Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees
Minutes of Meeting (Official) – December 2, 2020
A meeting of the Northern Essex Community College Board of Trustees was held via a Zoom Teleconference at 5:00 PM.
Present
Ms. Borislow
Mr. Cox
Ms. Fernandez (joined at 5:10)
Mr. Forman
Mr. Guilmette
Mr. Linehan (joined at 5:11)
Ms. O’Rorke
Ms. Paley Nadel
Ms. Worden
Unable to attend
Ms. Quiles
Also Present
President Glenn
Call to Order
Chairmwoman Borislow called the meeting to order at 5:02 PM.
Approval of Minutes
On a Motion by Trustee Guilmette, seconded by Trustee Worden, it was voted unanimously by roll call vote to approve the November 4, 2020 minutes as presented.
Correspondence
There was none.
Unfinished Business
President Glenn introduced Alejandra Mendez-Irizarry, NECC’s new Assistant Librarian and Joshua Stokel, the new Director of Police Academies. The board welcomed Alejandra and Joshua to Northern Essex.
Board Chairwoman Update
Chairwoman Borislow noted the following items in her update:
She thanked all of the Trustees who have taken the Self-Assessment Survey. She noted that the deadline had been extended to December 3rd and encouraged everyone to participate.
The DHE Trustee Training has overall gone very smoothly and has been well attended with many trustees at every session. Matt Noyes from the DHE will be conducting a feedback survey soon after the end of Cycle 1 of the training, and she encouraged trustees to provide input for future trainings. Ms. Borislow noted that the DHE has recognized that the timing of these trainings (11AM) has been a bit of a challenge, and would strongly encourage DHE to consider more on-demand session which would be more effective.
Ms. Borislow confirmed the membership of two new board committees. The Advancement & Alumni committee will be chaired by Trustee Fernandez, and membership will also include Ms. Paley Nadel, Mr. Guilmette, Mr. Dodier and herself. The college liaison will be Vice President Dolan-Wilson. Trustee Fernandez is currently working on setting up a first meeting for the group and to formulate the committee’s charge.
The Equity Imperative committee will be chaired by Ms. Paley Nadel and membership will also include Ms. Fernandez, Ms. Quiles, Mr. Dodier and herself. The College liaison to the committee will be Vice President Custodia-Lora. That group is also planning their first meeting soon and are also anxious to review the consultant’s report for NECC Center for Equity and Social Justice.
In closing, Chairwoman Borislow thanked all trustees for their enthusiasm and excitement around these newly formed committees which will be officially launched as official groups by the January 20th retreat. She noted that she and President Glenn are working hard with the Governor’s Office and the Office of Boards and Commissions to get new trustees appointed for expired positions. One candidate has been approved, and the Governor’s office is waiting for the background check to be completed. She thanked Trustees Forman and Linehan for their continued service on the Board until their successor is named.
Education Report
Sabbatical Report: Meaningful Grading Strategies to Build Community in the Classroom (ADM-3657-120220)
President Glenn asked Vice President William Heineman to introduce this month’s Education Report presenter. Dr. Heineman noted that 90% of student success depends on the teaching craft that goes on inside of the classroom. Professor Yarborough has focused on her own teaching practice with an emphasis on how the impact and effectiveness of grading papers and providing feedback to students is meaningful and given promptly. Improving this teaching practice using efficient strategies encourages relationship building. Professor Yarborough has carried this research back to her colleagues so that they may learn and benefit by it. With that, Dr. Heineman introduced Professor Yarborough who provided a report on her recent sabbatical.
Professor Yarborough noted that how faculty provide meaningful feedback and how they grade students is critical to student growth. During her sabbatical, she focused on how to give effective and meaningful feedback to students on their work. As part of this work, she conducted literature reviews, interviewed several faculty from a number of institutions and conducted her own hands-on research in a few classes at NECC.
The results demonstrated that faculty feedback to students is most meaningful when it is consistent, regular, and in a timely fashion. Ineffective feedback can be worse in some cases than no feedback at all.
The conundrum of writing, she noted, is that students need to be responded to in a more personalized fashion (by a person as well as a teacher) and faculty should consider how students best learn from their work. Initially, faculty are encouraged to start with low-risk assignments that build a positive relationship between the faculty member and the student. These initial strategies considered “Small but Mighty” provides about 15 different suggestions to help students and include strategies like, giving whole-class feedback, allowing students to journal/reflect on how the writing went, provide digital comments and a comment bank, identifying focus areas of growth for individual students, and making routines around grading (planning and organizing where and when).
