YCCD Welcomes New Chief Human Resources Officer
YCCD offers a warm welcome to Mr. Donald Grady, Chief Human Resources Officer.
Mr. Grady began his tour of service with YCCD on March 1, 2018. With over twenty-six years of human resources management and generalist experience, Mr. Grady possesses a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management from Golden Gate University, a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Arts from CSU, Chico and is an Alumni of Yuba College, graduating with an Associates of Science in Business Management.
Mr. Grady has served in a wide range of Human Resources positions in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Mr. Grady served as the Director of Human Resources at Unity Care Group in San Jose. Prior to serving at Unity Care, Mr. Grady spent two years as the Senior Director of Human Resources with Aspire Public Schools in Oakland.
The YCCD Chief Human Resources Officer is responsible for service areas which support personnel and employment-related matters, recruitment and selection, evaluating, classification, benefits, and compensation administration, compliance, worker’s compensation reporting, employment verification, collective bargaining, affirmative action/equal opportunity, and unlawful discrimination complaints for students and employees.
Policy and Procedure Update
Senate Bill 54 Law Enforcement: Sharing Data
Legislation which went into effect on January 1, 2018 included Senate Bill 54 – Law Enforcement: Sharing Data (SB 54). SB 54 eliminates the discretion of state and local law enforcement to use money and personnel to investigate, interrogate, detain, detect, or arrest persons, or to conduct other activities for immigration enforcement purposes.
The bill includes six (6) categories of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts that are expressly prohibited as of January 1st. Additionally, the bill outlines five (5) categories of cooperation with federal immigration enforcement that remain permitted after January 1st, provided they are also authorized by local policy. You can access the full bill here: http://bit.ly/SenateBill54.
A legal advisory issued by General Counsel of the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office noted that the California Attorney General’s Office is required to publish model policies to explain these requirements by October 1, 2018. In light of the pressing issues at California community colleges in regards to immigration actions, YCCD has committed to further analysis and review of internal policies and procedures to ensure compliance with all areas of SB 54 as well as ensuring the well-being of YCCD student, faculty and staff prior to the release of these model policies.
An initial analysis of the bill was conducted in comparison to YCCD Board Policies and Administrative Procedures, as well as the YCCD Police Department internal protocols. This analysis determined that current YCCD policy and procedure broadly conform to the provisions detailed in the bill. The analysis additionally recommended that YCCD BPs and APs be updated to ensure that language clearly reflects and communicates YCCD’s commitment to compliance with all areas of SB 54.
YCCD Interim Chief of Police, Adam Pharris, is currently working on proposed language for the applicable policies and procedures which will reflect the provisions in SB 54 as well as the updated required government code sections. Once the proposed language has been developed and reviewed by the appropriate committees, the changes will be scheduled for review by the Board’s Policy Committee and recommendation for full Governing Board approval.
Assembly Bill 21: Public post-secondary education: Access to Higher Education for Every Student
Assembly Bill 21 (AB 21) places a number of affirmative obligations on community college districts to prevent student, staff, and faculty from participation in federal immigration enforcement efforts “to the fullest extent consistent with state and federal law.” The bill is intended to protect the state’s students, faculty, staff, and the public, by ensuring that everyone in California has an opportunity to pursue an education free from intimidation, and without fear or undue risk. You can access the full bill here: http://bit.ly/AssmBill21
AB 21 imposes ten (10) obligations on community college districts. Although this bill was effective January 1st, the California Attorney General’s Office will not release their model policies until October 2018. The bill further details that community college districts are given until March 1, 2019 to adopt and implement the model policies or an equivalent local policy.
An initial analysis of the bill in comparison with YCCD policies discovered that many of the obligations in AB 21 cannot be found in current board policy and administrative procedures. As with SB 54, YCCD is committed to ensuring compliance with all the obligations as outlined in AB 21.
To that point, the Chancellor’s Cabinet will begin a deeper analysis of AB 21 in comparison to YCCD policies and work to determine which policies and/or procedures are affected. Additionally, the Chancellor’s Cabinet will focus on identifying which of the obligations in AB 21, and subsequent policies and procedures, fall under participatory decision making and which do not. The Chancellor’s Office will ensure the appropriate governance committees discuss, review, and approve the required changes by the March 1, 2019 deadline for implementation and adoption.
Woodland Community College Awarded USDA Telecommunications Grant
Woodland Community College (WCC) was selected as the recipient of the 2017 Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program in the amount of $463,000. Grants, applications which are accepted through a competitive process, is administered by the Rural Utilities Service and helps rural communities use the unique capabilities of telecommunications to connect to each other and to the world, overcoming the effects of remoteness and low population density.
WCC submitted their grant application using the project title “The Woodland Community College Shared Learning Project”. The project will focus the use of the grant to assist WCC in partnering with three local high schools, and the Middletown Rancheria, to add new, interactive videoconferencing and audio-visual equipment to the WCC Main Hub in Woodland, three high schools, WCC satellite college sites in Lake and Colusa counties, and the Middletown Rancheria’s tribal learning center.
As noted in the application’s executive summary, the standards based infrastructure and video end points will be installed which will enable WCC to deliver distance learning opportunities to high school students, college students, adult learners, parents, teachers, and communities. All of the equipment included in the project budget will be dedicated for distance learning use. The project serves give end user communities with a total combined population of 27,421. In total, the project is aimed to serve approximately 1,730 high school students, 2,373 college and adult students as well as parents and countless other community members located in rural, isolated communities throughout north central California.
