2019-2020 District Convocation
The 2019-2020 District Services Convocation was held on Tuesday, August 6th at the Sutter County Campus. District Services employees gathered together to open the 2019-2020 academic year and participate in several beneficial training’s including sessions on the YCCD Injury & Illness Prevention Program, Team Dynamix, Adobe Acrobat, Managing Work-Related Stress, and the upcoming Self-Service.
Chancellor Houston provided a State of the District update, welcoming new District Services employees, and reiterating the Board of Trustees commitment to the Board of Governors Vision for Success Goals. Chancellor Houston offered a great big thank you to the District Services staff for their role in the success College Accreditation visits. Both Yuba College and Woodland Community College received re-accreditation for seven years. He concluded his State of the District with a short overview of the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 and beyond priorities including Guided Pathways, Developmental Education Reform (AB 705), Strategic Enrollment Management and the development of a next generation strategic plan.
District Services staff also attended a session on the topic of Personal Biases presented by Dr. Mikael Villalobos. Dr. Villalobos currently serves as the Associate Chief Diversity Officer at UC Davis in the Office of Campus Community Relations, a unit in the Office of the Chancellor. Dr. Villalobos discussed the theory and language in understanding bias, both implicit and explicit, learning to recognize when we engage in biased behavior, and how to mitigate biases in both personal and professional domains.
The 2020-2021 District Services Convocation is scheduled for Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at the Sutter County Center.
Governor Newsom Announces Council on Postsecondary Education
Governor Newsom recently announced the membership of his Council on Postsecondary Education. The Council will serve as an independent consultative resource to the Governor around the economic and social impact of higher education in California. The Council’s role is to examine issues relating to future capacity, enrollment planning, community college transfers, general education and coordination at the state and regional levels as well as to make recommendations to the Governor for action.
The Council includes Chancellor Oakley of the California Community Colleges, Chancellor White from the California State University and President Napolitano from the University of California as well as the following members:
- Kristen Soares, President, Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities
- Tony Thurmond, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction
- Linda Darling-Hammond, President, California State Board of Education
- Allan Zaremberg, President and Chief Executive Officer, CalChamber
- Art Pulaski, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, California Labor Federation
- Lenny Mendonca, Governor’s Chief Economic and Business Advisor
- Keely Bosler, Director, California Department of Finance
- Lande Ajose, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the Governor
Assemblyman Evan Low’s bill to create a Commission on Higher Education Oversight and Accountability is unlikely to gain the support of Governor Newsom with the creation of the Council on Postsecondary Education. The Governor has tasked his Council with many of the responsibilities that are in AB 130 (Low).
District Newsletter
The District Newsletter is intended to share updates from various participatory District-wide decision-making groups, Board Policies and Administrative Procedures, updates from Cabinet, District Services, Fiscal Services, Information Technology, M&O, and Human Resources. The September 2019 District Newsletter is available here: District Newsletter.
Legislative Update
Bills of Interest
AB 2 (Santiago) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations with technical amendments and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would provide that a student who is enrolled in fewer than 12 units may be deemed “fulltime” at the discretion of the institution if the student has been certified as “fulltime” by a staff person in the disabled student services program at the institution who is qualified to make such a designation.
AB 30 (Holden) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would streamline the process for entering into a CCAP dual enrollment agreement with a K-12 school.
AB 48 (O’Donnell) – This bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee and will go to Senate Rules. The measure would put a $13 billion K-14 education bond on the March 2020 ballot.
AB 59 (Kalra)– This bill passed Senate Appropriations Committee and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require a local elections official to give preference to additional locations on California Community College campuses and private university campuses for the purposes of providing an election center.
AB 130 (Low) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would establish the Higher Education Performance and Accountability Commission, composed of six public members with experience in postsecondary education, appointed, as the statewide postsecondary education coordination and planning entity. The bill would require the commission to develop an independent annual report on the condition of higher education in California, as provided. The bill would establish other functions and responsibilities of the commission, which would include specified advisory duties and acting as a clearinghouse for postsecondary education information.
AB 211 (Calderon) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would allow under law that a deduction against gross income in the amount equal to the monetary contribution made by a qualified taxpayer to the California qualified tuition program established pursuant to the Golden State Scholarshare Truste Act not to exceed either $5,000 or $10,000. The bill would require the Scholarshare Investment Board to report to the Legislature, on an annual basis, specified data related to this deduction and Scholarshare accounts.
AB 302 (Berman) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations as amended to delay implementation date, exempt parking lots that are near elementary schools and provide that districts may opt out if they do one of three provisions provided in the bill. The bill would require community college districts to maintain their parking lots for students to sleep in their cars overnight.
