The Strategic Planning & Allocation of Resources Committee met on April 30, 2015. Vice President of Administrative Services Eloisa Briones, Academic Senate President Kate Brown and Dean of Planning, Research and Institutional Effectiveness Aaron McVean co-chaired the meeting.
District Strategic Plan
Dean of Planning, Research and Institutional Effectiveness Aaron McVean provided an update about the District Strategic Plan. This plan weaves together elements of the three colleges’ plans as well as Board directives, and will be our guiding document for the next five years. Addressed in the document are the four strategic goals, metrics (a.k.a. benchmarks) and district-wide strategies. The four strategic goals are: (1) develop and strengthen new educational offerings, interventions, and support programs that increase student success; (2) establish and expand relationships with school districts, four-year college partners, and community based organizations to increase higher education attainment throughout San Mateo County; (3) expand program delivery options including the expanded use of instructional technology to support student learning and scheduling options; and (4) increase entrepreneurial actions across the district to provide new revenue sources.
Three forums have been held to solicit campus input, and the fourth and final one will be next Tuesday, May 5, from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. in Room 6-202. The presidents, researchers and Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Blackwood will review the process so far and will provide handouts with the goals, metrics and strategies for your feedback. You may read the entire draft report at http://smccd.edu/strategicplanning/SMCCCD%20Strategic%20Plan%20Clean%2023April15.pdf. It is still a draft and your input is important to its final version! More information is on the Strategic Planning website at http://smccd.edu/strategicplanning/index.php.
Report from District Committee on Budget and Finance
Barbara Lamson and Linda Whitten reported highlights of the DCBF discussions during its meeting on April 21, 2015. Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Blackwood announced that actual state revenues far exceed the LAO projections by $1.3 billion and that the proposed statutory COLA was reduced from $1.58% to 1.2%. There is an expectation that one-time funds will be allocated, the question is how. As a community-supported district, SMCCCD will not receive any funding that goes into the base allocation. It would if these funds are allocated as restricted. We will know more after the May Revise.
2015-2016 Tentative Budget
Vice President of Administrative Services Eloisa Briones reviewed the changes in the district budget assumptions that Executive Vice Chancellor Kathy Blackwood made and presented to SPARC during its April 8th meeting. The revisions resulted in a significant reduction of the projected district deficit over the next three years. As a result, site allocations are not reduced, but slightly increase over the same period. Kathy still advised the three colleges to budget cautiously and to continue to delay hiring. We are optimistic that there will be one-time funds when the May Revise is announced.
Using Kathy’s revised projections, Eloisa updated and presented the college’s three-year projections to show how the college budget would look like considering the expiration of Measure G funding and diminishing allocations for Prop 30. These revised projections show that the college will still face a deficit assuming not all vacant positions are replaced. The committee requested Eloisa to present different scenarios for review at the next meeting. As part of its charge, SPARC will review these scenarios and make a recommendation to the College Governance Council of a balanced tentative budget for 2015-2016.
Next Meeting
The next scheduled meeting is on May 14, 2015.