These strategies provide small but meaningful gains and can also help faculty efficiently save about 5-10 % of their grading time. The strategies, she noted, can be extremely powerful and can provide an incredible opportunity to help students in their future work.
Trustee Paley Nadel thanked Professor Yarborough for her research and report. She noted how much she appreciated the work and impact of her research, and is looking forward to reading through all of it when finalized.
With no other comments, President Glenn thanked Professor Yarborough for her report to the Board.
Report of Board Committees
1) Audit and Finance Committee
a) Motion to accept NECC FY2020 Audited Financial Statements (AFC-20-09)
Trustee Cox, Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee reported that the committee met with the Auditors, Steve Cohen and Ben Safaris, of O’Connor and Drew just prior to the full board meeting to review the audit. President Glenn asked Mr. Cohen and Mr. Safaris to provide the board with an overview of the results.
Steve Cohen thanked Mike McCarthy and his team including Anthony DeGregorio, Director of Fiscal Services/Comptroller, Despina Lambropoulos, the Financial Aid Director, and Jeff DiPrima, Assistant Comptroller, for all their help in meeting the deadline amid the challenges of the pandemic. It was noted that the college is in sound financial position, largely owing to the one-time savings and careful planning on enrollment with remote teaching, which reduced expenses and provided for a better financial position than expected.
Trustee Forman asked if the college is obligated to use all of the $2 M funding provided by the CARES Act. President Glenn noted that this must be used by the end of the fiscal year, and will primarily provide for laptops, develop remote courses, and improve the air filtration systems.
Trustee Paley Nadel asked if there would be any tuition increases next year.
President Glenn replied that we hope to keep any increases to a minimum, however, that has not been reviewed or confirmed as yet.
In closing, President Glenn thanked Steve Cohen and Benjamin DeForest for their work, and also thanked Trustee Paley Nadel for her prior leadership and work at the chair of the Audit & Finance Committee. The motion was then voted upon.
On a Motion presented by Trustee Cox and seconded by Trustee Linehan, it was voted unanimously by roll call vote to approve the motion to accept NECC FY2020 Audited Financial Statements.
Report of Administration
President Glenn provided an update on the following items:
a) Equity Imperative (Verbal)
President Glenn shared information which highlighted the work that is being done by the Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF). The report provides/uses measurements of a community’s social, environmental, and economic factors to show the impact and affect to quality of life. A few results of this data in NECC’s neighboring communities show that the fastest growing racial/ethnic population is among Hispanic residents, with an increase of 100%, compared to 56% for Asian, and no change in the white population. Methuen and Andover have the highest population of foreign-born residents. The number of residents in Essex County living in poverty is 15%, compared to 20% nationally, however, this figure is increasing. President Glenn also noted that the education gap between white and Hispanic population is 30%. There are lots of reasons why the equity imperative data is important and the needs of the communities should be carefully reviewed. All of the information presented in this report is pre-pandemic, he noted, so many of these figures would change. The educational attainment gap is the one item in particular that we are focusing on now at NECC.
b) NECC Employee Data by Race/Ethnicity (ADM-3658-120220)
President Glenn noted that the information presented was taken from the college’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) report and shows that the overall number of employees at NECC is declining, however the percentage of Hispanic employees reflects a modest increase. It is important to note, however, that this number dwarfs in comparison to the number of Latino residents in the area with Lawrence at 80%, Methuen at 29%, and Haverhill at 20%. President Glenn noted that NECC current staff does not adequately reflect the student body demographics which currently shows the percentage of Latino students to be 42%. Moving forward, the demographics of NECC employees should better reflect the communities we are serving. With NECC’s Leading into the Future Together (LIFT) Campaign and our efforts in retention, we will have a better representation of the community and student outcomes.
It was noted that Patty Gauron, the HR Director, and Mike McCarthy have been communicating with the Leadership Team to improve search committee and hiring processes.
Trustee Paley-Nadel asked if there were any issues with retention of Latino or African American faculty. President Glenn recognized that we have to look at overall numbers and patterns of retention, but are not ready to provide a report on that at the present time.
Trustee Fernandez asked if there is a need for a consultant in this area or is it entirely a Human Resource process? President Glenn noted that we are presently exploring this with consultants and are waiting for their final report.
