It’s been one year since we took office. And every day this year, I thought about the sacrifices you made to get us here — giving your money, time and labor to expand opportunities for people through the vital work of the College. Despite devastating budget cuts from Sacramento and as families struggled to bounce back in this economy, I want you to know what your sacrifice meant.

• We pushed through a local hiring goal of 35 percent for the construction of the new Chinatown-North Beach campus. This means more out of work San Francisco residents will have an opportunity to get a well-paying job.

• We saved 30 to 43 classes this year by instituting a 6 percent salary cut for the highest paid administrators, those making more than $150,000 a year. This means about 1500 students will get into core classes that would have otherwise been eliminated.

• We expanded without additional cost the E.O.P.S. Second Chance Program, our reentry counseling services for formerly incarcerated students. This means some of the most vulnerable students will get an opportunity to become meaningful contributors to our society, while having a positive impact on our local and state budgets.

• We enabled students to save up to $100,000 in direct out of pocket costs for textbooks. This means less students will get priced-out out of college because of these hidden expenses.

• We began to operationalize the relationship between the City, the School District and the College. This means we’re on track to better coordinate resources and programs to reduce the drop-out rate and increase the degree or certificate completion rate.

• We introduced ethics and fiscal reform policies to ensure we maintain the public trust in these tough times. This means that taxpayers will know that the College takes its fiduciary duties seriously as we allocate their money.

As we continue to cope with the fiscal, economic and political conditions around us, I want you to know that we are pressing forward with our shared vision of investing in the aspirations of those who seek to make a better life for themselves and their families through the power of education. We need this investment now more than ever.

Thank you again for all you have done.

Over the past several months, President Milton Marks, Trustee John Rizzo and myself have been working on a package of fiscal and ethics reforms to address many of the issues raised by our auditors and others, which were also well-chronicled in the media for years and even more so this year.  President Marks and Rizzo should really be commended for the leadership and persistence on these issues.

We introduced the package at our November meeting and will work for complete adoption by the first half of 2010.  It can be downloaded here.

We just received a report on our March resolution to expand the reentry program at City College known as Second Chance.  The District is broadening its services without spending more money — it is reorganizing personnel, improving training for staff, upgrading technology to help assess student development and providing distance learning classes to incarcerated juveniles as an orientation pipeline into the program upon their release.  We are already serving more students.  The District also developed a long-term plan to grow the program.  You can read the report here.

There is more work to be done, but I am optimistic about our work in no small measure because of the unwavering commitment of the Chancellor and the E.O.P.S. Second Chance team.  President Milton Marks and Trustee Chris Jackson, co-sponsors of the resolution, as well as the other trustees, are also strong supporters of the program.

As our efforts continue I want to thank Public Defender Jeff Adachi for his long-standing advocacy for Second Chance — he has just offered to fund some scholarships.  Students in the program have been particularly vulnerable to the recent budget cuts.   I know each of the 136 students in Second Chance is grateful for his generosity and leadership as well.

P.S.  If you are free this Wednesday night and live in San Francisco, tune in to Channel 27 at about 9:30 p.m. or so to watch the presentation to the Board of Trustees by two students in the Second Chance Program.  You’ll never forget it.  I promise.

I am proud to announce that we just received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation!  The Communities Learning in Partnership (CLIP) grant provides $250,000 over the next 9 months to fortify a partnership between San Francisco Unified School District, City College of San Francisco and the City and County of San Francisco aimed at increasing the number of individuals who earn a degree or credential beyond high school.  The most promising projects will receive up to $3 million through 2013.

All the credit goes to the staff of these agencies, who prepared an excellent application in short time.  I thank them for all their work.  I want to especially thank Kimberly Wicoff, the Director of the City’s Inter-Agency Council, who coordinated the effort.

When the working group for the grant invited college trustees in June to participate, I was eager to do so having campaigned for a K through Life Partnership between City College, Unified and the City to reduce these bureaucratic silos and facilitate workforce development and increase graduation rates.  The CLIP award also bolsters the mission of the Joint San Francisco Unified-City College Committee created by a resolution I co-sponsored earlier this year.

I look forward to working with all stakeholders as we move toward the next phase of funding!

Like many public institutions in the country, the San Francisco Community College District has been consumed by a budget crisis.

The Governor proposed cuts in his May Revision budget without mercy or foresight. He offered up the Cal Grant Program wholesale, which is the primary source of college aid to needy students. Thankfully, the Legislature rejected this proposal. The elimination of the Cal Grant Program would have affected 200,000 students, just as a report warned that California would be one million college graduates short by 2025.

