NORTHERN ESSEX COMMUNITY COLLEGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
MINUTES OF MEETING (OFFICIAL) – October 2, 2024
A meeting of the Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees was held in the
Hartleb Technology Building, Room TC103A, on the Haverhill Campus and via Zoom on Wednesday, October 2, 2024.
Ms. Borislow
Mr. Cousins
Ms. Fernandez
Mr. Hamm
Ms. Hatem-Roy
Ms. Mohammed
Ms. O’Rourke
Mr. Silverio
Also Present: President Glenn
CALL TO ORDER: With a quorum present, Chairwoman Borislow called the meeting to order at 5:09 PM after full quorum was met across all members (Trustee Fernandez and Trustee Mohammed arrived at approximately 5:07pm).
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Chairwoman Borislow asked for a motion to approve the
Sept 4, 2024, minutes.
On a Motion presented by Trustee O’Rourke and seconded by Trustee Silverio, by roll call vote, the Board unanimously approved the Sept 4, 2024, minutes as presented.
CORRESPONDENCE: There was none.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS:
a) Introduction of Newly Hired Employees (Verbal)
President Glenn introduced and welcomed the newest employee, Connor Salvo, FT Campus Police officer (reporting to Chief Dave Hobbs)
The Board welcomed our newest employee to NECC.
EDUCATIONAL REPORT: Adult Basic Education (ADM-3891-100224)
Provost Dr. Paul Beaudin helped introduce Jacqueline Lynch, Executive Director of the Center for Adult Education. Dr. Beaudin shared that Jacqueline leads our work at both the Essex County Sheriff’s facility in Middleton, working with those faculty and staff who work with our incarcerated students at the jail and those who are at the pre-release sites within the Merrimack Valley.
Jacqueline Lynch also directs our DESE-funded Adult Basic Education Program at the Lawrence campus serving students in ESOL, transition-to-college programs, and other funded programs. Lynch began at the college in early January. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree from the National University of Ireland, a Master of Education degree from Cambridge College, here in Massachusetts, and a doctorate in higher education leadership from National Louis University in Chicago. Jacqueline has been involved in adult education for 35 years having worked at Roxbury and Quinsigamond Community College and, most recently, at Triton College in Illinois.
Lynch starts her presentation remotely at 5:18PM, where she shared highlights from her work on adult basic education (ABE) and Community Education. Slides include breakdown of what adult education is and who is serves, which provides adults with opportunities to develop the language, literacy, numeracy and literacy skills – all of which are needed to qualify for further education job training and better employment so as to reach their full potential as a productive member of society.
Additional background is shared on adult basic education (ABE), which helps to cover reading, writing and math below the high school level. Additional background shared on adult secondly education (ASE), which serves adult education and is never referred to as “drop outs.”
Additional slides discuss student demographics, including the fact that over 25,000 potential students are on wait lists for these types of programs and services across Massachusetts. For NECC, approximately 525 individuals are currently on our internal waiting list. People wait two or more years, and we offer classes, but people have to be put on a waitlist while also wanting to learn English, but we don’t have the bandwidth for doing all services at this time. We do refer them to other programs and services that we know in the immediate area.
Funding is provided to these programs via Adult Education Literacy Act (WIOI Title II), with a combination of other specialized funds including those from our digital literacy efforts. Our funding for this year is also driven via DESE plus funding toward ESOL or GED, which helps transitions to college. Typical challenges are derived from the fact that home origin country educational models are very different, and we must support them to our needs the best we can, including utilizing programs like MassSTEP. This program focuses on degrees and credentials over minimal years versus typical college degrees which take longer overall.
We have a commitment to education funding through FY26 and then we must determine what’s next for our services. We are hopeful to find additional funding via Peter Twitchell through outside foundational support, but this remains a work in progress.
This work helps to support the college and NECC mission by promoting access, inclusion, equity, and not just immigrants. These efforts include adults who left high school early in the system and had left them behind. This is not high school, rather, this is adult education, and this is years of experience to help with workforce development and transitions. It is clear that GED or high set are necessary for workforce ready needs, but we also need to explore digital literacy skills, other types of exams, as many of these individuals’ thought college was never an option for them. We must continue to respond to all needs, especially for diverse needs and multiple languages, life learning across an entire journey, and to always think of our immigrants. We know of many who are under employed and other folks who are engineers or teachers but are here working as janitorial staff; its demoralizing for them so we are a conduit to them for profession growth.
Recently, we were celebrating adult education students, staff, teachers, and supporters, as shown during the National Adult Education and Family Literacy event on September 15 and September 21 – a first time ever for NECC. Event held at Lawrence campus rooftop, but this will be expanded for the next year. Over 150 students were in attendees representing 14 countries, with special guest speakers including Dr. Beaudin, DESE, Mayor of Lawrence, former students who helped to evangelize, and Andrea Cabrera who is doing a fabulous job through transitions and engineering background. The event featured an Olympic theme and folks paraded up with their national flag.
Pictures of various speakers, students, and moments were shared, and presentation ended at approximately 5:28pm. Questions were opened to the guest speaker thereafter.
Chair Borislow asked about any consideration to work directly with local employers for deeper assistance and support? Lynch responded with a confirmation via ESL state services, but bandwidth remains a core issue. President Lane Glenn also pointed to work with GEM Line and Jonathan Issacson for workforce training funds, but we will collectively try to tap all resources we can to keep progress on this matter.
Trustee Fernandez asks what is the average time or length of the programming? Lynch responded that we list out our programs and services, and many issues because of having a long wait list, but we have different levels of classes and determining which level different people are coming from makes this difficult to answer with any singular outlook. President Lane Glenn adds that there is no such thing as magical learning, that language is learned over six years according to US Department of State. We can only try to automate learning so much but that we sometimes need people in person to help teach and learn alike.