AB 314 (Bonta) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would expand and uniformly apply time-off without loss of compensation to public employees to engage in specified activities related to employer-employee relations.
AB 463 (Cervantes) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require the chancellor’s office to develop and provide community college districts specified materials designed to increase awareness of the federal Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program among community college faculty members. The bill would require the governing board of a community college district to annually provide the materials to those faculty members. The bill would require a community college district to annually provide a faculty member who is enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program with notice of renewal and a copy of the employment certification form required to be completed for purposes of the program, with the employer portion of the form already completed.
AB 500 (Gonzalez) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require school districts, charter schools and community colleges provide at least six weeks of full pay for pregnancy-related leaves of absence taken by certificated, academic, and classified employees.
AB 540 (Limon) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would establish, commending with the 2020-21 academic year, the Cal Grant B Service Incentive Grant Program under the administration of the Student Aid Commission. The bill would require a participating student, in order to receive a grant award under the program, among other requirements, to be a recipient of a Cal Grant B award; to be enrolled as a student at a campus of the University of California, the California State University, or the California Community Colleges, or at an independent institution of higher education, as defined; and to perform at least 100 hours per quarter or 150 hours per semester of community or volunteer service.
AB 612 (Weber) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize the State Department of Social Services to enter into a statewide memorandum of understanding with the California Community College system to prevent hunger among college students who are homeless, elderly, and disabled, and to facilitate compliance with specified provisions. Existing law also authorizes any qualifying food facility located on a campus of a community college to participate in the CalFresh RMP through this statewide memorandum of understanding, even if the facility is located in a county that does not participate in the RMP. The bill would require the department to implement its provisions by all-county letter or similar instruction until regulations are adopted and to adopt regulations implementing the bill on or before February 1, 2021.
AB 695 (Medina) – This bill was amended to include provisions that would extend the Civic Center Act. The bill would extend the authorization for community college districts to enter into design-build contracts to January 1, 2030.
AB 710 (Cervantes) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations with amendments to allow flexibility with housing cost calculation; the bill will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require institutions in the California Community Colleges, California State University, or the University of California systems, independent institutions of higher education, and private postsecondary educational institutions to each calculate and include at a minimum, certain items, including room and board, in a calculation of a full-time student’s cost of attendance at that institution.
AB 720 (Muratsuchi) – This bill was held in Senate Appropriations Committee and will no longer be moving through the process. The bill would provide that instruction by community college districts under instructional service agreements with public safety agencies would be funded under the apportionment formula used for instruction in career development and college preparation.
AB 806 (Bloom) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would add former homeless youth to the students to be granted, or requested to be granted, priority enrollment. This bill would add former homeless youth to the students with whom a Homeless and Foster Student Liaison works. This bill would add former homeless youth to those served by the specified financial aid programs. This bill would add persons who are, at the time of enrollment, former homeless youth to those eligible for an enrollment fee waiver.
AB 943 (Chiu) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize the use of funding for student equity plans, up to $25,000 of apportionment funds per campus, or both, for the provision of emergency student financial assistance to eligible students to overcome unforeseen financial challenges that would directly impact a student’s ability to persist in the student’s course of study if emergency student financial assistance is included in an institution’s plan for interventions to students.
AB 963 (Petrie-Norris) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations with amendments to reduce reporting requirements; the bill will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require each campus of the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and requests the University of California (1) to include on all print and online academic calendars all civic-related dates, including specified voting- and registration-related dates, (2) to engage in an information campaign relating to civic engagement, and (3) to designate one faculty member, staff member, or administrative person as the Civic Engagement and Voter Director with specified responsibilities.
AB 1051 (Smith) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize the employment of a temporary faculty member serving as full-time clinical nursing faculty or as part-time clinical nursing faculty by any one community college district for up to 4 semesters or 6 quarters indefinitely. The bill would also require each community college district that employs these faculty members to report the specified information on or before June 30 of each year, and would require the chancellor’s office to report its information on or before September 30 of each year.
AB 1090 (Medina) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require community colleges and CSUs to excuse any mandatory campus-based fees for those surviving spouses and children of a deceased person who was a resident of the state and employed by or contracting with a public agency, whose principal duties consisted of active law enforcement service or active fire suppression and prevention, and who died as a result of their duties.
