Area Report for Board of Trustees
We have begun our budget planning for the FY24 with a budget retreat kickoff for Executive Cabinet on February 2nd. The Budget Advisory Council, comprising of faculty, staff, and student members, also held our first meeting to prepare for the budget planning cycle. In addition, a campus budget forum was scheduled for February 22nd to inform the campus community of the upcoming budget planning process. The Budget Planning Calendar is included here for the Board’s reference.
The 2nd Quarter Financial Report is being submitted here in February for the Board to review. As mentioned previously, the College typically uses the 2nd Quarter Financial Report as the starting point for our upcoming budget planning process.
Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce Barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members
Facilities: As part of our “grand” agreement with Sound Transit and the City of Des Moines, a new three-lane road connecting the future Kent-Des Moines light rail station to the future Highline College main entrance (including a round-about), is expected to be constructed between late 2023 to mid-2024. The architectural team anticipates finalizing the designs in Spring 2023.
Public Safety: In an effort to increase engagement and outreach to ESOL students (English Speakers of Other Languages), the Public Safety Office in collaboration with ITS has purchased a new emergency communications platform. Regroup Mass Notification System is currently in the implementation stage, with Public Safety and ITS teams participating in weekly meetings during the development phase. This will provide the college a fast, reliable, and easy-to-use emergency/mass notification system to ensure the safety of the campus community.
Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve.
Facilities: The “Campus Master Plan 2030” draft was submitted to Executive Cabinet for review in early February. We look forward to introducing it to the Board in March as well as to the campus community.
Public Safety: Public Safety, in collaboration with the Facilities Department, was able to secure a contract with Blink Charging to install four (4) electric vehicle chargers in the South Parking Lot. The chargers are in line with the Governor’s initiative to make electric vehicles and charging infrastructure more available and convenient. The South Lot chargers would be available for use by our college community as well as the public. The charger locations would also show up on (online) charging maps, to help increase our presence within the Des Moines community. In a related matter, Public Safety has recently been approved by the Department of Enterprise Services to change the current patrol vehicle to an all-electric vehicle, meeting executive order 21-04 for zero-emission state vehicles.
Global Programs: We are in the planning process for the second “Faculty Experiential Learning” trip to Vietnam in late March 2023. Eleven (11) faculty from across a wide range of disciplines, including math, geology, chemistry, biology, arts, and ELCAP, will be visiting our partnered educational institutions as well as participating in various cultural events. Where and when appropriate, the faculty may also assist with student recruitment activities. The trip is primarily funded by faculty professional development fund allotments.
Auxiliary: The bookstore was able to offer books by visiting poet Jane Wong as part of the Student Poetry Contest Launch: Panel and Workshop.
Division Honors and Achievements
Facilities: It is my pleasure to announce the promotion of Mr. Phuoc Dinh to Custodian Lead from his previous position of Custodian 3.
Finance: It is also a great pleasure to announce the appointment of Mr. Trung Le as Accounting Manager for Finance Department. He has served as interim Accounting Manager since January 2022. In addition, I also would like to welcome (back) Ms. Victoria Solano as Cashier Manager. She will be responsible for all of cashiering operations but also importantly student financial processes. We are definitely very happy to have both Trung and Victoria as part of our Finance leadership team.
Report submitted on Feb 18, 202s by Vice President of Administrative Services, Dr. Michael Pham