SE Illinois News

Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees met April 24.

Here is the minutes as provided by the board:

Organizational Meeting

Dr. York, Chairman, called the organizational meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. On roll call the following members were present: Dr. York, Ms. Hughes, Mr. Ellis, Mr. Morgan, Dr. Barbre, and Bridget Fitzpatrick (student trustee). Absent: Mr. Bradley and Mr. Dennison. Also present were: Dr. Jonah Rice, Chad Flannery, Gina Sirach, Karla Lewis, Dr. Diane King, Barbara Potter, David Wright, Lisa Hite, Ed Fitzgerald, Callie Smith, Dr. Karen Weiss and Lisa Dye.

A resolution declaring the election results was given by Dr. Rice acknowledging the re-election to the Board of Trustees for Dr. Barbre and Ms. Hughes. Both Dr. Barbre and Ms. Hughes will serve six year terms effective immediately and ending in 2023.

Dr. York appointed Dr. Rice, President, to serve as Chairman pro tem for election of officers.

A motion was made by Trustee Barbre seconded by Trustee Morgan that Dr. York serve as Chairman. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Morgan that Dr. Barbre serve as Vice Chairman. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Morgan seconded by Trustee Barbe that Mr. Ellis serve as Secretary. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Morgan that Ms. Hughes serve as Alternate Secretary. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Morgan that Dr. Barbre serve as ICCTA Representative. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Barbre seconded by Trustee Morgan that Mr. Ellis serve as Alternate ICCTA Representative. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Morgan that Mr. Wright serve as Treasurer. There being no other nominations, all members voted aye, motion carried.

There being no further business to discuss, Trustee Hughes made the motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Trustee Morgan. All members voted aye. The meeting was adjourned.

The Southeastern Illinois College Board of Trustees held its regular meeting on Monday, April 24, 2017 at 6:00 pm in the Rodney J. Brenner Board Room. On roll call, the following members were present: Debbie Hughes, Jim Ellis, Dr. Frank Barbre, Dr. Pat York, Richard Morgan, and Bridget Fitzpatrick, student trustee. Absent: Blake Bradley and David Dennison. Also present were: Dr. Jonah Rice, Chad Flannery, Gina Sirach, Karla Lewis, Dr. Diane King, Barbara Potter, David Wright, Lisa Hite, Ed Fitzgerald, Callie Smith, Dr. Karen Weiss and Lisa Dye.

Dr. York welcomed guests and allowed a time for comment.

Dr. Rice swore in new student trustee, Callie Smith who will serve on the Board for the 2017-2018 term.

Reports

Dr. Barbre’s Report

Dr. Frank Barbre reported that Lobby Day is April 25 and that he would be attending, along with Mr. Ellis and Dr. Rice. The schedule for Lobby Day will include visiting legislators, attending ICCTA meetings, and Trustee meetings. Dr. Barbre said that it would be challenging to make progress with the legislators, but that Mr. Ellis, Dr. Rice, and he would plead our cause for funding. He said the funding issue is unfortunate, but he hopes to find out something different regarding funds at this meeting. He said that he would report back his findings at the next Board meeting.

Karla Lewis’ Report

Karla Lewis reported that the SICEA Association would be hosting an after graduation party at Morello’s. Faculty, Administration, and Board Members are invited to attend. She asked for RSVP’s.

Dr. Rice’s Report

Dr. Rice reported that tuition is our major income, followed by taxes, and then state funding. He distributed several handouts regarding funding and enrollment issues nationwide. Oklahoma had the largest decrease in funding, Illinois was second. Illinois’s seven universities face downgrades due to lack of funding. He informed us that a local Community College with the same bond issues like us got no interested takers that were willing to buy their bonds. They had to up their percentage so that a company would buy them. Their CFI score is only slightly lower than ours. Dr. Rice thinks that we will get the bonds, but that we will have to work hard this summer to do so. He reported that Republicans are supporting year round Pell and that is very good for us. He reported positive news about Dr. Joe Rives from Western Kentucky University. Dr. Rives is

heading an outreach program with the Community Colleges in our area for the purpose of BSN completion which is the two-plus-two and 90 credit hours BA program. Dr. Rice also reported that the Nursing Director from Eastern Illinois University recently spent the entire day here at SIC with our nursing program to observe and discuss with our students the new articulation agreement between us and for a two-plus-two agreement leading to a BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing). He said that Murray University is now articulated with us. SIU Carbondale is rejecting the state-wideAS Degree. They are the only university in the state making this challenge that we know of. SIU E however, is still accepting our AS Nursing Degree from what we have been told. Our students will be affected, and Bridget Fitzpatrick (our student Trustee) is one of those students. She plans on writing a letter to SIU Carbondale and Dr. Rice said he would be using that letter to follow up on this situation. Transfer problems and road blocks need to be addressed because most of our students go to SIU Carbondale after graduating from SIC. Dr. Rice said that Dean Flannery and Dean Sirach will help address this problem. Reporting on HLC, Dr. Rice said SIC’s faculty and administrative staff are doing very well on their benchmarks. Criterion four will be the focus. Ideas, good data, and the end of summer presentation to the Board are on their target dates. Dr. Rice said budget hearings have begun and budgets have been lowered as much as they possibly can be. He commends the budget officers and thanks Patty Winters, and Lisa Hite for helping in the budget process. Dr. Rice discussed the Board Sub Committee on Finance and passed out a handout about CFI scores. CFI scores range on a scale from -4 to 10. Recently a mid-west college closed with a.8 CFI score. The bond issue is critical for SIC regarding CFI scores. Dr. Rice passed a handout on cash positon at SIC. Sustainabilitythe next few years will force us to reengineer SIC if the state remains in gridlock. He presented a power point presentation explaining several different possible cash flow scenarios in the short term. The budget impasse is the reason for these tough decisions facing SIC. It takes SIC $850,000 a month to keep functioning. Our goal, Dr. Rice said, is to prepare not scare and he thanked the staff for understanding the importance of the bond and its process. He said that Dr. Weiss has done tremendous work on the Title III Abstract; Dean Flannery has given good feedback; Dean Sirach provided good divisional news, and Dean Wright has done good work on PHS, lighting, water tower, and roof work. He went on to say that work on the archery project will start June 5 after the special Board Meeting. Then Dr. Rice passed out a Legislative summary that he, Dr. Barbre, and Mr. Ellis will give to the legislators on Lobby Day. The summaries main focus was trying to get the state budget passed.

