each California community college to prepare an annual accountability report measuring their progress against a peer group of similar colleges.
The key metrics that the report measures include:
- How many students progressed and achieved their certificate, degree or transfer goal?
- How many earned 30 units or more?
- What was the persistence rate (still in school a year later)?
- How many vocational students completed their courses?
- How many students were successful in a Basic Skills course?
- How many Basic Skills students completed two courses in a row (demonstrating improvement)?
The interesting thing is that Sierra College was upgraded into the top tier peer group and was compared to some of the top-tier community colleges in the state. This was driven by a variety of factors, primarily a similar number of bachelor degrees per capita.
And our team is doing a fantastic job hitting the ball out of the park.
The most impressive result was in our Basic Skills program, which serves the 48% of students who come to us needing remediation. 58% of the Sierra College students who succeed in a single Basic Skills class move on and succeed in a second class…the average across our peer group is only 42%.
You can check out the complete PowerPoint presentation here.
SC@Work: August 10, 2010 Board Meeting
Board Meeting Details:
- August 10, 2010 at 3:00PM (public session at 4:00PM)
- Sierra College Rocklin Campus, Room LR-133
- Main agenda items begin at 4:00PM, public comment for items not on the agenda at 5:40PM
- Meeting Agenda
- Contracts (General / Capital Projects)
- Warrants
The board will be adopting its planning and resource allocation priorities for 2011-12, as well as discussing a new (and long overdue) effort to advocate for important policy changes with the legislature. We’ll also get an update on the Accountability Reporting on Community Colleges (ARCC) that we submit to the legislature to let them know how wisely we’re using your money. 
Use the comments below to answer the Question of the Month! What policy changes should Sierra College advocate for at the State Legislature? Should the board have the ability to raise tuition or assess special facilities fees to students? Relief from regulatory requirements that make California construction almost twice as expensive as neighboring states?
Sierra College starts negotiating with second place firm on solar project
The Union covered the news today that AMSOLAR was unable to come up with a competitive price for the Sierra College solar project that will take about 20% of Rocklin campus and 90% of Nevada County Campus off the grid. The project was launched back in January and staff selected AMSOLAR as the first place firm, and Borrego Solar as the second place firm in April.
“One of the ground rules with this project is that it can’t cost the college any more for energy than what we’re paying now,” Doty said. “The AMSOLAR deal didn’t pencil out for us.”
The college is now negotiating with Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar, Doty said. Borrego has installed other solar arrays at public schools, according to the company’s website.
If negotiations go well, the contract could come before the Sierra College Board of Trustees meeting in September and construction could start as early as the end of the year, Doty said. The school originally targeted this summer for construction to begin on the array.
“We are committed to a solar project that saves Sierra College money on day one, and I’m pleased that our staff planned ahead for the possibility that things wouldn’t work out with the first place firm,” said Sierra College Trustee Aaron Klein, who represents parts of Nevada County. “We continue to be excited about the potential of being better stewards of our planet while saving precious dollars in our operating budget.”
Transitions
Sierra College President Leo Chavez has announced that he’ll retire after one more year at the helm. This is the e-mail he just sent to the entire college staff to let them know the news.
After much thought and deliberation I have tendered my letter of retirement effective June 30th, 2011 to the Board of Trustees. I do such with decidedly mixed emotions knowing I am leaving a great opportunity working with such wonderful, skilled, and dedicated colleagues. I wish I could give you a simple reason for my decision, but there are many, some simple and some complicated, so all I will say is that it is time. I have had the honor to work in our system since 1978 and I have been a CEO since 1989. I told myself a long time ago I would leave when things were going well rather than hang around too long and be pushed out as has happened to far too many of my colleagues nationwide. In other words, there is nothing negative about my decision, nor do I fear for the future. It is simply time.
I have told the Board that I will work with them to effect a smooth transition and that, having no definitive plans, I could remain until a new President is found or otherwise perform any other duties the board may find of use to the district after June 30th of next year. I am, however, looking forward to the day I wake up and have to decide what I would like to do that day. In the meantime, we have much work to do and I look forward to a very productive year working with all of you.
