May 26, 2022, Agenda and Minutes

Board of Directors Meeting

Thursday, May 26, 2022, 6:30 p.m.
room B123/Convening Center, 500 Technology Way, Florence, KY 41042

Board Members Present: 
Mr. John Baines
Mr. Charles Coleman
Mr. Sam Collier
Mr. Erik Hermes
Ms. Ruth Howell
Mr. David Schoenling
Mr. Charles L. Session, Jr.
Mr. Joshua Wade

Board Members Absent: 
Mr. Larry Brown
Mr. John Hayden

Gateway and KCTCS Faculty and Staff Present:
Ms. Jane Frantz, Executive Assistant, President’s Office
Dr. Fernando Figueroa, President/CEO
Dr. Denise Fritsch, Dean of Institutional Effectiveness
Ms. Christi Godman, Associate Vice President, Workforce Solutions
Ms. Amy Hatfield, Associate Vice President, Human Resources
Ms. Adrijana Kowatsch, Vice President Development and External Relations
Mr. Larry Kraczek, Information Technology Specialist
Ms. Maddi Kues, Admissions Advisor/Recruiter
Mr. Doug Penix, Associate Vice President for Academic Services
Mr. Paul Tontillo, Director of Budget & Fiscal Services
Dr. Teri VonHandorf, Provost and Vice President, Academic Affairs
Ms. Ingrid Washington, Vice President, Student Affairs
Mr. Jamie Younger, Vice President, Administrative & Business Affairs

AGENDA

I.     CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE/MOMENT OF SILENCE/ROLL CALL
Chair John Baines called the meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. The board recited the Pledge of Allegiance and observed a moment of silence. Roll call was taken. The record will reflect that a quorum was present.

II.     MISSION MOMENT
Dr. Figueroa introduced Mr. Joshua Wade to speak to the board about his experience as a Gateway student and the student representative to the board during the 2021-2022 academic year. Mr. Wade expressed his thanks for the opportunity to serve on the board. He shared that he is a first generation college student and an adult learner. Through this experience he has learned that he has more potential than he originally thought. He grew up in central KY and likes to feel that his time is contributing to something. His Gateway story started at the beginning of the pandemic when he decided to improve his situation by going to school, and Gateway met him where he was. That was helpful because he didn’t know exactly where to start. The staff and support at Gateway made it very accessible for him to begin and succeed in college. He is almost finished with his associates degree and would like to transfer to NKU for a bachelor’s degree in environmental science or sociology. He wants to leave the world better than he found it.

As the outgoing student representative and Student Government Association President, he encouraged the board to focus on equity, accessibility, and community investment, noting that Gateway does a good job at those things already. Mr. Wade said that he has struggled with recent world events and sometimes wondered if he was in the right place, but his connections through Gateway have helped him see that we all have a part to play in the community and can contribute something.

Dr. Figueroa and Chair Baines thanked him for his service this year.          

III.     APPROVAL OF MINUTES
There being no questions or comments about the draft minutes from the April board meeting, Chair Baines called for a motion to approve the minutes from the April 7, 2022, meeting. Upon motion by Mr. Erik Hermes, and seconded by Mr. David Schoenling, a vote was taken to approve the April 7, 2022, minutes as presented. The vote was unanimous to approve.

IV.     COMMITTEE REPORTS
A.     Finance and Facilities Committee – Mr. Hermes
Committee Chair Hermes introduced Mr. Paul Tontillo to present a budget update that he presented to the committee. Mr. Tontillo said that they’ve incorporated committee feedback into the presentation. He shared slides and recalled that two years ago Gateway created a conservative budget and last year’s was “realistic.” They are labeling the 2022-2023 budget as “encouraged,” because enrollment numbers and other factors are giving a positive outlook.

Mr. Tontillo said that the three Gateway priorities for students are central to the decisions of allocating funds in the budget: access, curriculum, and removing barriers. The key assumptions for the budget are a state funding increase, driven by Gateway’s success in the Performance Funding model; a recurring pay raise expected from the Board of Regents June meeting; an increase in credit hours, driven by new programs and the Strategic Enrollment Management work; a tuition increase of 1.7%; an increase in the rate of state reimbursement for dual credit waivers; a one-time 1.1 million dollar investment from the fund balance for strategic investments; an increase to department budgets to account for inflation and support enrollment; and no further Covid stimulus grants.

Mr. Tontillo shared the sources of revenue and functions of expenses that balance at $24,846,900. The largest expense is instruction, followed by institutional support and student services. Student financial aid has decreased based in part on the smaller dollar amount required for dual credit waivers because the state increased the percentage of reimbursement. Another decrease in financial aid expense is the free tuition scholarship initiative from last spring. That is being evaluated before we offer it again.

The budget book page includes all the previously presented amounts and the restricted amounts, which include  the federal programs, such as Pell grants, that we don’t have any control over. The total budget is $37,094,600.

There being no questions about the budget, Mr. Hermes read Resolution 01-2021-2022 for FY 2022-2023, and called made a motion to approve it. Mr. Charlie Coleman seconded the motion, and the vote was unanimous to approve the budget resolution as presented.

B.     Nominating Committee – Mr. Coleman
Committee Chair Coleman reported that the Nominating committee selected Mr. John Baines to continue as Chair and Mr. Larry Brown to serve as Vice Chair. The officers will be voted on at the annual meeting on October 20, 2022.