BOARD CHAIR REPORT:
Chairwoman Borislow offered condolences to President Glenn for his father recently passing and to express the Board of Trustee thanks for remaining a beacon of leadership and always being a professional, even when personal issues arise.
REPORT OF BOARD COMMITTEES:
a) Audit and Finance Sub-Committee: Trustee Hamm shared that the A&F sub-committee met prior to the meeting of the whole, noting an overall increase of total improvements and net position from the original financial positions, as noted within their reporting. Trustee Hamm expressed special thanks to CFO/COO Mike McCarthy for his continued stewardship of responsible financial management and believes the organization is in a strong position for the foreseeable future, especially because of appropriate handling of MassEducate and MassReconnect estimates for the short and long term. President Glenn adds that we are continue to look at increased enrollment effects including staffing needs and paying appropriately as best we can against state contracts, but we want to give special applause to our front line, student facing groups who have put in extra hours, extra work over long weekends, and more, to ensure NECC would be able to handle the new surge of interest for community colleges. Chairwoman Borislow echoes the praise and includes praise for Anthony under Mike McCarthy for his stewardship, as well.
b) Alumni Advancement Sub-Committee (Verbal)
The Alumni Advancement Sub-Committee did not meet; therefore, there was no report.
c) Equity Imperative Sub-Committee (Verbal)
Chairwoman Borislow reminded all that this group has been paused.
d) Nominating Sub-Committee (Verbal)
The Alumni Advancement Sub-Committee is expected to meet before the next meeting, with Trustee Cousins being away on vacation ahead but would plan on reporting updates for the next meeting in November.
REPORT OF ADMINISTRATION:
a) Enrollment Update (Verbal)
President Glenn shared that the recent Massachusetts community college free college initiative has shown promising early results, although the program is only a month old, and many implementation guidelines are still pending. While some colleges have enrolled students without finalizing all necessary paperwork, we chose to complete these administrative steps or defer enrollments to Fall II due to lower initial numbers. We anticipate these numbers will stabilize over time.
We are considering a modest tuition increase of approximately $10 as a new standard, though spring enrollment might require a higher adjustment compared to other states with similar programs. As a result, some individuals are making significant arrangements, such as job changes, to take advantage of this opportunity. However, awareness of the program remains limited. We are grateful for the support from Massachusetts educational leadership, including the Senate President, in launching this initiative. We acknowledge that the legislature must continue to support and allocate additional resources for sustained success, particularly as the program’s impact on state finances unfolds. This initial funding is intended to help students achieve the academic success they need.
As of October 28, our headcount had increased by approximately 7%, with Fall II semester enrollment expected to reach around 5,000 students. This level of enrollment has not been seen in the past seven years. The peak enrollment of 7,300 in 2012 was an anomaly, influenced by various external factors, including the housing crisis and limited parking availability. While an enrollment level of 6,000 students would allow us to reinstate full classroom and support accommodations, we are adjusting our strategy to meet the current demand, which includes both in-person and hybrid learning options. Fully online programs remain limited to ensure optimal support and resource allocation for students.
b) Employee Demographics (Verbal)
President Glenn noted that this area was a placeholder for the November BOT meeting, to allow time to better expand in areas relative to student facing services. Look for more at the next meeting on this category.
c) Whittier Tech Shared Campus Update (Verbal)
President Glenn shared that there has been significant progress on the Whittier Tech Shared Campus initiative. Following the kickoff in late August 2024, the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute (UMDI) facilitated initial outreach, including focus groups, social media engagement, and direct outreach to mayors, managers, and elected officials across the Whittier Tech area. Individual interviews and targeted engagement have yielded positive feedback on the potential collaboration model between Whittier Tech (WT) and Northern Essex Community College (NECC).
An ongoing challenge relates to charter funding. Unlike Haverhill, one community is hesitant to open a charter, and we are working carefully to address this issue. Lloyd and Frank, along with the legislative director and the governor, have been actively involved behind the scenes. To further advocate for and communicate the project’s objectives, we may need to bring city and town representatives to campus for continued discussions.
The planning group will meet two more times in November and December, which serves as a higher order national think tank to help guide our efforts. For example, the last planning group meeting featured a topic known as “The Big Blur,” and other models were highlighted as successful models, including the Aurora Public Schools in Colorado and collaborations between community colleges and high schools to provide credentialing in various fields. Among the options, the most promising is a unique concept for an “Essex Polytechnic,” which would offer comprehensive trades training and increased access to early college opportunities. These developments are currently in progress and largely behind the scenes.
Chairwoman Borislow asked how the Board could stay engaged and involved, with President Glenn responding to sign up for focus groups if interested and a follow-up reminder of the dates, too.
d) The Communique– (ADM-3890-100224)
President Glenn noted that this month’s Communique has been distributed along with the Board Packets.
e) Campus Updates (Verbal) – No campus updates at this time.
NEW BUSINESS: No new business at this time.
OTHER BUSINESS: Trustee Gomez will be joining President Lane Glenn to attend the ACCT Conference in Seattle, Washington to help represent NECC. We will continue to encourage our Board of Trustees to remain involved across local, regional, and national events, but thank Jouel for his offer to attend this event again.
Other special kudos were given to the Opportunity Works 50th event celebrations, Lloyd Hamm’s Riverrun Bank recent bank acquisition, and a kudos to Chairwoman Borislow’s daughter’s recent wedding.
ADJOURNMENT: Chairwoman Borislow adjourned the meeting at 5:57 PM.