Leo has been precisely the leader Sierra College needed to make the major changes in direction that the Board wanted to make over the last four years. While I wish he could have stayed here for another five or ten, he has accomplished everything the board has asked him to do.
He deserves the thanks of every taxpayer, student, faculty and staff member at Sierra College for his service – and we look forward to his continued leadership during this next year as we start to plan a transition.
SC@Work: July 10, 2010 Board Retreat
Board Retreat Details:
- July 10, 2010 at 8:30AM
- Sierra College Rocklin Campus, Room LR-133
- Short board agenda at 8:30AM, public comment for items not on the agenda at 9:00AM, then move into retreat and long term planning discussions
- Meeting Agenda
- Contracts (General / Capital Projects)
- Warrants
Our annual board retreat will be a discussion of long term planning issues and laying the groundwork for the main initiatives the board will want to pursue over the next year. The public is always welcome at our meetings, although the focus is long term planning over action, and public attendance at retreats is rare.
Our thoughts and prayers remain with Trustee Elaine Rowen Reynoso, who is not expected to attend the retreat. We wish her a speedy recovery.
Ghidotti Early College High School a huge success
If I had to rank all of my hundreds of votes as a Sierra College Trustee, my vote to create the Ghidotti Early College High School, in partnership with the Nevada Union High School District, is bound to be in the top five.
The Union did a great job reporting on the success of the school’s first four years, and talking to a few members of its first graduating class of seniors – 9 of whom graduated from high school with a college degree!
The seniors at Ghidotti Early College High School readily admit that, as 14-year-olds on a community college campus, they acted, well, 14.
There was some horseplay; there was the occasional plunge into the ornamental pond at the center of campus.
But four years after the start of the educational experiment — in which students take college and high school courses simultaneously — seniors say they’re older, wiser and well-positioned for their next steps in higher education.
“It makes you more mature,” said senior Tiffany Craddick. …
Some seniors say they felt like guinea pigs, as school administrators worked out the kinks in the unconventional program.
They wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Small and tight-knit, Ghidotti is “like a family.”
“When I first went to high school, it felt exactly like middle school,” said senior Matthew Ames, who started out at the much larger Bear River High School. “There was one class after the other.”
Then, a friend told him about Ghidotti, which this year reached its maximum enrollment of about 160 students.
“I was very impressed,” Ames said. “You get to know each other well. It’s like a family environment.”
Ghidotti is one of about 15 early college programs in California and among 200 nationwide. Funded by a start-up grant of $400,000 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, early college programs are an effort to blur the line between high school and college, where students tend to fall between the cracks.
After Ghidotti, “college is a lot less daunting,” said Anders.
The free program is not limited to high achievers: Ghidotti accepts students of all academic backgrounds, as long as they commit to working hard.
The philosophy behind early college is that even underachieving students can succeed when they’re challenged by rigorous courses and supported in a small, personal environment.
For the past three years, Ghidotti has posted higher scores in the California Academic Performance Index than Nevada Union or Bear River high schools.
Students start the day by checking in with a teacher and taking a study skills course called AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination).
In other high schools, AVID targets a small group of disadvantaged students. At Ghidotti, everyone participates. The program supports students as they transition from middle school to college, and helps them plan out a schedule combining core high school subjects and college courses.
School days look more like college. Rather than seven back-to-back periods, students have open blocks during the day.
“There’s more responsibility,” said Craddick. “There are all these open periods, so we have to discipline ourselves.”
The moral of this story? You can take kids (many of whom are the first in their family to attend college courses), expect great things and they will respond to the challenge.
I know resources are tight, but we need to do more of this all over California and America.
Photo Credit: The Union / John Hart
Elaine Reynoso in critical condition after car accident
Word reached me on Tuesday that my board colleague, Sierra College Trustee Elaine Rowen Reynoso, had been involved in a car accident while traveling in Virginia. Her husband, former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, was injured as well.
