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Facing the threat of a state takeover, a major California community college district is under pressure to resolve wide-ranging financial issues.
The Peralta Community College District, serving about 18,000 full-time students in several East Bay communities, is in the early stages of implementing recommendations to improve budget, auditing, staffing and enrollment problems, among other issues highlighted by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT), an agency established and funded by the state to provide advice to districts facing financial problems.
The Peralta district is home to four community colleges: Berkeley City College, the College of Alameda, Laney College and Merritt College.
FCMAT’s June analysis of the district detailed its current challenges and gave Peralta a risk score of 69.9 percent. Anything above 40 percent is considered a high risk of financial instability, according to the analysis.
The analysis resulted in California Community College Chancellor Eloy Oakley assigning a fiscal monitor to watch the district and report back to the system’s Board of Governors. Oakley did not assign a special trustee, who would have control over the district’s governance. But he has not ruled out doing so in the future if Peralta fails to improve.
Oakley said he wants to be proactive in getting Peralta the help it needs and intends to do the same for other districts that might face similar problems. The circumstances at Peralta are highly unusual in the system of 115 community colleges. Along with the Compton Community College District, Peralta is one of only two districts in the system being monitored by the chancellor’s office.
Oakley said at a recent Board of Governors meeting that he expects more community college districts to experience financial distress going forward and wants to avoid a repeat of events in Compton and San Francisco, where community colleges lost local control amid similar fiscal crises in recent years. Compton regained its independence earlier this year but a chancellor’s office-appointed trustee still monitors the district, according to the chancellor’s office.
Newly appointed Peralta Chancellor Regina Stanback Stroud, the former president of Skyline College in San Mateo County, has been given the task of turning around the troubled district, which may require significant layoffs to accomplish. For the spring 2020 semester, the district expects to cut about six percent of the faculty — nearly 70 full-time employees — according to a district progress report. The cuts could impact courses offered to students, a district spokesman said. Further reductions in subsequent years are also likely.
The faculty union planned a rally Tuesday at Stroud’s first board meeting in Oakland to urge her to settle a contract with teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses represented by Peralta Federation of Teachers which has been at an impasse with the district since Sept. 23.
“Everything now really hinges on the new chancellor coming in, being willing to establish the internal controls, processes and procedures that need to be in place and be willing to make those tough decisions to make change,” said Michelle Giacomini, a FCMAT executive who led the Peralta study.
The FCMAT analysis detailed various concerns and trends at the district. These included assertions that:
“Some of the issues around fiscal instability, we were aware of, and others, we weren’t aware of the depth or how long some of these systems had not been adhered to,” Peralta Board President Julina Bonilla said.
District spokesman Mark Johnson said Peralta “understands and accepts” the FCMAT report’s findings.
“Of course, they sting. But they’re also factual,” he said.
Peralta isn’t the first community college district in California to face fiscal challenges. Compton College lost its accreditation 14 years ago amid fiscal instability and only recently won back its accreditation and independence. The City College of San Francisco also came close to losing accreditation in 2013 because of financial woes and other challenges.
Oakley said during a September Board of Governors meeting that he wants to ensure Peralta doesn’t meet the same fate as those colleges, which were assigned special trustees by the Board of Governors. The special trustees each had ultimate control over those colleges and their local boards’ decisions.
Oakley said assigning a special trustee would be a “very intrusive step.”
“We are taking a hard look at how we responded to San Francisco, at how we responded to Compton, and trying to learn from those examples and to be more proactive,” he said, adding that the community college system has identified several other colleges and districts “that we have concerns about.” Among them is San Diego County’s Palomar College, where FCMAT is examining deficit-spending patterns.
The fiscal monitor assigned to Peralta, former Mira Costa College chief business officer Jim Austin, will report back regularly to the Board of Governors as the district makes its way through implementing up to 75 FCMAT recommendations. Those include developing an enrollment management team, reforming budget processes and considering a reduction in full-time faculty.
Jennifer Shanoski, a chemistry instructor at Merritt College and president of Peralta’s faculty union, said she doesn’t think cutting faculty is the answer to the district’s problems. Rather than reduce the faculty to align with the falling enrollment, she would prefer the district focus on reversing those enrollment trends.
“We feel like there’s no robust enrollment management plan,” she said. “And so we’re bleeding students and the way to get more students is certainly not to simply cut classes.”
