THE OFFICIAL MINUTES (5-10-22)
The Big Bend Community College Board of Trustees held a Study Session May 10, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. in person and via Zoom Webinar.
Present: Anna Franz, Gary Chandler, Amy Parris, Juanita Richards, Thomas Stredwick
Board Chair Thomas Stredwick stated the outcomes for today include a preparatory discussion to appoint a sub committee to review and suggest revisions to the Ends Statements and provide preliminary review and feedback of the Big Bend success indicator dashboard.
President Thompson Tweedy presented information around the board Ends Statements. Ends’ purpose is to identify and clarify the purpose of the organization, and provide basis for board oversight and evaluation of the president. Crystallizes the purpose of the organization and provides lanes for the trustees and the president.(Endstrustees, Means-president).
Ends drive what the college does and defines benefits, identifies beneficiaries, and states what it’s worth to produce those benefits. Ends guide the work of the executive. Considering revising the Ends to simplify Big Bend’s guiding documents. Accreditation standards requires integration and they need to be measurable. Aligning the Ends with the Mission, Vision, and Guiding Principles helps with integration and minimizes multiple and confusing measuring sticks.
New Strategic Plan (SP) plan enabled simplification required by accreditation recommendation. The Ends are not completely aligned with the SP priorities, there is still tension. Ends are an element of policy governance and not required by accreditation. We must be accredited and that means meeting the accreditation standards is essential.
Strategic priorities are goals, objectives are major activities, and indicators are included in the scorecard; all working together to ensure the college is accomplishing its mission. Board Chair Stredwick stated the president’s eval process feels qualitative and it needs to be quantitative too. Trustee Franz stated the board needs to ensure consistent process and that the Ends statements may not be aligned to SP because the SP is the operations side and should be adapting to the Ends. Need guidance to measuring outcomes and the Ends should align with the mission. The board sets policy through Ends that the president then implements; the green line is a 2-way street. President Thompson Tweedy stated the current ends crosswalk to the SP. Trustee Franz stated the Ends need to articulate clearly to the president what is expected by the board. Trustee Richards agreed.
Trustee Franz stated the Mission Fulfilment report is based on indicators and in the past the Trustees rated the mission fulfillment indicators and the institution also rated it. The review process is now more qualitative. Trustees need to evaluate college and the president with dispassionate data.
Trustee Franz stated in depth review as the reports become available for the trustees is appropriate and during then a full review during the retreat to evaluate the Ends and president.
Board Chair Stredwick stated the executive summary, dashboard, and additional data available to dive deeper if desired is helpful. Trustee Franz stated similar college comparisons, continuous improvement actions and reviewing what is happening under the green line to meet the Ends I helpful.
The trustees reviewed existing Ends. (Comment fragments noted for future reference.)
E-1 Mission
Suggested: throw away, its summary of the next three Ends, attempt to measure and
have the mission be the umbrella.
E-2 Student Success BBCC provides the diverse population of its entire district with access to opportunities, assists students in completion of their goals, and develops skills for lifelong learning.
Suggested: lots of elements, how to measure? Challenge to provide metrics. Degree completion and additional data. E-2, 3, 4 measure all of the pieces that feed E-1. Retreat function: Measure college on Ends we’ve articulated and evaluate process too. Fits the Ends statements definition (defines, benefits and beneficiaries).
E-3 Excellence in Teaching and Learning
BBCC supports innovation, variety, and creativity; maintains high academic and industry
standards; and supports professional development for continued growth.
Suggested: meeting this even more in the past two years. This fits under and supports E-2. Feels like a means to the end.
E-4 Community Engagement
BBCC supports economic development by nurturing community and industry partnerships
and support to the college to enhance access and service to our district population.
Suggested: Ends should be for the president to accomplish.
Slide defining ends are good litmus test.
Suggested: matrix to evaluate? Reviewed data points used for evaluation. Specific
to elements within the objective.
Board Chair Stredwick stated the dashboard data needs to be actionable. Dr. Thompson Tweedy stated the completion rate data is the most important data to her.
Who experiences the benefits? E-3, and E-4 can be embedded in E-2. AF agreed about
E-3. E-4, we also serve local employers by providing workforce, another beneficiary
outside of students.