Yuba County Tech Forum
Chancellor Houston attended the North Central Counties Consortium Workforce Tech Forum on Friday, March 23rd, providing a warm YCCD welcome.
The forum, which was titled Changing Occupations and Skills in an Automated World, was hosted by Valley Vision, in partnership with the North Central Counties Consortium and the Capital Region’s three other Workforce Development Boards. The topics of discussion were focused on exploring how technology, automation, artificial intelligence, and the changing nature of work will affect businesses, industry sectors, occupations and skills across the regions.
Senate Bill 577 – Teacher Credentialing
Senate Bill 577 was introduced by Senator Bill Dodd in 2017, but was pulled from the floor at the request of the author. Chancellor Houston, who continues to work diligently with community college leadership to propel the bill forward, recently hosted a conference call with a member of Senator Dodd’s staff, a Higher Education lobbyist from the McCallum Group, the President of Cerro Coso College and the Vice Chancellor Teacher Education and Public School Programs of the California State University system. The attendees discussed ways to repurpose the original SB 577 legislation as a means of advancing CSU and CCC partnerships for teacher preparation and credentialing. Additionally, the group discussed how to address current policy and resources to enable such a partnership on scale.
To further the goal of SB 577, plans are in the works to conduct one or more regional seminars focusing on teacher preparation. The summits, hosted by the CCCCO and CSU System leadership, will tentatively be held in Central and Northern California and aim to bring together representatives of five of the CSU Education Schools, CCCs in the central valley and northern state, and regional K-12 leaders. Planned discussions will provide an opportunity for leaders in education to further discuss the current teacher preparation needs and explore a partnership with CSUs and CCCs as a solution for teacher credentialing.
Governor Appoints New Member to Board of Governors
Governor Brown appointed a new member to the Board of Governors in March. Darius Anderson, whose appointment requires Senate confirmation and will run until 2024, is founder and CEO of Kenwood Investments, LLC, a California Real Estate Development and Opportunity Fund.
Additionally, Mr. Anderson is also the founder and managing member of Sonoma Media Investments, LLC and founder and CEO of Platinum Advisors, a full-service government affairs firm providing lobbying, public affairs and strategic consulting to corporations, governments, trade associations and non-profit organizations.
2018 Proposed Legislation
Bills of Interest
SR 84 (de Leon)
The Senate Resolution passed the Senate and was adopted. The measure would resolve by the Senate of the State of California, that California residents eligible for in-state tuition and financial aid under the California Dream Act of 2011 are strongly encouraged to fill out the California Dream Act Application and continue the process of applying for college, in order to realize their full potential as productive, educated residents of our great state.
AB 3101 (Carrillo)
Assembly Bill 3101, introduced by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, would require the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges to revise the lengthy and complicated CCCApply application so that it is accessible and efficient for all applicants. AB 3101 will ensure that the Board of Governors starts the process of simplifying and shortening the CCCApply application. As the trusted leadership body of the CCC their expertise is critical to ensure the updates reflect the needs of prospective students. YCCD recently submitted a letter of support for AB 3101 to Assemblymember Carrillo.
AB 1935 (Irwin)
Assembly Bill 1935, introduced by Assemblymember Irwin, will increase student access to supervised tutoring by authorizing apportionment for students in credential/degree-applicable and transfer-level courses. Supervised tutoring has been shown to be an effective tool for colleges to support student in-class learning. Currently, colleges are allowed to receive funding for supervised tutoring in basic skills courses, such as remedial English or math, but not for those courses with which students can use toward a credential or for transfer.
AB 2891 (Holden)
Assembly Bill 2891, introduced by Assemblymember Chris R. Holden, ensures that students who attend a charter school are able to access concurrent enrollment programs with the goal of developing seamless pathways from high school to community college for career technical education or preparation for transfer, improving high school graduation rates, or helping high school pupils achieve college and career readiness. AB 2891 corrects an oversight in the 2015 concurrent enrollment reforms and ensure concurrent enrollment programs are accessible to all California public school students. With multiple dual enrollment programs within the district, YCCD committed to support this bill to ensure all public school students are given the opportunity to participate in a concurrent enrollment programs.
Chancellor’s Calendar
2 & 3 – Frank Gornick’s “Mock Accreditation Visits” for colleges
2 – Meeting with Trustee Pasquale
3 – Chancellor’s Cabinet
3 – District Consultation and Coordination (DC3) Meeting
4 – Meetings of the Facilities/Audit and Finance Committees
4 – Meeting with WCC President
5 – District Colleges Academic Senates (DCAS) Meeting
5 – Call with Senator Dodd’s staff regarding SB 577 (Teacher Credentialing)
5 – Meeting with Academic Senate Presidents
6 – ACCJC “Advanced ISER Training” (half-day each college)
10 – Chancellor’s Cabinet
10 – District Services Executive Team (DSET) Meeting
12 – Governing Board Retreat (Yuba County Government Center)
12 – Board Policy Committee Meeting
12 – Meeting of the Governing Board (Yuba College)
16 – Collective Bargaining Training for Cabinet/District Negotiating Team
17 – Chancellor’s Cabinet
17 – Meeting with Academic Senate Presidents
18 – Alliance Committee for Center on Teaching Careers (Sacramento)
18 & 19 – NFN Regional Consortium Meeting (Redding)
19 – District Colleges Academic Senates (DCAS) Meeting
19 – Meeting with College Presidents
20 – Meeting with North/Far-North Regional Consortium Chair
23 – 25 – CCC Veterans summit (Pomona)
30 – Meeting with CSU Chico President
30 – Academic Administrator Development Session