Area Report for Board of Trustees

Core Theme 1: ACCESS, Reduce barriers and close equity gaps to access for all community members, and,

Core Theme 2: STUDENT LEARNING, Increase educational success, collaborate to improve

• As part of recent OCR audit, Facilities is planning various furniture upgrades to ensure ADA compliance in classrooms and instructional labs.
• Public Safety was invited to make presentations at several student orientations. This outreach allows us to share with new students the various services offered by the department, including vehicle assistance, safety escorts, and emergency response information. In addition to providing information, Public Safety also handed out steering wheel locks to students with vehicles susceptible to theft.

Core Theme 3: COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS, Create a more inclusive working environment and a more valued, visible relationship with communities we serve, and,

Core Theme 4: CULTURE & CAPACITY, Promote a campus culture which fosters equity and inclusivity supporting employee growth and development, and institutional capacity and transformation

• Facilities has engaged an architect for the renovation of Building 3 into faculty offices. Preliminary schedule is currently planned for January 2027 with completion estimated by summer 2027.
• Facilities has also contracted with McGranahan Architects to conduct more detailed space planning for Building 0 to determine feasibility of fit and use.
• Facilities is planning a (major) second phase of infrastructure improvement to our underground storm and sewer. Actual work is estimated to begin this summer with a total cost estimate of approximately $4 million – to be funded by state capital funding.
• Public Safety and Sound Transit have agreed to coordinate and collaborate on safety responses at the Kent-Des Moines Light Rail station and Highline College campus. We will be holding quarterly meetings to share and address respective concerns.
• Public Safety hosted an “active shooter response” training with the Seattle FBI Office trainers on March 18th.  Over 30 of our employees attended the training session.
• The revised Policy Development proposal is being submitted to the Board for discussion and input.
• As part of our international outreach, Vice President Josh Gerstman and three of our faculty went to Beijing and Shanghai, China on April 10th to visit some of our educational partners.  While I could not accompany them on the trip, Tiffany Huang, Associate Director of International Student Programs, was exceptional in planning and preparing the logistics for the group. We look forward to Josh’s and the faculty’s reports upon their return.
• Performance evaluations of my direct reports were all completed by the March 31st deadline. This has been a change from previous years when annual performance evaluations were due in August.

FISCAL & BUDGET

• Finance has submitted the 2025 Financial Statements to the State Auditor’s Office on April 1, 2026, to begin the audit process. Prior to the submission, I reviewed the statements with Stefan Feller, Director of Finance, and Cathy Cartwright, Accounting Faculty (also former Director of Finance).
• I attended the SBCTC-hosted FY27 allocation projection workshop on March 20th and a deep-dive of the FY27 allocation model on April 1st. Effective July 1, 2026, the system will transition toward a new (resource) allocation model – with budget implications for all colleges.
• Dr. Jamilyn Penn and I hosted the Campus Budget Forum on April 7th to discuss the state of budget as well as the budget planning process.

Report submitted by Vice President of Administrative Services, Dr. Michael Pham