Trustees make district decisions

The Dallas County Community College District board of trustees held a regular meeting on Sep. 6, where they discussed proposed board priorities, the new 2011-12 budget and financial aid.

Five board priorities that have to do with student and employee success within the district were presented for approval at the meeting: 1) Meet the educational needs of Dallas County, 2) Empower students to meet success milestones, 3) Demonstrate leadership in the national student success agenda, 4) Empower employees for success, 5) Achieve organizational effectiveness.

"We have gone through a severe reduction in state funding," Dr. Wright Lassiter, chancellor of the DCCCD, said at the meeting.

"We have gone to implement voluntary retirement incentive programs; there have been a number of resignations and a minimal number of employee lay-offs. All of this speaks to, in our part, the need to be concerned with employees and to begin the restructure of the overall district."

The board of trustees explained that they have developed specific strategies, measures, definitions and timelines to ensure that the district meets these goals and to indicate the "concern and focus of student success."

The trustees also approved a $465 million budget for the 2011-12 school year. Due to a decrease in state funding, the budget is significantly less compared to the $500 million allotted for the previous school year. According to the Dallas Morning News, the budget shortfall will affect faculty members from all seven campuses who plan on teaching summer courses.

Summer instructors receive formula pay, which is a percentage of a teacher's regular salary of about $40,000 to $60,000. In the past, instructors had the option of teaching two courses at a rate determined by their salaries, with additional courses at an adjunct rate of $1,969.

With the new budget in place, summer instructors will only be able to teach the first course for the formula pay rate and all additional courses will be taught for the adjunct rate.

In an August board meeting, alternatives to the formula pay cut, such as a 1 percent across-the-board faculty pay cut and an increase in work hours, were presented. The trustees also approved a change of tax rate from $0.778 to $0.789 per $100 valuation in order to generate the same revenue as the previous year.

Financial aid was one of the final issues discussed at the meeting. According to the trustees, out of the 55,000 students who applied for financial aid, 36,000 enrolled in DCCCD. As of Sept. 9, more than 26,000 students were awarded with financial awards in the form of Pell aids and other available funding.

According to a trustee, 92 percent of students were awarded with aid last year. A number of students are still in the verification process for financial aid, but solutions to improve the process are also being put in place. The call center issues will be resolved within the year and the verification process should be much more efficient, providing students with a longer window of time to determine their eligibility statuses.