Shanoski added that she wants the district to scale back its upper-administration, including the six vice chancellors. She also said the district should focus on making its campuses more appealing to students by renovating buildings. The FCMAT report noted several problems with campus facilities, including malfunctioning air conditioners, elevators and fire alarms. “Our facilities are, in some places, plain disgusting. It’s not a very inviting environment for students,” Shanoski said.
Bonilla, the district’s board president, did not say how extensive further reductions to faculty will be. She said future staffing decisions and other responses to the FCMAT report will be left to Stanback Stroud, the new chancellor.
Johnson, the spokesman for the district, said Peralta still has a long road ahead “to get our financial affairs in order.”
“It took years to get into this position that we’re in,” he said. “It’s going to take years to get out.”
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Professor Ron 4 years ago4 years ago
As an incredible coincidence: Dr Joi Lin Blake former president of the College of Alameda (in the Peralta district) is currently the president of Palomar Community college – the other district undergoing dire, dire financial problems. Follow Palomar’s woes at thepalomarfilesblog.com
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Michael B. Reiner, Ph.D. 4 years ago4 years ago
Dear Professor Ron, Presidencies in California Community Colleges belong to a small, private club of individuals who move from one institution to another with no accountability. I can speak from personal experience that part of the problem is "California Exceptionalism." I have heard many times that search committees and Boards of Trustees are reticent to hire someone from out-of-state because "they just don't know how things are done in California." From the example of … Read More
Dear Professor Ron, Presidencies in California Community Colleges belong to a small, private club of individuals who move from one institution to another with no accountability. I can speak from personal experience that part of the problem is “California Exceptionalism.” I have heard many times that search committees and Boards of Trustees are reticent to hire someone from out-of-state because “they just don’t know how things are done in California.” From the example of Palomar, one of the nation’s premier community colleges under past leadership, perhaps that would have been a good thing. It is obvious that the hiring process for presidents and chancellors often fail. Will Palomar find a more effective candidate next time? Probably not, unless they change the tune of “this is the way we do things here.”
MamaRama 5 years ago5 years ago
Interesting that none of the FCMAT recommendations say anything about too many faculty, yet that is the first go-to move that the Board decides on. It's an obvious administrative failure, that while enrollment has been steadily declining over the years, that gradual loss has not been matched with reconfiguration of programs and thus, faculty numbers, while faculty can see the writing on the wall and have examined the new funding model (perhaps more carefully than … Read More
Interesting that none of the FCMAT recommendations say anything about too many faculty, yet that is the first go-to move that the Board decides on. It’s an obvious administrative failure, that while enrollment has been steadily declining over the years, that gradual loss has not been matched with reconfiguration of programs and thus, faculty numbers, while faculty can see the writing on the wall and have examined the new funding model (perhaps more carefully than any administrators have done) and have put in the work to make sure their programs survive.
Who should be responsible for meeting new mandates? Administrators. Who usually steps us and does the actual work of meeting those mandates? Staff and faculty, because what’s threatened is their career, not “just a job” but what they are truly passionate about. The Board and the administration must be willing to step up and do the actual work of establishing processes of management and governance that are fair and that meet student’s needs and state mandates. But, no, cutting faculty and staff positions is all they can think of to do, and it doesn’t require much actual work, thought, care, planning, diligence, persistence, negotiations, everything that one would expect someone making upwards of six figures to do.
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Michael B. Reiner, Ph.D. 5 years ago5 years ago
You are correct that the first place many boards go to cut costs is to reduce personnel, especially faculty and staff, but not administrators (although PCCD has an excess). If you look at the trends at Peralta, the writing has been on the wall for a while that significant adjustments were needed, but the administration failed to heed the call and plan accordingly. Even the former Interim Chancellor Frances White was quoted in … Read More
You are correct that the first place many boards go to cut costs is to reduce personnel, especially faculty and staff, but not administrators (although PCCD has an excess). If you look at the trends at Peralta, the writing has been on the wall for a while that significant adjustments were needed, but the administration failed to heed the call and plan accordingly. Even the former Interim Chancellor Frances White was quoted in Inside Higher Ed (Sept 25), “It’s kind of a head-in-the-sand culture” for everybody, adding, “You just don’t last long in life with your head in the sand.”
The FCMAT report documents that some financial accounts have not been reconciled in ten years, leading to opportunities for fraud. The physical plant in places is beyond “deferred maintenance.” And, most disconcerting, there is little coordination between the district and campus leaders. It sounds like people just do what they want to do without any accountability. Is this any way to run a higher education organization?
