By Kaitlyn Skrzypczak, Editor-in-Chief.
The Delta College Board of Trustees is working on making changes to their bylaws, the rules that govern the board. At their meeting, Tuesday, Nov. 11 Michael D. Rowley, the Board Vice Chair, discussed the five changes brought forth for approval.
The first proposed change would be to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) procedures. It was recommend that President Jean Goodnow be in charge of FOIA appeals. The second proposed change was to the procedure to call meetings. “How do you go about doing it, and how do you make sure it happens in a reasonable time frame,” asked Rowley. The third proposed change was clarifying the procedure to add items to the agenda. The fourth proposed change was on how to fill vacancies on the board, in light of no one running on the ballot for the Nov. 4 Board of Trustees election. The fifth proposed change was inserting the word “open” into one of the bylaws so that board members participating telephonically can only do so if it is an open meeting.
These proposed changes were not voted on at the meeting, but were the first reading to the board. The Board of Trustees will hold more meetings in the future to go over the potential bylaw changes.
The board voted to approve revisions that clarify their Operating Parameters at the meeting. According to Rowley, the law doesn’t specify how closed session meetings are to be handled. The board decided that they can only vote to go into a closed session within an open meeting and they must state the reason behind it. They also stated that materials provided to them in a closed session need to be given back before the open meeting resumes.
The board also approved the purchase of sixty tool kits at a total cost of $165,281 from Euclid Automotive Supply, Inc. According to a memo from Barbara Webb, Director of Business Services, to the Board of Trustees, the Automotive Service Technology Program will begin a new tool and certification fee for enrolled students in winter 2015.
“The concept of this tool course fee is to spread out the cost of a baseline tool package over all of the courses in the two year program. Students will be allowed to use these tools during the two years that they’re in the program and upon successful completion of the credit hours (both certificate and associates) required for the program, the students then own the tools,” according to the memo.
Other topics at the Nov. 11 dinner and board meetings include:
- The approval of the annual financial statements and audit for the 2013-2014 fiscal year
- Board Chair Robert Stafford nominated Robert Emrich, Kimberly Houston-Philpot, and Earl Selby to serve on the nominating committee that will elect the new board chair once Stafford has left.
- A “Student Success Through Serving the Needs of Area Employers” presentation by Mike Finelli and Harvey Schneider.
- A presentation on the STEM Explorer bus and its future goals by Pam Clark, Scott Schultz and Mike Finelli)
