| October 30, 2019 | Jill Bold | managing editor |
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The TCC board of trustees held a short meeting, approving continued contracts for technology maintenance, campus repairs and more training equipment Oct. 24.
Before the agenda items were up for consideration and approval from the board, president of the board Conrad Heede called to order the meeting with no public comments and unanimous approval of the past meetings’ minutes.
The previous governance meeting allowed for extensive questioning, discussion and debate time to flesh out the ideas and proposals presented to the board.
“We’ve already discussed them in full, so if we are very brief tonight, it’s because we’ve had a full discussion a week and a half ago,” said Heede.
Board of trustees member Bill Greenhill outlined the audit and finance report before summarizing recent board member training.
He also reminded the board and meeting attendees to get to the ballot box and cast a vote on the bond proposal.
“I’d like to encourage you to go out and vote,” Greenhill said.
Heede took the time to echo Greenhill’s message to go out and vote on the bond proposal that will allot $825 million for TCC.
“This election is probably not going to be well-attended, there aren’t going to be a lot of votes, so we urge you to go out because every vote is important,” Heede said.
Four board members attended the Association Of Community College Trustees Leadership Congress Oct. 16-19 in San Francisco, which is the largest professional development opportunity for community college trustees, presidents and other leaders.
“It was very helpful for me because it taught me to understand the business of community colleges,” said board member Kenneth Barr. “One of the things I took away was that Tarrant County College has its act together better than just about anybody. This district is a leader, we came away looking very good.”
The board approved several projects, including replacing original field bleachers with ADA compliant ones on South campus and repairs and construction projects on NW Campus, totaling $1.1 million.
The board approved technology upgrades and maintenance for all campuses and renewed the Proctor.io contract for online courses for Connect, totaling almost $3 million in contracts. The purchase of a new fire truck for training purposes on NW Campus was also approved for just over $500,000.
For each of the 10 items up for vote by the board, a designated speaker stood at a podium facing the board members, prepared to give any last-minute explanation before the vote. One point of clarification by board member Barr was the only comment during the voting process, which progressed rapidly as each line item was approved unopposed in quick succession by all members in a public vote.
The next governance meeting will be held Nov. 14, and the next board meeting is Nov. 19.