C.     Performance Evaluation of the President Committee – Mr. Session
Board Chair Baines distributed the summary evaluation of Dr. Figueroa to the board members present in the Convening Center. Committee Chair Session (attending virtually on Teams) reported that the committee members are Mr. Sam Collier, Ms. Ruth Howell, and Mr. Charlie Coleman. The evaluation survey was provided to the board by the Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS.) The categories included institutional management, leadership management, educational leadership, internal relations, external relations, and college board relations. The committee added keys for success and opportunities to improve. The overall performance evaluation was Exceeds Expectations. The college was successful in overcoming challenges of Covid and achieving some key successes in areas of enrollment, partnerships, and sharing the story of Gateway to establish the brand.

Mr. Session welcomed questions and comments from the committee members. There being none, Mr. Session made a motion to approve the summary as presented, and to send it to KCTCS President Czarapata as required. Ms. Howell seconded, and the vote was unanimous to approve the President’s Performance Evaluation Summary as presented.

D.     Strategic Planning Development Committee – Mr. Collier
Committee Chair Collier reported that the committee met several times through the year. He thanked Mr. Younger and Dr. Denise Fritsch for their work with the committee. He asked Dr. Fritsch to share the college strategic plan as submitted to the Strategic Planning Development Committee. Dr. Fritsch shared a presentation that included the process developed and utilized by the Gateway Forward Steering Committee. They gathered stakeholder input, collected data, and worked to distill the findings into a clear strategic plan.

The strategic plan is in alignment with the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE) and Dr. Aaron Thompson’s goal for 60% or more of Kentuckians to achieve a postsecondary degree or certificate by 2030. The Gateway strategic plan is in alignment with the KCTCS strategic plan to increase learner, employment, and organization success. The Gateway strategic planning and development committee met throughout the year to provide insight and feedback.

It has been a common goal across the system to be very concise with the new strategic plans. Gateway’s four goals are to be accessible, supportive, relevant, and sustainable. A mnemonic for remembering the plan is All Students Realize Success. Dr. Fritsch detailed the objectives that follow from the four goals and provide a way to measure success. The objectives are to implement impactful marketing; engage with the community in providing educational opportunities; adapt to student needs; equip students to enter and excel in the workplace; and attract, retain, and value employees.

The board is being asked to approve the strategic plan. With board approval, the next steps are to develop action strategies, work with the Strategic Planning Development Committee to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) and advertise and promote the plan to stakeholders.

Discussion followed concerning the current 49.4% of Kentuckians who have postsecondary degrees and the progress toward the CPE 60% goal.

Mr. Collier made a motion to approve the Gateway Forward Strategic Plan 2022-2026 as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Hermes, and the vote unanimous to approve.

V.     BOARD MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
Chair Baines introduced Faculty Representative and Board Secretary Sam Collier to present his board member spotlight. Sam shared photos of trips he took as a scout and said that his family loved the outdoors. His dad was chemist at P&G and his mom was head of nursing at Miami University. Sam is very adventurous and found out through breaking things that he could fix many things, especially cars and things with motors. He enrolled at UC, but that didn’t work out, so he went to a technical college and got an associate degree in automotive business. He enjoyed a career working on cars and spent most of his personal time building and running engines. He then started teaching as an adjunct at Cincinnati State and in 2003 began teaching full-time at Gateway. He has one daughter who graduated from Gateway and is now working for a bachelor’s degree at NKU. He got a bachelor’s and master’s degree since joining Gateway.

Chair Baines introduced Staff Representative David Schoenling to present his board member spotlight. Dave shared that he is one of six children from a family in Cincinnati. He worked as a cable installer, formed his own crew, and expanded through several states with as many as 175 technicians. He was married with 2 children. In 2010 his wife passed away suddenly, which led to his decision to change his work to have more time with his kids. Previously he was unsuccessful in two attempts at going to college. This time he quit his job and went to school full-time. He visited Gateway, applied, and was on the Dean’s list every semester. He started working at Gateway as a student and has been full-time for several years. He is now married to a childhood friend and will start classes this fall for his bachelor’s degree at Morehead.

VI.     CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
Chair Baines reflected on his experience at Gateway’s Commencement when he observed community in action as each student walked across the stage and the families, faculty and staff cheered them on. He said he is proud to be part of organization that lives the mission of making a difference in people’s lives.

He presented proclamations of appreciation to celebrate the three outgoing members of the board, Mr. Joshua Wade, Mr. Sam Collier, and Mr. David Schoenling.

VII.     PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Dr. Figueroa updated the board on the SACSCOC accreditation reaffirmation process. He said that the offsite report feedback was favorable, with a request for more information in a few of the areas. The response to that request is the focused report, which will be submitted in July. The next step after that is the onsite visit in September, which will include a luncheon for board members to meet with the SACSCOC Vice President and onsite committee.

Dr. Figueroa shared that the Diversity Equity, and Inclusion report was submitted with the result being that Gateway is in good standing.

The KCTCS Board of Regents will meet June 9 and 10 in Owensboro to approve the full system budget of all colleges and the new strategic plan for the system and the colleges. The college Presidents will be there.

Dr. Figueroa introduced the new board representatives who will start at the September meeting. They are student rep. Ms. Haley Anderson, faculty rep. Dr. Justin Ervin, and staff rep. Ms. Maddi Kues.

Chair Baines will communicate plans for social gatherings over the summer.

VIII.     ADJOURNMENT
Chair Baines opened the floor for comments. Mr. Session thanked Mr. Schoenling and Mr. Collier for their service and sharing their stories.

Chair Baines called the meeting adjourned at 7:55 p.m.

Prepared by Ms. Jane Frantz, Recording Secretary

Important Dates to Remember

Board Meeting - Sept. 1, 2022

Board Meeting - October 20, 2022

Board Meeting - December 8, 2022