Rob Appeldorn 5 years ago5 years ago
When Gavin Newsom was inaugurated, he proudly stated that he was going give money to non-citizens outside of California. Why not give more money to Peralta Colleges instead, Gavin?
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Michael B. Reiner, Ph.D. 5 years ago5 years ago
While your point is worth discussing, I don't think you want your hard earned tax dollars to go to the Peralta Community College District: "Peralta College District's Mind-Boggling Mismanagement Revealed" https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/peralta-college-districts-mind-boggling-mismanagement-revealed/Content?oid=27198716. It really is mind boggling. I had an inside peek as a candidate for various positions there over the years, and I could not believe the incompetence in upper administration. The FCMAT (Financial Crisis Management Assistance Team) report is damning. … Read More
While your point is worth discussing, I don’t think you want your hard earned tax dollars to go to the Peralta Community College District: “Peralta College District’s Mind-Boggling Mismanagement Revealed”
https://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/peralta-college-districts-mind-boggling-mismanagement-revealed/Content?oid=27198716.
It really is mind boggling. I had an inside peek as a candidate for various positions there over the years, and I could not believe the incompetence in upper administration. The FCMAT (Financial Crisis Management Assistance Team) report is damning. The Board of Trustees (yes, “trustees” are entrusted by the voting public to provide oversight, leadership, and good stewardship of the taxpayers dollars) should be recalled. It is truly amazing that a situation could get this bad. One report indicated the District is on the verge of insolvency. If so, that will cost taxpayers even more!
Aundrea 5 years ago5 years ago
Eloy Oakley needs to rethink his funding of the community colleges. His new funding formula is severely stressing the meager resources of the community colleges statewide. Yes, Peralta is struggling and needs financial restructuring, but Oakley needs to rethink his method of funding students. He has faculty running around creating meaningless certificates in order to meet "completion" and get the funding the colleges need, instead of focusing on classroom strategies that will improve … Read More
Eloy Oakley needs to rethink his funding of the community colleges. His new funding formula is severely stressing the meager resources of the community colleges statewide. Yes, Peralta is struggling and needs financial restructuring, but Oakley needs to rethink his method of funding students. He has faculty running around creating meaningless certificates in order to meet “completion” and get the funding the colleges need, instead of focusing on classroom strategies that will improve student learning. Eloy has not spent significant time in the classroom and has very little ideas as to how education works in the classroom.
Michael B. Reiner, Ph.D. 5 years ago5 years ago
The new chancellor, Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud, has a theory of leadership which is a riff off the title of a book by bell hooks. Stroud calls her view, "Leading to Transgress" (2017). "A theory of leadership – a multi-racial, multicultural identified, gender-influenced framework that is informed by leaders: • who are a part of or situated closely to the masses of marginalized people of color. • whose primary purpose is to influence allocation of resources in a … Read More
The new chancellor, Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud, has a theory of leadership which is a riff off the title of a book by bell hooks. Stroud calls her view, “Leading to Transgress” (2017).
“A theory of leadership – a multi-racial, multicultural identified, gender-influenced framework that is informed by leaders:
• who are a part of or situated closely to the masses of marginalized people of color.
• whose primary purpose is to influence allocation of resources in a way that breaks down or transgresses existing systems of power and privilege in the pursuit of social justice.
• leading to liberate, strengthen, and educate. Leading to free the oppressed and to change the racist and sexist structures of power and privilege. Leading to make a difference in this world.”
I inquired whether her view, that leaders should come from the “masses of marginalzed people of color,” would not be an overt violation of equal opportunity laws?
As for “allocation of resources in a way that breaks down or transgresses existing systems of power and privilege in the pursuit of social justice,” while I agree that social justice is an important goal, I asked whether such a philosophy was appropriate for a public institution’s allocation of state funds and student tuition? Was that really the goal of a community college education?
The only answer I got (in writing) was to imply that I will never understand because I have a “Traditional Eurocentric-male dominant leadership orthodoxy.”
In college, I learned that name-calling and responding with an ad hominem attack was a sign of a weak mind. I thought I was asking legitimate questions as a higher education administrator, educational researcher, and taxpayer contributing to her salary?
I have my eyes on the Peralta District under Dr. Stanback Stroud’s leadership. Only time will tell whether she can right a sinking ship with rhetoric.
Jeff 5 years ago5 years ago
Should a district in need of outside fiscal management be approving faculty contracts that impact its fiscal health? Shouldn’t that be done in the context of an accurate assessment of the district’s fiscal health and an established plan to put that on a sound basis?