The first message didn’t have a lot of details, but an update that I just received indicates the situation is very serious and she remains in critical condition.
Elaine and I haven’t seen eye to eye on a number of issues, but it is moments like these when disagreements about public policy fade in importance. Our thoughts and prayers are with Elaine, Cruz and their families, and Cacey and I earnestly hope for a speedy recovery and return to their public responsibilities.
The Future of Journalism
The Slovers have been family friends for a long time (we attend the same church), so I was both surprised and excited to spot this press release from Sierra College.
Maggie Slover Awarded Jim Janssen Scholarship
ROCKLIN, Calif. – Maggie Slover developed a passion for writing at a young age. That zeal for writing is literally paying off for Slover, who is the 2010 recipient of the Jim Janssen Memorial Scholarship award.
The Janssen Scholarship is awarded to a promising journalism student at the Sierra College campus in Rocklin. Slover will receive a $750 scholarship in memory of Janssen, a longtime reporter at The Press-Tribune. Janssen worked at the Roseville newspaper for 43 years prior to his death in 2004.
A home schooled student, Slover grew up in Dutch Flat, a small town about 30 miles northwest of Auburn. She just completed her first year at Sierra College in Rocklin and is contemplating taking a journalism course and writing for the college newspaper in the fall.
“I’m very honored to receive this scholarship and want to thank Sierra College for the financial support,” Slover said. “I hadn’t heard of Jim Janssen, but after learning about him and his long career as a respected journalist, it makes receiving this scholarship even more meaningful to me.”
Slover, 19, has already established her own journalism career. She has written for a Dutch Flat newsletter the past five years and this spring has began writing freelance stories for The Colfax Record, which is part of the same group of newspapers that also includes The Press-Tribune, where Mr. Janssen worked. Slover has a goal of attending Stanford University as an English major.
“I’ve been passionate about writing my entire life,” Slover said. “I love creative writing and want to branch out with other forms of writing as well. I look forward to the challenge of writing for the Colfax Record and working with an experienced editor who will challenge me and improve my writing skills.”
The scholarship fund is made through the Sierra College Foundation, whose mission is to give members of the community an outlet to assist and invest in the development of quality educational opportunities.
“It’s wonderful to be able to support a student like Maggie who demonstrates a real love of writing,” said Kyriakos Tsakopoulos, President & CEO AKT Development Corp, who provided the leadership donation to establish the scholarship fund. “During his long career with the Press-Tribune, Jim Janssen always showed devotion to his craft and valued fairness and accuracy in his reporting. I’m happy to be connected with such a worthy scholarship and such a worthy student like Maggie Slover.”
The Janssen scholarship was established in 2004 when more than $12,000 was raised from a number of area donors. In addition to Mr. Tsakopoulos, other major donors include: Gold Country Media, publisher of The Press-Tribune in Roseville; Hewlett Packard; Halldin Public Relations; SureWest; Del Webb California; Westpark Associates; and Agilent Technologies.
For more information on how to make a charitable donation to the Sierra College Foundation, call 916 660-7020 or visit www.sierracollege.edu/foundation
Congratulations, Maggie! Keep working hard…journalism needs you.
Photo: Maggie Slover in the Colfax Record Newsroom
SC@Work: June 8, 2010 Board Meeting
Board Meeting Details:
- June 8, 2010 at 2:00PM (public session at 4:00PM)
- Sierra College Rocklin Campus, Room LR-133
- Main agenda items begin at 4:00PM, public comment for items not on the agenda at 5:40PM
- Meeting Agenda
- Contracts (General / Capital Projects)
- Warrants
This meeting will include the board’s self-evaluation, planning for our board retreat, potential action on the board policy for program vitality (see my related post here) and an update on facilities and budget planning.
Use the comments below to answer the Question of the Month! How should Sierra College measure the vitality of our educational programs? What criteria should we use to determine when programs should come to an end and resources be redirected to other industries with growing job needs?
