Board Highlights 12/17/24

Presentations: Presentations were given on the Dual Enrollment Programs at each District school and the Diversity Report was given by NOCCCD staff.

Highlights from the Dual Enrollment Reports:

Fullerton College President, Dr. Cynthia Olivo, introduced Tam Contreras, the Campuses first Director of Dual Enrollment and High School Articulation. The program services 17 high schools and six middle schools. In Spring 2026 Fullerton will begin offering Embedded Tutors, Counselors for Case Management, and virtual Zoom room support to dual enrollment students. Since 2018, Fullerton has offered an increasing number of courses in the program which will reach 169 classes in 2025.

Cypress College President, Dr. Scott Thayer introduced Stephanie Teer, Director and Manager of Dual Enrollment to report out on the program’s 91% transfer rate to UC and CSU. The CTE program has an 89% success rate with Kinesiology and the Public Health programs realizing a 95% success rate. The Cypress College Dual Enrollment Team is working on new pathways to offer in the future.

NOCE President, Valentina Purtell, invited NOCE Lead Counsellor, Anacany Torres to share the experience of a student named Juan Camilo Cardona who praised the support system NOCCCD has to offer. 

2024 Institutional Commitment to Diversity Report: The NOCCCD Institutional Commitment to Diversity Report was given by Yasmine Andrawis, District Director of EEO & Compliance; Flavio Medina-Martin, District Director of Diversity, Culture & Inclusion; and Dr. Gabrielle Stanco, District Director of Data Analytics/Business Intelligence. The report stated that all District locations experienced an increase in diversity among their hired staff. Nearly 10% of new hires identify as having a disability, which is higher than the national benchmark. Diversity in NOCCCD has increased 18% since 2014. The report was closed out with a video in which employees gave testimonials about the importance of DEIA efforts.

BOARD ACTIONS

At its Annual Business Meeting, the Board of Trustees acted on agenda items, including those highlighted below.

Newly elected Trustee Member Mark Lopez was sworn in, and thanked his family, friends, and voters of Trustee Area 5 for their support and stated he looks forward to supporting the students of the District.

The first Student Trustee of NOCE Robert Johnson was introduced by NOCE President Valentina Purtell who congratulated him on a well-deserved election. He was sworn in and gave a short thank you speech to his supporters in attendance.

Chancellor Byron D. Clift Breland formally recognized and thanked the 2024 Board Officers: Trustee Barbara Dunsheath for her service as secretary, Trustee Jeffrey Brown as the Vice President, and Trustee Evangelina Rosales as the President.

Trustee Jeffrey Brown was elected as the 2025 Board President.

Trustee Barbara Dunsheath was elected as the 2025 Board Vice President.

Trustee Ed Lopez was elected as the 2025 Board Secretary.

The representative and alternate to the County Committee on Election of Members of the County Committee on School District Organization will be Trustee Evangelina Rosales and Trustee Ryan Bent will serve as the alternate.

The Representative to the Fullerton Museum Association of North Orange County will be Trustee Mark Lopez.

The Representative to the Cypress College Foundation will continue to be Trustee Stephen T. Blount.

The Representative to the Fullerton College Foundation will continue to be Trustee Evangelina Rosales and the alternate will be Trustee Mark Lopez.

Trustee Ed Lopez will continue as the Representative to the Community College Foundation of North Orange County.

The two Ad Hoc Representatives to the Community College Foundation of North Orange County will continue to be Vice Chancellor of Finance & Facilities Fred Williams and District Director of Public and Government Affairs Kai Stearns.

The three Representatives to the District Investment Committee will continue to be Trustee Ryan Bent, Trustee Stephen T. Blount, and Board President Jeffrey Brown.

The three Representatives to the District Audit Committee will be Board Vice President Barbara Dunsheath, Trustee Stephen T. Blount and Trustee Mark Lopez.

The Representative to the Orange County Community Colleges Legislative Task Force will be Board Vice President Barbara Dunsheath with Trustee Evangelina Rosales as the new alternate.

The Representative to the District Retirement Board will be Trustee Mark Lopez.

Audit Report: The Executive Director of Fiscal Affairs Erika Almaraz presented the results of the audits performed on both the District and Measure J Bond Program accounts. Both audits were reported as ‘clean’ by the external auditing firm.

