The payroll conversion project is proceeding on schedule.  We are testing about 60 staff members to make sure that the net earnings are matching what occurs in the Fresno County System and so far those tests are working well.

 

H.R. is attaching the staff to the appropriate benefits codes and setting up the position control titles also.

SAM Basement Records Project:

On May 7th and 8th district business services staff along with West Hills College Coalinga and other district department managers tackled the old records in the Speech Arts and Music Building basement.  This was a huge undertaking, as many of the records dated back as far as the 50s and many are in bad shape due to a few basement floods over the years.  The project removed all records stored in the basement.  College and district staff were on hand to identify records to be immediately shreded or to be scanned as a permanent record.  Records identified as permanent records were scanned using the district's Hershey system and will allow staff access to these records via the web.  

 

WHCCD Risk Management Committee:

The WHCCD Risk Management Committee has begun their regular monthly meetings after completing the WHCCD Emergency Response Plan and drills.  They will be working on completing the remaining OSHA required plans that include: Bloodborne Pathogens, Hazard Communication, Confined Spaces Program and other required plans.  The goal is to have all of the required district plans in place before the calendar year is over. 

 

Coming soon you will be able to access all of the district’s required plans and programs on the West Hills College Web site.

May 18th through the 24th is Classified School Employee Week, included below is some history about the week for reference.

 

Since CSEA’s founding in 1927, members have strived to make their communities aware of classified employees’ contributions to public education.

 

Gov. Ronald Reagan first proclaimed Classified School Employee Week in 1969, stating that, "The classified employee is proud of his status and the integral part he plays in the total field of education throughout the State of California."

 

In 1984, CSEA members passed a resolution to establish an official recognition week and a year later it was adopted as a state-sponsored resolution. In 1986, Senate Bill 1552 (Campbell) permanently solidified Classified School Employee Week as an annual week of statewide recognition.

 

Bill sponsor William Campbell said, “I urge all citizens to work closely to take time out and to think about school days and recall the efforts of the bus drivers, secretaries, custodians and all the other classified staff they met and knew. As much as any other group of employees, the classified school staff is a valued and integral part of our public schools system and their work is vital to our children’s success.”

 

The ensuing recognition led to newspaper articles and resolutions by local school districts. There were picnics, award ceremonies and other events. Today, the tradition continues as schools up and down the state celebrate the third week in May as Classified School Employee Week.

The Harris Ranch ballroom was packed on May 2 to celebrate the career of Faye Mendenhall who retires from WHCCD on June 30. Student athletes flew in from as far away as Hawaii to tell Faye of the impact she had on their lives. It was a night of love, respect and joyous tears. No one is more deserving. If you haven’t had a chance to read the article in the Fresno Bee, here’s the link: http://www.fresnobee.com/columnists/james/v-printerfriendly/story/573459.html

 

In April at the spring Community College Association Conference, WHCFA received an award for membership recruitment and support. At the conference, Scott Sutherland, an English instructor, was enrolled in the CCA Academy for Building Strong Locals.

Financial aid held its annual retreat on Friday, April 5, 2008, at Tachi Palace in the Saltgrass Conference Room.  The annual retreat brought financial aid departments from all campuses together in the morning to review the year’s key performance indicators. All the staff then join together to celebrate the year’s accomplishments and discuss preliminary planning about key issues and new initiatives for the coming year. The staff also enjoyed a day filled with team building exercises lead by Mark Gotsch, EdFund trainer and the True Colors series, taught by our very own Joel Ruble, WHC instructor.  Our theme for this year’s retreat was “Building Bridges to Success in Financial Aid…Embrace the Journey.”

We’re excited to announce and pleased to welcome Monica Santino and Kathy Finster to our foundation team. 

 

You may recognize Monica from her contributions to the WHCCD marketing department, where she served as marketing assistant and from the human resources department.  Kathy was the office manager of Elliott Construction in Coalinga for 31 years.  Both of these ladies bring tremendous skills and wonderful public relations talents that are invaluable to the foundation.

 

Please drop by the foundation office (located at the district office) at anytime to say hello!

 

On Monday, May 12, the West Hills Community College Foundation hosted its 12th Annual Golf Tournament at Kings Country Club in Hanford.  Proceeds benefited the West Hills College President’s Scholars Program, which to date has provided nearly $280,000 in funding to almost 270 West Hills College students.

 

Those who participated in the tournment received a warm-up suit and sleeve of balls with the WHCCF logo plus more. You can view photos from the tournament on the Kodak Gallery Web site.

We survived another end-of-the-year purchasing flurry.  We actually can’t complain too much, because ITS always ends up getting a few things out of the process.  Thank you to all who helped us.  The payroll and portal implementations are in full swing and keeping many staff members all across the district very busy.  We plan to roll out phase I of the portal in early August – ready to use for the fall semester.  It is going to be a very busy summer.

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Marketing is mourning the loss of Monica Santino to the foundation.  Our loss is Barbara’s gain.  We wish Monica well.

