By Steve Knight/editor-in-chief
The TCC board of trustees Thursday approved the district’s $350.8 million budget, which included no increase in tuition for students, a 3.5 percent pay raise for employees and a slight tax decrease for residents.
Adjunct instructors receive 50 cents more per contact hour under the new plan.
Board Secretary Robyn Winnett requested that before the next budget year, administrators provide information from other colleges regarding salary based on merit raises rather than across-the-board raises.
The board also approved a one-year contract for Interim Chancellor Erma Johnson Hadley with a salary of $300,000.
The unanimously approved budget also establishes a $418,000 book scholarship fund for eligible students.
“I think this is a wonderful thing for our students,” Winnett said.
The budget also allows the district to install Code Blue Phones for emergencies on all campuses at a cost of $560,000.
“It will make our students and employees feel safer,” Hadley said.
The district is also in the process of installing a clock alarm system, which is a digital messaging board, for additional security, Hadley said.
Student credit and non-credit tuition remain the same at $50 per credit hour for in-district students, $73 for out-of-district students and $165 for non-residents.
The budget allows a tax decrease from 13.797 cents per $100 valuation to 13.767 cents for 2010.
Hadley said her team worked hard on the budget this summer.
“The budget was built from the bottom up,” she said. “This is something we can live with.”
TCC will continue its “pay-as-you-go” approach on renewal and replacement projects, costing the district $84.4 million this year.
In other action, the board approved a proposal allowing the district to televise future meetings and publish minutes online.
The board tabled a motion amending a contract for Gideon-Toal and Bing Thom for interior design of the buildings under construction on the south side of the Trinity River.
Although board members were assured that the project would not increase the $209.8 million price tag, trustees wanted the contract amendment from co-contractor Bing Thom in writing.
Vice President Bobby McGee and board member Gwen Morrison expressed concern about the process of making major changes to contacts.
“We can’t keep rushing this,” McGee said.
The project, known unofficially as Trinity River East Campus, is scheduled to open in Spring 2010.
After a closed session and announcement of the interim chancellor’s contract, which expires Aug. 31, 2010, there was no word on a process for selecting a permanent chancellor.
The next scheduled meeting is Sept. 17.
