Board of Trustees Meeting

Location

Hybrid Meeting Format: offering both in-person and virtual meeting access

Minutes

Attendees

Board of Trustees: Chair Johnson, Vice Chair Swenson, Chair Exstrom, Trustee Bowman

Executive Cabinet: President Mosby, Acting President Penn, Ay Saechao, Danielle Slota, Emily Lardner, Josh Gerstman, Maribel Jimenez, Melanie Lawson, Michael Pham, Tim Wrye

Assistant Attorney General: Bruce Marvin

Study Session call to order: 9:10 a.m.

Discussion Topics

• 2025-26 Student fee schedule – 20 minutes – Dr. Michael Pham

• Athletic waiver – 15 minutes – Dr. Michael Pham

• Request for documented process of the athletic waiver selection process occurs

• What does success look like following an increase in the athletic waiver, why athletes – what are the principles behind the decision? Mission alignment

• JG spoke to the sphere of influence that 1 athlete recruit has. Way to engage female athletes that aren’t currently going to college post high school
• Like the idea of considering this a tuition waiver increase as a pilot

Unscheduled Business

Executive Session

• Executive Session*
• Tenure Recommendations – entered at 9:44 a.m. for twenty (20) minutes

*The Board, as and when deemed necessary, may call an Executive Session for appropriate purposes under the Open Meetings Act.

(g) To evaluate the qualifications of an applicant for public employment or to review the performance of a public employee. However, subject to RCW 42.30.140(4), discussion by a governing body of salaries, wages, and other conditions of employment to be generally applied within the agency shall occur in a meeting open to the public, and when a governing body elects to take final action hiring, setting the salary of an individual employee or class of employees, or discharging or disciplining an employee, that action shall be taken in a meeting open to the public;

Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m.

Board of Trustees Meeting

Location

Hybrid Meeting Format: offering both in-person and virtual meeting access

General Session called to order at 10:33 a.m.

General Session Minutes

Roll Call

Board of Trustees: Chair Johnson, Vice Chair Swenson, Chair Exstrom, Trustee Bowman

Executive Cabinet: President Mosby, Acting President Penn, Ay Saechao, Danielle Slota, Emily Lardner, Josh Gerstman, Maribel Jimenez, Melanie Lawson, Michael Pham, Tim Wrye

Approve minutes

Approve minutes of the regularly scheduled meetings of December 12, 2024 and the special meeting of December 19, 2024

Trustee Swenson motioned to approve, Trustee Extrom seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

Opportunity for public comment

None

Standing reports

• Highline College Education Association: Dr. James Peyton
  • Second week of winter quarter. Faculty busy supporting students getting the quarter underway. Faculty engaged in service such as tenure working committees, MLK, and club advisors
  • Looking at adjunct faculty needs for spring
  • Importance of faculty professional development – instructional technology, labor market change, community demographics change, workplace expectations change, course content changes, teaching modality/platform changes. The time needed for faculty learning is necessary. Highline’s support for faculty PD is better than a lot of places. There is high value in being able to participate at the national level. This is true about staff as well, advocated for more intention around staff professional development, specifically classified staff.
  • Change in the new federal administration is having an impact on students and employees.
  • Spoke to being a college of choice and the link to a well treated and high trust environment for employees. Noted that we may not be able to keep up with inflation due to budget but that we have to prioritize employee care to help balance that
• Washington Public Employees Association: Richard Cannefax
  • Spoke to staff that work more than one job and thanked Dr. Peyton for his comments about employee care.
  • Highline entered open bargaining for the WPEA contract.
  • Broader discussions with OFM has not made forward movement. No tentative agreement has been reached at the main table. To foster transparency and accountability WPEA has opened their side of the table to observers. Hopeful that OFM may be open to allowing administration to attend.
• Faculty Senate: Sangeeta Sangha
  • No report
• Associated Students of Highline College: Hussein Al-Badri
  • No report
• Highline College Foundation: Sharon Vail
  • Monthly Foundation Board meeting this week they will speak with four new individuals with interest in joining the board.
  • Looking forward to annual luncheon for Highline retirees
  • Spoke to nursing scholarships recently made available through a family donation of Highline faculty

Action items

Trustee Bowman motioned that probation be continued for the following second-year probationers: Mary Weir. Trustee Swenson seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Area reports

• • Administrative Services: VP Dr. Michael Pham
    • Hope for some good news under Governor Fergusson’s new budget proposal, currently no reduction outlined for community college in that proposal.
    • Acknowledged the work that our classified staff due to support our students and the colleges support in their work for fair wages at the main table.
  • Academic Affairs: VP Dr. Emily Lardner
    • Impact of Gen AI on the teaching and learning space. Time is required for faculty to learn. A year to focus on what gen AI means for our faculty and how to support time and space needed for them to do this.
  • Student Services: Acting VP Ay Saechao
    • Celebrated retirement of Nga Pham, International Student Programs Advisor, after thirty years with Highline College!
    • Spoke to increasing enrollment and celebrated that we are in the top ten. Active work being done to provide more and more funding to our students. Excited to continue growing enrollment through student funding.
  • Institutional Advancement: VP Josh Gerstman
    • Encouraged trustees to check out the online content being developed to feature students talking about “why Highline”.
    • Spoke to Senator Karen Kaiser’s retirement event
    • Invitations sent for the January 30 tri-college legislative reception following higher education day in Olympia – information learned that day can then be brought into upcoming conversations in Washington DC
  • Equity, Diversity and Transformation: VP Dra. Maribel Jimenez
    • Building an infrastructure in support of qualitative data in addition to the strong quantitative data structure in place. More to come!
• Trustee Swenson requested that if/when issues come up in working with leaders across the country in equity that those be brought to her as Chair for the ACCT Equity Committee

Discussion

None

President’s remarks

• Acting President Dr. Penn
  • spoke to the level of support she received from Executive Cabinet and the Board of Trustees during her time as Acting President.
  • LGBTQIA+ Task Force event hosted at the Federal Way HUB. Students, faculty and staff present. Learned about the mission of the task force with opportunities for folks to share their thoughts and experiences. Opportunities to discuss Safe Zone Training, Pink Pro, Lavender Graduation, Q Center, Queer Support Spaces, and the Q&A Club. Conversation was rich and welcoming was warm.
  • Commencement 2025 will be hosted at Emerald Downs on June 12, 2025 at 5 p.m. Committee members have come together and are moving forward with the planning.
• President Mosby
  • Expressed gratitude to Dr. Penn and Dean Saechao for stepping into their acting roles the way they did. Expressed gratitude to Dr. Larnder for her time as co-acting President, ED Lawson for helping him directly with leave navigation.
  • Prioritizing integrating himself into the legislative realm given the season.

Unscheduled business

None

New business

None

Adjournment

General Session was adjourned: 11:38 a.m.

Minutes Signed and Approved

The meeting minutes from January 16, 2025, were approved and signed into record by Chair Johnson and President John Mosby on February 27, 2025.

Mission Statement: As a South King County college striving for social justice, Highline College partners with global students as they envision, plan and achieve their educational and professional goals.