WESTERN TEXAS COLLEGE
SCURRY COUNTY JUNIOR COLLEGE DISTRICT
SNYDER, TEXAS
| Agenda |
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I. Call to Order
II. Public comments for any agenda item with a 3-minute limit per person III. Routine Matters
IV. Information and Discussion
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EXECUTIVE SESSION: The Board will adjourn at this time and go into executive session. The executive session will be held under the provisions of Texas Government Code, Chapter 551, including but not limited to, Section 551.071, Section 551.072, Section 551.074, Section 551.076, Section 551.082(a), and Section 551.083.
At the conclusion of the executive session, the Board will reconvene and announce whether any action needs to be taken as a result of the executive session. V. Date of next regular Board meeting - June 8, 2020 |
| Minutes |
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The Board of Trustees of Western Texas College met in a regular Board meeting via conference call at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, April 13, 2020 Present: Mr. Eddie Peterson, Mr. Lee Presswood, Dr. Jay Kidd, Mr. Mike McWilliams Mr. Drew Bullard Absent: Mr. Scott Richburg, Mr. Tim Riggan Staff Present: Dr. Barbara Beebe, Ms. Patricia Claxton, Ms. Melanie Schwertner, Mr. Britt Canada, Mr. Ralph Ramon, Ms. Emily Powell, Ms. Stephanie Ducheneaux, Mr. Shawn Fonville, Ms. Sheila Williamson, Ms. Tammy Davis, Mr. Lorenzo Sands Others Present: Snyder News Mr. Presswood, board president, called the meeting to order and Mr. Peterson gave the invocation. Dr. Beebe stated, “On March 16, Governor Greg Abbott granted a request by Attorney General Ken Paxton to temporarily suspend a limited number of open meetings laws to the extent necessary to allow telephonic or videoconference meetings in response to the Coronavirus (COVID – 19). In accordance with those suspended rules, we certify the following: Notice of this meeting has been posted online for at least 72 hours. 1) Although members of the board are not gathered in a central, physical location, we do have a quorum in attendance at this meeting by telephone call. 2) We are meeting by use of freeconferencecall.com software application which allows two-way communication for members of the public. 3) As we would at any in-person meeting, members of the public who have followed the instructions on the meeting notice for registering to speak during the public comment portion will be unmuted for three minutes to speak. 4) All other meeting procedures will adhere to board-adopted procedures to the extent practicable. 5) An audio recording of this meeting is being made and will be available to the public at a later date. 6) This software application allows for all people to interact at a time. We apologize in advance for any unforeseeable difficulties and ask for your patience as we navigate unprecedented conditions.” No one from the public had any comments. Motion by Mr. Peterson, seconded by Dr. Kidd to approve the board minutes of February 11, 2020. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Dr. Kidd, seconded by Mr. Peterson to approve the financial information for February 2020 and March 2020. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Mr. Bullard, seconded by Mr. McWilliams to approve the Certificate of Unopposed Candidates. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Mr. Peterson, seconded by Mr. Bullard to approve the Order of Cancellation of the May 2, 2020 Election. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Dr. Kidd, seconded by Mr. McWilliams to approve the following 2020-2021 contract renewals:
Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Mr. Bullard, seconded by Mr. McWilliams to approve the 2021-2022 school calendar. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Mr. Bullard, seconded by Mr. Peterson to approve the bids on tax deeds and property cards for Trust Property in the City of Snyder. Motion carried unanimously. Motion by Mr. Peterson, seconded by Mr. Bullard to approve the revisions to the tax abatement between Western Texas College and Canyon Wind Farm, LLC with the stipulation that #6 be corrected to $1020 and not $800. Motion carried unanimously. Ms. Stephanie Ducheneaux discussed instructors and online classes. When we made the transition to teach all academic classes online, only two instructors had never taught online before. Our face to face students are struggling on how online classes work. Ms. Ducheneaux has been on a lot of conference calls and everyone has the same problem. We do have online proctoring and we put in free online proctoring for the face to face students. The majority of instructors just have finals left to do. Ana is a virtual assistant we have been using for a year. She sends students a text every day. Today’s text read, “This is your Monday morning reminder: You are amazing, and you can handle anything. Love, Ana. What is on your to-do list today?” This is not an automated program. Students have conversations with her. We can see their interactions. We have asked faculty to be patient and understanding since the face to face students did not ask for this. We don’t require students to go online at a specific time. Students have the freedom to get online when they can. We use Moodle as our platform. Students are learning time management. Ana is through Up Swing which has a tutoring platform available online. We have three international students on campus due to borders being closed. An April calendar was presented to the board members. Information and questions from board members: Mr. Peterson asked about our contract with the buses. Ms. Claxton stated our contract goes over each event and no where in the contract does it say we pay if the buses are not used. Ms. Davis stated at the point NJCAA cancelled the sporting events, she contacted Kings Highway and gave them the dates of games we would not be playing, and they were good about it. Ms. Davis is working on next years athletic schedule. It is written in the contract that there is no charge for cancelled games. Mr. McWilliams asked if the savings we see from travel on normal monthly expenses exceed our shortfall? Patricia stated it more than likely will not address the shortfall with Kinder Morgan. We currently do not have extra spending. We will see a savings of a couple of hundred thousand dollars from athletics, but not the million dollars we are looking for. Dr. Kidd asked if the Kinder Morgan case is still set for June. Dr. Beebe stated Kinder Morgan is protesting their values in July. She hasn’t heard anything else regarding the lawsuit. We are requesting additional information. Dr. Beebe hasn’t heard if the case has been pushed back. There were no suggested agenda items. The scheduled executive session was cancelled. Mr. Presswood thanked everyone for their tolerance and understanding. This to shall pass. Motion by Mr. McWilliams, seconded by Mr. Bullard to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried unanimously. Date of next regular board meeting – May 11, 2020 |
| Financials |
| April Financials |
| Check Register |
| April Check Register |
| New Business |
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Property Card - Martinez Tax Deed - Martinez ** Property Card - Alexander Tax Deed - Alexander ** Property Card - Miller Tax Deed - Miller ******* |
| Information & Discussion |
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Dr. Beebe will present the personnel update. ******* |