President Glenn noted that this is just a small amount of data for now, and it is trending in the right direction. However, the leadership team is working to make a more sustainable recruitment process whereby the data is reviewed consistently and more efforts are made to have a workforce that is reflective of the student population.
c) FY21 Budget (Verbal)
President Glenn reported that the College is in better shape than anticipated. Looking ahead, it is expected that the next two years will be even more challenging.
d) EY Parthenon Study (Verbal)
President Glenn noted that he had shared at prior Trustee meetings that the Department of Higher Education has hired EY Parthenon to review the financials of all 29 public colleges and universities. Working with the Presidents and CFOs, two regional collaborations on efficiencies and partnerships are being reviewed, and NECC is part of those collaboration. At present, there is nothing specific to report, but that goal is to continue to work with the consultants, and hopefully, by late January, they hope to have a final report and more information on how we move forward.
e) NECC 2020: Strategic Plan (Verbal)
President Glenn noted that Kelly Saretsky, Dean of Institutional Planning and Research, has conducted some research relative to expected enrollment for Spring, 2021. In order to determine how many students will return in the spring, the data for the varied groups of students was reviewed over the last five years. It was determined that the enrollment of Spring 2021 is predicted to be approximately 6% lower than the Spring of 2020. The college is working very hard to stay connected with the various populations to get them enrolled by using the EAB software to keep them engaged and seeking assistance if needed. In addition, he noted that Early College enrollment has shown an encouraging increase. However, due to policy and legislative funding issues, much communication with superintendents and mayors in the gateway cities is still needed to grow this population.
Trustee O’Rorke asked if the college has identified specific programs that could be developed or expanded as part of Governor Baker’s economic development bill. President Glenn noted that he spoke with Governor Baker during his recent visit to Haverhill Heights and noted that the economic development bill will provide NECC with an opportunity to highlight some of our programs and also assist with much-needed job creation for the area. Trustee O’Rorke noted that the bill is aimed toward institutions developing programming in collaboration with businesses and vocational schools. President Glenn agreed and noted a recent collaboration with Whitter Regional Voc Tech. Whittier intended to move some of their programs onto the NECC campus, but the collaboration was stalled due to the pandemic.
f) Haverhill Campus (Verbal)
The Heights at Haverhill
President Glenn noted that The Heights at Haverhill had a grand opening of the building on November 5. Much of the equipment was funded by the Workforce Skills Training grants that were awarded to high schools and community colleges for their entrepreneurial endeavors. Another source of funding may allow for a future collaboration of vocational schools and community colleges. As mentioned earlier, under consideration is a grant that would assist NECC with a collaboration with Whittier Regional Vocational Tech and providing some of their programming on our Haverhill campus.
“No Small Matter”
The Center for Professional Studies, the Early Childhood Education program, and the Career Pathways in Early Childhood Education grant at NECC invited Early Childhood educators and members of the community to attend a virtual screening and discussion of the documentary film “No Small Matter”. The event was well attended by 200 people and included a special recognition of NECC’s newly retired ECE professor Gail Feigenbaum for her 30 years of service to the Early Childhood Education profession.
Lastly, President Glenn noted that donations to the college continue to be stable and show some growth. Vice President of Institutional Advancement, Allison Dolan-Wilson gave a favorable report on donations, with an increased percentage of alumni donors, many new donors, and an increase in the average size of donations.
g) Lawrence Campus (Verbal)
President Glenn noted the campus-wide events in his earlier report.
New Business
a) Grants
President Glenn noted that the four grants listed below for consideration and approval total just over $478K. Chairwoman Borislow asked if the approvals could be conducted together. All trustees agreed, and she asked for a roll call.
1) Commonwealth Corporation: ESOL-Enhanced Training and
Placement Design Phase (ADM-3659-120220)
2) Massachusetts Department of Higher Education/Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER): Remote Dual Enrollment (ADM-3660-120220)
3) Massachusetts Department of Higher Education: Training
Resources and Internship Networks (TRAIN) Program
(ADM-3661-120220)
4) United States Department of Education/Regis College Institutional Resilience and Expanded Postsecondary
Opportunity (IREPO) Grant Program
(ADM-3662-120220)
On a Motion by Trustee O’Rorke, seconded by Trustee Forman, it was voted unanimously by roll call vote to approve the four (4) grants, agenda items 9a., numbers 1 thru 4 as presented.
Other Business
There was none.
Adjournment
6:12PM
