Jose Romero
editor-in-chief
A recent amendment to Chancellor Eugene Giovannini’s employment agreement extended his term by a year to 2024 and raised his base salary to $437,836 — a $25,000 increase.
The amendment was made during a board meeting Oct. 28. All action items in the agenda were approved, including renovations across the district and a software functionality improvement.
A total of $1,902,300 will be allocated into master planning — a process that will provide direction for the development and improvement of facilities.
“Master planning — particularly for large campuses like ours in the 4 million square feet of facilities that we own and operate — is something that we ought to do every 10 years or so to be planning how we make our capital investments,” chief operating officer Susan Alanis said. “It’s been more than 10 years since we did this.”
A facility condition assessment was recently approved, which will inform the master planning about the longevity of buildings, the future of buildings and how they can be improved and maintained, Alanis said. Master planning will also inform TCC’s five-year capital plan. The goal is to have it completed by next June. She said the schedule is six weeks behind, but the lost time can be regained. If the schedule does get delayed, it will not incur additional costs.
“This is a significant amount of money — $1,900,000,” board vice president Kenneth Barr said.
Barr asked if the contract would complete all the master planning needed, to which Alanis answered yes. Corgan Architects, the company responsible for the master planning, has worked with TCC before on NE Campus’ science buildings and set the standard for science labs across the district.
The current product students use to set up payment plans and pay tuition got a five-year renewal. The total fee is $1,259,981, but there was also a one-time implementation fee of $54,367 because the functionality is going to be expanded. It will now allow third-party partners to use it as well, simplifying the process for them to pay anything they may owe to TCC.
SE Campus will have $772,877 allocated toward renovations and expansion. Alanis said getting commissioning services to participate in the design, construction and implementation of systems like HVAC, alarm systems and so on has been a common practice in the district for a while. She said the goal is to aim for a silver in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system — a certification program determining how green a building is. Giovannini clarified that the school isn’t going to get the certification because it’s an expensive process, but it will go through the checklist to ensure efficiency.
South and NE Campus was given $699,250 for renovations. On South, buildings B and D will be renovated, and on NE, the technology and arts buildings will be renovated. This is a part of a multi-year plan to upgrade classrooms across the college, Alanis said.
NW Campus’ construction will continue. The redevelopment project had $584,473 approved for it. It’s a project that is estimated to cost $311 million, according to TCC. Back in 2019, former editor-in-chief Juan Ibarra wrote an article detailing the complications NW was having, leading to years of construction. The current timeline goes up until 2026.
The recording of the board meeting can be found on TCC’s website.