 

The Central Valley Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America held its annual Image Awards ceremony on May 2.  WHCCD received an award of excellent (the top honor) in the magazine category for Career Focus.  It’s nice to be recognized among our peers—especially when we’re competing with the likes of Fresno State and the regional medical centers in the Valley.

 

In marketing, we take a lot of pictures.  In hopes of better sharing that work, we’ve created a photo gallery online:  kodakgallery.com/westhillscollege.  If you go there, you can order prints of any of the pictures.  Some of the files we’ve created during the past week or two alone:  75th Anniversary celebration, WHCC art show and play cast pictures from the Wiz, Faye Mendenhall retirement party, WHCL Career Day, WHCL Veterans Career Day.  Please feel free to order any prints you would like.  You will be required to provide credit card information to do that.  Watch for graduation pictures when the time comes.

 

In marketing, we share lots of stories.  Whether it’s in Dialogue, the annual report, Career Focus or a news release, these stories tell the mission of West Hills and build support for our programs and services.  We count on all of our employees to help connect us with those stories.  As graduation approaches, please share student success stories with us.  If you provide us with a name, a couple of sentences about the reason the person has an interesting story and contact information, Felicia and I will take it from there.  Please don’t wait until the day of graduation.  Send those stories now.

 

Another way we build support for West Hills is through our community outreach efforts.  Once again this year, marketing is coordinating with Glenda Jones in President Warkentin’s office to arrange for a booth at Hanford’s farmers’ market on Thursday nights.  If you would like to volunteer to spend an evening at the booth, please let Glenda know (glendajones@westhillscollege.com).  It’s a lot of fun and a great place to tell all the people in Kings County about the wonderful things happening at West Hills College.

The office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning has been working closely with GKK Works (formerly known as CCS) to develop Educational Master Plans for WHC Coalinga and WHC Lemoore. GKK Works is a company that has successfully facilitated numerous projects throughout the California community college system.  The Educational Master Plans will become reference documents for college planning and identify collaboration opportunities between instructional and non-instructional services.  The first draft of this document was delivered on May 13 to college administrators and academic senate leaders. Our office will be working with college administrators and faculty to review and modify the plans as needed.

 

Our office has been selected by the California Partnership for Achieving Student Success (Cal-Pass) to pilot their web-based reporting system. Cal-PASS is an initiative that collects, analyzes and shares student data from k-12, colleges and universities. This system will allow us to track our students’ progress from high school to WHC and from WHC to California universities. In addition, our office has subscribed both colleges to the National Student Clearing House Tracker System.  This system will allow us to track students who have transferred from WHC to any out-of-state institution.

 

We recently completed the administration of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE).  The survey, administered to our students, asked questions that assess institutional practices and student behaviors that are highly correlated with student learning and student retention. In conjunction with CCSSE, we administered the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE). The CCFSSE elicits information from faculty about their teaching practices, the ways they spend their professional time, both in and out of class, and their perceptions regarding students' educational experiences. Results from both surveys will be available for review in the fall. We would like to express our gratitude to all instructors who adjusted their class time to allow for the administration of the survey.

 

Our office has been working closely with both colleges in preparation to their upcoming student services site visits. The visits are scheduled for 2009 and require each of the colleges to analyze the level and quality of services provided by each categorical program in comparison to the overall student population. Both colleges are doing an excellent job in preparation to their site visits.

Spotlight on Online Adjunct Faculty:

 

Holly Suarez came to West Hills a couple of semesters ago and we are thrilled to have her.   She teaches sociology online and recently relocated from the Washington DC area to Arizona.  She has top secret clearance with the government and used to work on Social Network Analysis, which is analyzing behaviors of terrorists and mapping the terrorist network to figure out how to disable their network.  Now she tests intelligence systems to make sure that the systems are effective for the soldiers in the field.   Holly states, “We have tech people who get into the weeds (network stuff that is over my head), and people like me who worry about the usefulness and relevance of the technology and how it affects the battlefield.”  She goes on to say, “We also have ‘arm-chair’ theorists who work with me and they come up with the futuristic systems that will be a part of our intelligence.”  Laughing she says, “We call them Hollywood Directors!” 

 

Instructor Suarez states that she tells her students all the time -- the work she does is not that glamorous.  Most of the people she works with have sociology degrees, psychology degrees or political science degrees, but it’s possible to have any kind of background and you don’t even need a degree to start—the government will pay for it!  The clearance is a big issue.  It took her close to two years to get the Top Secret clearance, but once you have that you can do anything for the government.  She cautioned me though; her renewal is coming up so don’t be surprised when federal agents come around to my office in a year or two asking strange questions about her.  Even if she isn’t in the Federal Service anymore, they still have to talk to supervisors to make sure she’s not selling secrets. 

 

Below is a picture of Suarez from her recent birthday. Her entire office was covered with stickies.  She said, “I am a sticky fanatic, but this is out of control.  And no, this was not government funds—ha ha!”