AB 1153 (Wicks) – This bill passed out of Senate Appropriations with clarifying amendments. The bill would establish the Mandated Child Abuse Reporting Employee Training Act of 2020, which would require each governing board of a community college district to: (1) annually train, using an online training module developed by the State Department of Education, or other training, as specified, employees and administrators of the district who are mandated reporters on the mandated reporting requirements, as specified; (2) develop a process for those persons required to receive training under the bill to provide proof of completing this training within the first six weeks of each academic year or within six weeks of that person’s employment; and (3) develop a process to identify the students who are minors enrolled in classes at the community college district and provide that information only to faculty members and other employees who are mandated reporters.
AB 1308 (Cunningham) – This bill passed Senate Government Organization and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would allow a qualified student to taste an alcoholic beverage and exempts the student and the qualified academic institution in which the student is enrolled from criminal prosecution if the qualified academic institution has established an Associate’s degree or Bachelor’s degree program in hotel management or culinary arts.
AB 1313 (Rivas) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would prohibit a school from refusing to provide a transcript for a current or former student on the grounds that the student owes a debt, conditioning the provision of a transcript on the payment of a debt, charging a higher fee for obtaining a transcript, providing less favorable treatment of a transcript request because a student owes a debt, or using a transcript issuance as a tool for debt collection.
AB 1353 (Wicks) – The bill passed the Senate and went back to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments. The bill would shorten the maximum length of a prescribed period of probation from not exceeding one year to not exceeding six months or 130 days of paid service, whichever is longer.
AB 1466 (Irwin) – This bill passed Senate Labor, Public Employment & Retirement and will go to Senate Appropriations. The bill would require the Governor to convene a taskforce on the establishment of a statewide student longitudinal database, with specified representatives from various segments in, and representatives of, the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education systems in the state and from the state agencies relating to the workforce. The bill would authorize the taskforce to establish working groups that include outside stakeholders to address topics as determined by the taskforce. The bill would require the taskforce to initially meet on or before July 1, 2020, and would specify objectives for the taskforce to meet within timeframes set forth in the bill, including developing a plan for a scope of work and preparing a report with recommendations by the taskforce of an implementation plan for the structure of, governance of, access to, and metrics included in, a database system. This bill would require the taskforce to submit the report to the Legislature and the Governor on or before July 1, 2022.
AB 1504 (Medina) – This bill was concurred in Senate amendments in the Assembly and will go to the Governor. The bill would require the officials at a community college, if a student body association has been established at the college, to collect a student representation fee of $2 at the time of registration, and would eliminate the authorization for a student election to terminate the fee. This bill would require that $1 of the $2 fee be expended to establish and support the operation of a statewide community college organization for all student representation fees collected, rather than only for those fees adopted on or after January 1, 2014.
AB 1518 (Chu) – This bill passed Senate Judiciary and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize a student athlete to enter into a contract with an athlete agent without losing their status as a student athlete, if the contract complies with the policy of the student athlete’s educational institution and the bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The bill would authorize an athlete agent or their representative to offer or provide money or any other thing of benefit or value to a student athlete if it is authorized and complies with the policy of the student athlete’s educational institution and the bylaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
AB 1645 (Rubio) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would require the California Community Colleges and the California State University, and request the University of California, to designate a Dreamer Resource Liaison on each of their respective campuses, as specified, to assist students meeting specified requirements, including undocumented students, by streamlining access to all available financial aid, social services, state-funded immigration legal services, internships, externships, and academic opportunities for those students.
AB 1727 (Weber) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize the calculation of attendance for Career Development and College Preparation courses by census date.
AB 1729 (Smith) – This bill was placed in the Senate Appropriations suspense file. The bill would exempt from the 5% limitation pupils who are enrolled in community college dual enrollment courses, and would explicitly provide that the 5% limitation apply to pupils enrolled in physical education courses at the community college.
AB 1774 (Bonta) – This bill passed Senate Appropriations and will go to the Senate floor. The bill would authorize the Student Aid Commission to grant a postponement of an application deadline of up to 30 calendar days for any financial aid program administered by the commission. This authority would apply if the commission receives a formal request to extend a deadline from a designated educational official and the commission finds that a qualifying event has occurred that, in judgment of the commission, has had an adverse effect on the ability of pupils or students within a school district, community college district, or an area or region within the state, such as a city or county, to successfully complete and submit their financial aid applications by the established application deadline.
SB 3 (Allen) – This was held as a two-year bill. The bill would establish the Office of Higher Education Coordination, Accountability, and Performance. The bill would give the office specified functions and responsibilities for purposes of statewide postsecondary education planning, oversight, data collection, and coordination.
