April 17, 2007

Trustees

Tonight, as you know, is Dr. English's last official Board meeting with us. Dr. English has given exemplary service to Seminole Community College and he will be missed. More will be said later, however, I did want to introduce our newest Board member, Lisa Greer. Welcome, Lisa. Lisa will officially join us next month. I am pleased to report that, today, the Senate Education Committee approved Chris Dorworth and Lisa Greer as Board members on an 11-0 vote. Their names will now go to the full Senate for confirmation, which is expected prior to the end of the Legislative Session.

Virginia Tech Tragedy

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected by this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech. While we would like to think that this couldn't happen in Seminole County, we know that we are all vulnerable. Following 9/11, SCC initiated an Emergency Response Team, which is chaired by Dick Hamann. They will be meeting later this month to review any lessons learned from the Virginia Tech incident and to review our procedures.

2007 Phi Beta Lambda State Winners

I would like to congratulate Ms. Sherry Jenkins and our terrific PBL students for their continued success during the Phi Beta Lambda competitions. They won 33 awards in State competition including six First Place Awards. They are now headed to Nationals in Chicago in June. We had hoped to have them with us tonight; however, Sherry has been ill.

2007 All-Florida Academic Team

Congratulations to Isa Rosado and Vianka Santana for being named to the 2007 All-Florida Academic Second Team. Isa is PTK's President and Vianka is the SGA President on the Sanford/Lake Mary Campus. Congratulations to both of you!

American Association of Community Colleges Outstanding Alumna

Last evening, at AACC's Annual Convention in Tampa, Jennifer Fulford-Salvano was honored as one of seven Community College Outstanding Alumni. You may remember that Jennifer, daughter-in-law of Dr. Claudia Salvano, and an Orange County Deputy Sheriff, responded in 2004 to an emergency call from an eight-year-old boy who said that armed men had invaded his home and trapped him and his two-year-old twin sisters in a minivan in the garage. When Jennifer entered the garage, two men emerged from the house and shot her 10 times. However, Jennifer prevailed and the children were rescued. Jennifer has been profiled in Parade magazine and now honored for her bravery by AACC.

Phi Rho Pi National Speech Tournament Winner

Virgil Hayes, our incredible oratory student, has scored once again in competition in Houston at the Phi Rho Pi National Speech Tournament. Virgil received a Bronze Award in Programmed Oral Interpretation and placed 10th in the event against 100 competitors. His next tournament will be in New Mexico at the Interstate Oratory competition. Congratulations to Virgil and faculty sponsor, Laura Dickinson!

Phi Theta Kappa Awards

The PTK International Convention took place this past weekend in Nashville and I am proud to report that Justin Bagley won the Distinguished Chapter Officer award for his role as the PTK Service Officer. The Chapter also achieved Three Star status and was noted as a Pinnacle Platinum Chapter, the highest level, which recognizes an increase in PTK membership by more than 20 percent over the last year. Congratulations to our PTK students and their adviser, Marisabel Irizarry!

High School Scholarship Awards

Many thanks to each of you for visiting our local high schools and awarding the Trustee Scholarships. I have been visiting each of the high school principals and they are totally on board with SCC. There is even increased interest in Dual Enrollment!

Leadership Academy

You may remember that this is the first year for our new Leadership Academy. These are 25 individuals, selected from all aspects of the College, who have been dedicating one day a month to learn more about leadership and SCC. On March 27-28, they bused to Tallahassee to meet with legislators and other dignitaries to learn more about the legislative process and how SCC "fits." I want to offer a "thank you" to Rick Lee and Citizens Bank of Florida for hosting the luncheon with the President of Florida State University at the University Club in Tallahassee.

Faculty Kudos

Congratulations to Nana Robertson, Program Manager for the Early Childhood Education Program, faculty member Gina Fontana and staff assistant Cheryl Smith for hosting a conference on March 31, for more than 300 early childhood educators from across Central Florida.

Congratulations to Lenny Portelli and the Networking Department for hosting the OneTug.net Codecamp Conference on March 24. More than 300 individuals also attended this and learned more about SCC's IT Department and what we have to offer to the programming industry. Special thanks go to Lenny Portelli, Melinda White, Sandy Keeter, Frank Cooper, Cassandra Reed and Beatriz Sanabria for their hard work.

Seminole Technology Business Incubator Success Story

We've had many success stories from our Business Incubator, located at the Port of Sanford. The most recent one is a high-tech recruiting company, PMH Resources, which got its start with us and now has been recognized internationally for its successful growth into a multi-million dollar company. PMH received the Outstanding Business Incubator Client of the Year Award in the manufacturing and service category during the National Business Incubation Association Annual Conference. The company finds temporary and permanent employees for the engineering, IT, scientific, multimedia and defense industries. Revenues in 2006 were $4.2 million with $6 million expected this year. Congratulations to PMH and Wayne Hardy, head of our Small Business Services area!

Celebrations

Each year, we host a Retiree Celebration for those who have left or are leaving us. This year's celebration will begin at 1:30 p.m., Friday, April 20, with a private reception for the retirees and their families and then conclude with a public ceremony and reception from 2:30-3:30 p.m. Following the Retiree Ceremony, from 3:30-4:30 p.m., we will host the Graduation of our first Leadership Academy. If you would like to attend either or both of these functions, please let Linda know.

Graduations

And speaking of Celebrations, we will be holding three nights of Graduation Exercises on May 1-3. Please let Linda know if you will be attending any or all of these events. Our Commencement Speaker on May 3 is Janet Horvath Pino, Executive Vice President of Dynetech, a graduate of Lake Brantley High School and SCC.

Budget Workshop

Just a reminder that there will be a Budget Workshop on Wednesday, April 25, from 3-6 p.m., in the Board Room.

Legislative Update

Both the House and Senate have passed their versions of the 2007-2008 budget. There are several significant differences in the community college budget. The House/Senate Conference Committee was supposed to hold its organizational meeting today; however, members have yet to be named. When the members are named, we will need for you to contact the Senate members to help secure the $500,000 in additional Altamonte funding.

As of today, it looks as though the statewide increase in community college operating funds will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $46 million. This is far less than the $100 million increase sought by the Community College System and approved by the State Board of Education. As you know, state revenues have fallen nearly $1 billion below earlier estimates, due to lagging sales tax and documentary stamp revenues caused largely by the slowdown in the housing industry.

SCC's request for capital (construction and renovation) funding is generally on track. The Senate used an older Department of Education PECO list, so their dollar amounts for SCC are somewhat lower than the House bill. Both versions, however, contain the funding we are seeking to begin the renovation of Building L. Both bills also contain additional funding for the Joint Use Facility and a variety of other renovation and remodeling projects. We are working to get the Senate to adopt the higher House figures.

Matching funds remain a problem. The Senate budget provides nearly full funding for Phil Benjamin matching grants. The House bill falls some $500,000 short of funding SCC's eligible match. Unlike recurring operating funds, there is plenty of one-time, non-recurring money available to spend, so we are working to get budget conferees to fully fund the match.

Senator Lee Constantine is sponsoring legislation that would impose a 50 percent tuition surcharge on students who take more than 120 percent of the hours needed to graduate. This legislation has been opposed by the Community College System for several years. Negotiations with Senator Constantine have reached an impasse and he has indicated that he will not compromise with revisions suggested by the community colleges.

Farewell to Dr. Charles English

Now, I would like to turn this portion of the meeting over to our Chairperson for a tribute to Dr. Charles English.

Did you know?

SCC's healthcare and paralegal programs are nationally accredited.