Bridget Fitzpatrick’s (Student Trustee) Report

Student trustee Bridget Fitzpatrick reported on student initiatives and club events.

Consent Agenda

A motion was make by Trustee Barbre and seconded by Trustee Ellis to approve the consent agenda which included the March 21, 2017 regular and closed session minutes, destroying tapes of the October 2015 closed session, the Treasurer’s report and the approval of bills for March

2017 which totaled $1,092,397.79 that included $547,292.44 in payroll. On roll call the following members voted:

Aye Nay

Ms. Hughes

Mr. Ellis

Dr. Barbre

Dr. York

Mr. Richard Morgan

Ms. Fitzpatrick, Advisory Vote

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

Action Items

A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Morgan that the Board of Trustees approve the Board Policy Revision – Facilities Usage 7004.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellisseconded by Trustee Barbre to accept the 2018-2021 Academic Calendars as presented in the Board packet.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Ellis to approve changes to reschedule Board of Trustees meeting dates/times for May (regular), June (special), and July (regular).

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Barbre seconded by Trustee Hughes to accept the budget transfer requests as presented in the Board packet.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Barbre to accept the curriculum items as presented in the Board packet.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Barbre to accept the protection, health, and safety to replace hazardous sidewalks.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

Non-Action Items

Dr. Karen Weiss gave a Title III Abstract Presentation. This is a developmental educational grant. Per Dr. Weiss, this will allow SIC to have a math lab, a writing center, and tutoring

assistance for students. The endowment is $150,000 with $300,000 matching. It is a 5 year 2.5M grant. SIC will know in September if we will get this grant. Dr. Weiss said that preparing this grant has been an enlightening experience and she is excited because so many students can benefit from it. Dr. York asked if there were any questions. There were no questions.

Dr. Rice gave a Health Insurance Report.He informed the Board that lots of meetings with the advisory committee had been going on and that they are looking at self-funded plans. Sixty percent of small businesses and principalities are looking into this type of plan. He gave an example of BlueCross/BlueShield with a profit markup of 33% over 2 years. If we were in a self-funded plan SIC would keep that 33% in a health risk fund in the bank for the years when we have a high amount of claims. David Wright said the first year would be the same, but the second year could be a savings for us. He said we only get 2 years of data from BC/BS to go by that will help us think about savings and to see how the flow goes. Metropolis is like us and saved 2.4M over 4 years. It does take time to save money with this type of plan. Ms. Hughes asked if employees were overall happy in Metropolis with the self-funded plan. Dr. Rice answered yes from the conversations they’ve had. He also said Rend Lake College is self-funded. Mutual Medical is one the insurance companies we are looking into. Barbara Potter said that Affordable Care Plan works to analyze each questionnaire all employees fill out and adviseseither putting employees on the plan or moving them to the market for the purpose of keeping rates flat. The self-funded plan is a plan that all employees have to qualify for. Dr. Rice said this plan could benefit employees. There would be no cost to the employees and it is beneficial to the group health plan. If an employee has to go to the market, they’ll probably end up with BC/BS. Dr. Rice said we do not want to start this July 1, 2017. We need time to educate our employees. The new policy representatives could come to SIC on Staff Development Day and make a presentation. The new plan would begin January 1, 2018. Ms. Hughes commented that she has Health Link and that she has had good luck with it. She said the prescription plan is wonderful and she has a lab card that allows her to pay only a small amount, plus she gets good customer service. Her daughter has Health Link too and likes it. Every hospital in Southern Illinois takes this insurance. Karla Lewis spoke up saying she has Health Link and has no problems with it and that she likes it. The city of Carmi uses Mutual Medical and they are happy with self-insurance. Dr. Barbre said he has heard good things about self-insurance too. Dr. Rice said the committee has talked to three legal firms to make sure this is the right thing to do.

The first reading was presented for a policy revision on Academic Amnesty, Board Policy 9005. This will be an action item at the next Board Meeting.

Closed Session

A motion was made by Trustee Ellis seconded by Trustee Barbre to convene into closed session as allowed by the Open Meetings Act 5 ILCS 120/2, Section C, Sub-Section (1) appointment, employment, and compensation of specific employees, (2) negotiations, (5) acquisitions of property, (9) student discipline, and (11) litigation. The board went into closed session at 7:52pm.

Personnel

A motion was made by Trustee Hughes seconded by Trustee Morgan to approve all items under personnel.

Approve the resignation of Brent Maguire, CTE Special Project and Campus Safety Coordinator; approve the resignation of Financial Aid Specialist, Kathleen Riggs; approve the job description revision for Administrative Assistant to the Vice-President of Academic Affairs; approve thedescription for Library and Testing Assistant; approve the transfer of Financial Aid Specialist, Amy Spiveyto Admissions Specialist; approve the Adjunct Faculty as presented.

All members voted aye. Motion carried.

Adjournment

There being no further business to discuss, Trustee Morgan made the motion to adjourn the meeting seconded by Trustee Barbre. All members voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 8:59 pm.

http://www.sic.edu/about/board-of-trustees/board-minutes-archive