Reflect upon student success and what that means by adding E-3. E-4 is critical and
broader “robust economic development?” what is the result for an ends? Contributing
to economic development of our community. E-4 is supported by the BAS development
and CBIS, and workforce ed. “providing resources to community”
E-5 Integrity and Stewardship
BBCC acts as a responsible steward of resources by promoting accountability, sustainability,
ethics and honesty, and prudent resource management to provide quality and affordable
resources to the diverse population of our service district.
Hard to measure and imperative, core to fiduciary duties to the board. Forward Looking Infrastructure is embedded here. Supported by Board Policy of 3 months reserves, environmental sustainability, prudent resource management. E-5 is a check and balance to E-2. Interdependency between E-2 and E-5.
E-6 Inclusion and Climate
BBCC provides and maintains a climate of inclusiveness for students, employees and
partners by maintaining a safe learning environment and promoting cultural inclusiveness,
understanding, and respect by embracing diversity, access, opportunity, and equity.
How to meet the other ends without inclusion and climate? Danger to being checkbox.
Need to actually increase ability to view through lens. Lots of tension in this one.
Guiding Principles help address this area. How do students know we’re an HSI from
our campus? Safety is the lowest bar for everyone on campus. Does a transgender person
feel safe on campus? Cultural inclusivity, front line employees speak Spanish,
NSO for parents in Spanish, Spanish signage. Ask people what does it look on campus
to be an HSI to you?
Food/housing insecurity, equity in community to assist families in poverty. We’re
making great strides in this area.
Next steps: Subcommittee to take notes and work forward to revise at the next meeting.
Revised Ends and dash board inform each other. Ends drive the dashboard, rough of
the Ends then look at dashboard. Dashboard can help redefine the ends. They step together
through the improvement continuum.
11:30 lunch break, reconvening at 12:30.
Dashboard
Board Chair Stredwick shared that he and Trustee Richards met with other college trustees, ACT Director Kim Tanaka, and President Michele Johnson, to discuss balancing the data reviews and policy governance lanes. Principles around the dashboard include: simple, sustainable, actionable, and accessible. Current version is a reflection of work by Trustees Stredwick and Richards.
Comments (fragments):
Aligns with the SP but not the ends.
Dashboard crosswalks to the scorecard.
Suggest this is a good reference sheet with footnotes that link to definition of data
(Appendix B, page 18, defines all dashboard measures).
The purpose of this scorecard is to break down metrics to measure the Ends statements.
Have ends been achieved? The scorecard is based on the SP to measure both areas.
Move dashboard titles to meet revised Ends statements.
A separate dashboard for the board does not resolve the accreditation recommendation.
Part of president’s evaluation is mission fulfillment which is the current SP scorecard.
The SP aligns with the current Ends. President’s evaluation is different from an employee
evaluation because it is based on accomplishment of the ends.
If there are two different scorecards for rating the college there is be an issue
with accreditation. Accreditation is all about mission fulfillment.
Mission is more operational not an End.
Need to have the Ends clearly shown on the scorecard. Add column to existing scorecard
to include Ends that are measured within the strategic priority.
Scorecard is informed by Ends.
Current scorecard is measuring mission fulfillment. SP rolls into how president is
meeting Ends and they’re may be additional ends.
Onus on president to ensure the Ends are being met. Per accreditation, Ends used to
evaluate president, and point to mission fulfillment. Let go of thinking about SP.
Work on Ends, purpose, outcomes, beneficiaries.
Scorecard is meeting goal #1 for the board adopted 9/2021.
Scorecard is an operational document and that is very different perspective from trustee.
Lens for Ends not SP, one-page scorecard on whether big bend is meeting
Ends is good effort.
Don’t want to create more work for staff.
White board work:
Accreditation
Board President
Ends SP
Board Goals M, V, GP
Pres Review Budget
How to evaluate
Board Scorecard Scorecard
Mission Fulfillment
Next steps:
Form subcommittee for Ends at next board meeting
Trustees Stredwick and Richards will work on scorecard, do we need a dashboard or
do we have all the info?
Use the SP dashboard + other information
Ends plus how they are measured
President knows annual cycle and what board is looking at as data to determine how
to evaluate.
Condense metrics to something simple that combines information.
Need to ensure we do not jeopardize accreditation with two score cards.
Do not elevate the SP to a board document, does it reflect Ends statements.
SP crosswalks to current Ends.
There is a president’s evaluation form and it needs to be revised.
Look at other colleges’ presidential evaluations.
Additional Next Steps:
Subcommittee to review president’s evaluation form (not the scorecard).
No action taken.
The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m.