SB 150 (Beall) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations with amendments to remove the authority of the California Student Aid Commission to reduce the amount available for grants. The bill would authorize the Student Aid Commission to make initial award offers of Chafee Educational and Training Vouchers Program of up to 200% of total state and federal program funding available for all awards, with the number of initial award offers and the amount of the award to be determined based on the historical rate of award acceptance.
SB 296 (Allen) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations and will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would provide eligibility for a Cal Grant to a noncitizen who has filed a designated application for asylum, has a valid employment authorization document and social security number, and has signed an affidavit.
SB 390 (Umberg) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations and will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would require school security officers and security guards for school districts and community college districts to complete that training course regardless of the number of hours worked per week and to complete the training course annually. The bill would require, by January 1, 2021, the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, in consultation with the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training, to update the training to reflect current school district and community college district security standards.
SB 462 (Stern) – This bill was held in Assembly Appropriations and will no longer be moving through the process. The bill would require the Chancellor’s Office of the California Community Colleges, working in collaboration with the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges, to establish a model curriculum for a forestland restoration workforce program that could be offered at campuses of the California Community Colleges.
SB 484 (Portantino) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations with amendments to require compliance by Fall 2020; the bill will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would require the governing board of each community college district to direct the appropriate officials at their respective campuses to (1) identify those students who have completed an associate degree for transfer, (2) notify those students of their completion of the degree requirements, (3) automatically award those students the degree, and (4) add those students to an identification system at the end of each academic year that the Office of the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges shall maintain and that can be accessed electronically by the California State University and the University of California. The bill would authorize a student to affirmatively exercise an option to not receive an associate degree for transfer or to not be included in the identification system.
SB 554 (Roth) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations and will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would authorize the governing board of a school district overseeing an adult education program or the governing board of a community college district overseeing a noncredit program to authorize a student pursuing a high school diploma or a high school equivalency certificate to enroll as a special part-time student at a community college.
SB 568 (Portantino) – This bill was concurred in Assembly amendments in the Senate and will go to the Governor. The bill would authorize Glendale Community College’s governing board, pursuant to a memorandum of understanding, to provide that April 24 shall be a Glendale College holiday known as “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”
SB 575 (Bradford) – This bill passed Assembly Appropriations and will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would repeal prohibition against a student who is incarcerated from being eligible to receive a Cal Grant award.
SB 660 (Pan) – This bill was held in Assembly Appropriations as a two-year bill. The bill would require the Trustees of the California State University and the governing board of each community college district to have one full-time equivalent mental health counselor with an applicable California license per 1,500 students enrolled at each of their respective campuses to the extent consistent with state and federal law. The bill would define mental health counselor for purposes of this provision.
SB 716 (Mitchell) – This bill passed out of Assembly Appropriations and will go to the Assembly floor. The bill would require a county probation department, in collaboration with the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, to ensure that juveniles with a high school diploma or California high school equivalency certificate who are detained in, or committed to, a juvenile hall, ranch, camp, or forestry camp have access to a full array of postsecondary academic and career technical education programs of their choice. This bill would also require the Division of Juvenile Facilities, in collaboration with the California Community Colleges, the California State University, and the University of California, to ensure that youth with a high school diploma or California high school equivalency certificate who are detained in, or committed to, a Division of Juvenile Facilities facility have access to a full array of postsecondary academic and career technical education programs of their choice.
Chancellor’s Calendar
September 2019
2 – Labor Day Holiday (District Offices closed)
3 – Chancellor’s Cabinet
3 – District Consultation Council (DC3)
4 – Meetings of the Facilities/Audit and Finance Committees
4 – Special Board Meeting (to review Bond election survey results)
4 – Meeting with Trustee Wheeler
5 – District, Colleges, Academic Senate (DCAS) Leadership Meeting
5 – ACCCA Executive Committee monthly call
6 – Interviews with architectural firms for WCC Performing Arts / Culinary Services facility
10 – 2nd Interviews for WCC Vice President
10 – Open Forum at WCC
11 – District Management Council (DMC) Professional Development
12 – ACCCA Board Meeting
12 – Meeting of the Policy/Student Success Committee
12 – Regular Board Meeting of the Governing Board
13 – Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall Ceremony
17 – Chancellor’s Cabinet
17 – Meeting with Trustee Pasquale
18 – Reception for WCC President Pimentel Gibson House – Woodland)
19 – District, Colleges, Academic Senate (DCAS) Leadership Meeting
24 – Chancellor’s Cabinet Planning Retreat
25 – WEDPAC/EDPAC Meeting
25 – Meeting with Trustee Alves
26 – Meeting with Board’s Ad Hoc Committee for WCC Facility
30 – Meeting with Trustee Teagarden