Other cuts have been painfully felt without question by our school districts, community colleges and universities. He has cut by 54 percent across-the-board the very programs for which I campaigned to protect and expand, including those that serve the most vulnerable populations: Basic Skills, Career and Technical Education, CARE (single parents heads-of-household), E.O.P.S. (low-income students), Disabled Students Programs and Services, among others.

In sum, City College’s $200 million operating budget is without $25 million for the 2009-2010 academic year, forcing not just sacrifices by the people who carry out the vital mission of the District, but a substantial reduction of class offerings — 800 this coming year. The College exists to offer classes. I did not run — nor did I ask for your support — to allow classes and aid to get cut.

In this context, I proposed and the Board adopted last night an amendment to our preliminary budget that would restore at least 30 of the most impacted classes, which are disproportionately basic skills classes, by implementing a 6 percent cut in salary among administrators who make $150,000 or more. At the College, there has been a 63 percent increase in administrative salaries in the last 4 years. This amendment will get about 1,000 students in the classroom and into our higher education system, many of whom I know we would lose forever if these classes are not available.

The amendment also called for a 6 percent reduction in salary for the members of the Board of Trustees to provide some funding for a food and transportation assistance program slated for elimination. This program provides a bus pass and $50 food card every month to the neediest students, typically single parents, reentry students and former foster care youth. We’ll be able to help about 25 students with this funding.

I want to thank my colleagues who voted in support of this measure: President Milton Marks, Dr. Anita Grier and John Rizzo. I especially want to thank Trustee Chris Jackson for co-sponsoring it. Our work last night, however, was in part modeled after the leadership and sacrifice of the people who work at the College as exemplified by Chancellor Don Griffin, who had already voluntarily cut his pay by 25 percent.

As budget developments continue, I hope you don’t mind if I update you. It is bizarre, this state of affairs, where the values we hold so dear in our individual lives and families are so impermeable to our politics.

City College of San Francisco announces a Request for Proposal (RFP) seeking interested and qualified consultants to provide local hiring monitoring services related to construction of the new Chinatown/North Beach Campus in San Francisco, CA. Construction is anticipated to begin in April 2009 and final occupancy by January 2011. The project is targeting a LEED^TM Gold Certification. The RFP package is available and more information may be obtained at here.

RFP copies and questions should be sent via email to khennig@ccsf.edu.  The deadline for response to the RFP is: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 2:00 PM.  It is the policy of the San Francisco Community College District (the District) to ensure full and equal business opportunity for all Small Local Business Enterprises (SLBEs) wishing to do business with the District.  Advertising Dates: April 26, 2009 and May 5, 2009.

BACKGROUND

City College of San Francisco, hereby referred to as the “College”, is soliciting proposal from interested and qualified consultants to assist the District in strengthening enforcement of the good faith local hiring provisions related to the construction of the new Chinatown/North Beach Campus. The project is for two buildings, totaling 200,000 gross square feet, 14-stories and 4-stories, in San Francisco, CA, with a project construction budget of $105,000,000. Construction is anticipated to begin in April 2009 and final occupancy by January 2011. The buildings will contain an auditorium, laboratories, classrooms, faculty and administrative offices. This Community Monitor (CM) shall serve as head of the Local Hiring Oversight Committee (LHOC), meeting once a month, and provide regular reports to the Board of Trustees on progress toward the local hiring goal of 35% on this project.

Here is a quick update on my work on the Board of Trustees.  After three months of work, we passed my first set of resolutions last night, which mainly focused on budgets and jobs:

• A resolution to reduce student textbook costs by as much as $110,000 per year*
• A resolution to address faculty health care options and long-term costs
• A resolution to expand the Second Chance Program, which serves formerly incarcerated students
• A resolution to create and enforce a 35 percent local hiring goal for jobs on the Chinatown/North Beach Campus Project
• A resolution to appoint Hilary Sledge to the San Francisco Community College District’s Citizens’ Bond Oversight Committee

I thank my fellow board members for their support on these resolutions, each of which passed unanimously.  I also want to thank College administrators, faculty and staff for their guidance and input.

On the local hiring resolution, a special recognition must go to the leadership and commitment of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, Chinese For Affirmative Action and Friends of Educational Opportunities in Chinatown in fashioning a just and sound approach to the issue.  I also want to especially thank Public Defender Jeff Adachi and the E.O.P.S. office for their support of the Second Chance resolution.

I am honored to be able to work on these issues and believe they will make a difference in people’s lives and in the ability of this wonderful institution to pursue its profound mission.

Thanks for all of your support and please let me know if you have any questions or input.

Steve

*with amendments

Welcome to the new version of the website!  I want to thank — again — Charmaine Chan for setting up the site.  The photographs are compliments of Mona T. Brooks, another extraordinary artist.  I’m very lucky to call them friends and to have their generosity of time and talent!