Human Resources: Approvals were given by the Board for the retirement of Edna Heredia from NOCE from her role as Administrative Assistant II, ESL. Approval was also given for Fullerton College to hire Stephanie Cheung as Administrative Assistant II, MESA, Nicole Cintron as Special Projects Coordinator, CTE Outreach, Naudika Diaz as Special Projects Coordinator, Dual Enrollment, John Erickson as Project Manager, Campus Capital Projects, Kassandra Flores as Student Services Specialist, Bryan Johnson as Laboratory Technician, Art and Carlos Pichardo Morales as Facilities Assistant. Cypress College was approved to hire Rachel Ghatikar as Director, Development. The District was approved to hire Melissa Lum as Web Content Specialist and Erika Ramirez as Human Resources Technician. Linnet Reyes was approved for a promotion to Facilities Custodian Coordinator II at Fullerton College. Congratulations to all!

General: The Board approved the 2025 Board Meeting Calendar.

Chancellor Staff Comments: Chancellor Byron D. Clift Breland thanked the attendees of the Americana Kick-Off Event. He also congratulated Fullerton College and Cypress College for being in the top 100 colleges for their work in DEIA per the “Raising the Bar” White House DEIA Initiative. He ended his comments by wishing everyone a peaceful holiday break.

Fullerton College President, Dr. Cynthia Olivo, reported that Fullerton College provided 75,643 meals through their Healthy Hornet Meal Deals Program. In the fall semester, the college provided nearly $15 million in Pell Grants to almost 5,000 students. In 2024, the college opened 4 new centers: the CSI Crime Lab, the Hornets Resource Center, The Puente Center, and the APIDA Resource Center. Dr. Olivo welcomed the new Director of Campus Communications Miranda Bates and closed out her report by offering condolences to the family of a former English instructor James Lowell Armstrong, “Lucky Jim,” and expressed thanks for his 32 years of service to the students of Fullerton College.

Cypress College President, Dr. Scott Thayer reported that enrollment at Cypress is up 32% and spring semester enrollment is up 8%. The women’s soccer team qualified and competed in their second consecutive State Finals Championship. On December 11, 2024, the Cypress Foundation hosted their kick-off event for the Americana Awards with great success at Angels Stadium.

NOCE President, Valentina Purtell, congratulated the first NOCE Trustee Robert Johnson on his election. On December 5, 2024, NOCE hosted an event to encourage students to transfer to Cypress College featuring a panel of students who have successfully made the transition. She ended her report wishing everyone a joyous holiday and invited everyone to the NOCE holiday party on December 19, 2024 at Fullerton College from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m.

RESOURCE TABLE

The Fullerton College Academic Senate President, Bridget Kominek, reported on the Senate’s rejection of BP/AP 7600 regarding Campus Safety.

CSEA President Pamela Spence wished everyone happy holidays and stressed the importance of Classified staff, many of whom will be working on campus over the holiday break.

The Adjunct Faculty United President, Marlo Smith, expressed her thanks for the work of Adjunct Professors and communicated their collective hope for improved wages.

BOARD REPORTS

NOCE Student Trustee Robert Johnson thanked his family and the tremendous support of the District students, faculty, staff, and Board.

Cypress College Student Trustee Katie Wong reported that there will be new members added to the student council in Spring 2025.

Board Vice President Barbara Dunsheath congratulated the Cypress College Foundation on their phenomenal kick-off this month and asked that everyone save the date for March 15th, 2025 for the 50th Anniversary Americana Awards.

Trustee Mark Lopez wished everyone happy holidays.

Board President Jeffrey Brown attended Winter Fest at Fullerton College to celebrate the new Drone bachelor’s degree program and expressed his pride that no other higher education institution on the west coast has an equivalent program.

Public Comments: Steve Selby, Fullerton College Director of Campus Safety, requested that the Board continue to consider the Public Safety proposal.

Colleen Jansen, a student of the NOCE creative writing class, expressed the students’ love of their Creative Writing Instructor and communicated the stress of effectively registering for classes online for elderly students. She encouraged everyone to purchase the book the class published collectively on Amazon.

CSEA Members presented Pamela Spence with a bouquet of flowers in recognition of her last board meeting as CSEA President and expressed their thanks for her work.

New Board President Jeffrey Brown closed the meeting wishing everyone happy holidays.

NEXT MEETING

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the NOCCCD Board of Trustees will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 28th, 2025 at the Anaheim Union High School District Board Room.

Board Highlights is produced by NOCCCD Public & Governmental Affairs as a summary of the Board actions and reports. It is not intended as a replacement of the official minutes of the Board meeting. For more information on the NOCCCD Board of Trustees, please visit the website.