[Speaker 9] (0:00 - 0:00)
I am.

[Speaker 1] (0:02 - 0:36)
Am I on now? Good evening. How's everyone doing?

Why does he have low tech over there? I I'm not sure what's going on. Heron, well Heron's going to be performing a little later and he's going to have to move around so you're turned on.

You're hot. Yeah, okay. I hereby call this meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents to order on October 16, 2025 at 6 p.m. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven regents in person. We have Regent Geralds, I believe, is with us via phone.

[Speaker 7] (0:36 - 0:36)
Yes.

[Speaker 1] (0:37 - 0:52)
All right. I am here. Great, thank you.

So we are, we are, we do have a quorum. We're all accounted for. Regent Cotton's absent.

All right, Regent Fontenot will lead us in the invocation and pledge the United States flag and the Texas flag. Please, please stand.

[Speaker 9] (0:53 - 1:19)
Please bow your heads. Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us safely together this evening. Help us to be ever mindful of the needs of our students as we deliberate the business of the college tonight and please bring us safely home at the conclusion of our duties.

We ask all these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen.

Pledge the United States flag.

[Speaker 13] (1:20 - 1:33)
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[Speaker 9] (1:34 - 1:35)
On the Texas flag.

[Speaker 13] (1:36 - 1:45)
Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.

[Speaker 1] (1:47 - 1:57)
All right, thank you Regent Fontenot. All right, next on our agenda is student spotlight. Dr. Villanueva.

[Speaker 2] (1:57 - 2:14)
How amazing is it, how amazing is it to have our entire amazing volleyball team here with us and Coach Cobb, you're going to come up and let us let us hear about the amazing team, but from one amazing leader, right?

[Speaker 11] (2:14 - 2:15)
Yes, ma'am.

[Speaker 2] (2:15 - 2:26)
And can you just say how much, what was your goal for this season with regard to wins this season and how amazing you guys have already been. I just have to gloat on you guys.

[Speaker 10] (2:27 - 3:34)
Yeah, last year obviously was a rough year for us, so my main goal this year. You don't have to emphasize that, but just you know. All right, moving to the future.

Our goal mainly was to be 500 this year, just as many wins as just as many losses, so at least we're making a trend in the right direction. Right now we're 16 and 16, so we're right on that goal. Obviously we're wanting to be better in different areas and things like that, but we're definitely trending in the right direction, so I'm proud of the growth.

We have a pretty young team behind us and so we're really, really excited to see the growth even next year too and trend in the right direction that way. But today we specifically have Keira Jones here. She is a sophomore captain for us.

She's played a couple different positions. Last year, her freshman season, she was actually hurt for like six different weeks for a foot injury, and so she's been really great to be around character-wise. Working physically with her, she's getting better every day and then pushes herself on and off the court to be great.

And again, she's been voted team captain by her teammates and so that really means a lot to see that from her peers and things like that. And so she's really special to me, definitely special to her teammates as well, and so she definitely wants to share how special eCollege has been to her.

[Speaker 4] (3:40 - 6:44)
Okay, so my name is Keira and I'm actually from League State Texas, about 30 minutes away, 30 minute drive. So coming here my first year last year, it was kind of a good adjustment because my family was close. Having them near me was very, very helpful.

Being able to come to my games means a lot to me. So just them being close, I can go home on Sundays, go to church, I mean go home, have family dinners. It just, it's really easy.

I know people don't get to have that experience having family so close to them while being in college and also while playing sports. So them being able to come and just come to my games and all that, even traveling to come to my games means a lot to me. And even, I have a little brother and he even likes to come to basketball games, so it's really cool to see him enjoy that and just love all the basketball boys.

So I like that and it just means a lot. This is my dad cheering and all the other parents. I just wanted to put that in there.

And then my teammates, they mean a lot. I met some of them last year, some of them this year. I live with them, so I see them every single day and so it's really fun.

But even people from last year, I still keep contact with them. I talk to them almost every day. I can see even almost like people that I've met this year, I can see friendships going past League College and just there's never a dull moment with us.

And even just going to Coach Cobb's house, we are always hanging out. We never are not around each other, so it's just been really fun. And having like built-in friendships coming into school makes it a lot easier than having to meet new people.

And then my coaches, I want to give them a shout out. I've been with them for two years. They've been a really good leader for me.

Even going past like, I can definitely see them just helping me out with anything I need. Going into a four-year or wherever my pathway goes, I can just be able to go on to them if I ever need help or anything like that. And even my professors have been amazing here.

My CAF ladies, I love them very, very much. They come and support our games. I'm always there.

I'm there every single day, almost two times a day. So I get to see them and they're just very joyful. I love them very much.

And my teammate, Kenlee, we're always so joyful. She's joy. And then we also get to do a lot of like volunteer work.

We get to go, last year we did like a color one, like the powder, and you get to throw the little colors on them. And they just have a lot of fun. And we get to do like car rider lines.

We get to do PE classes. And just seeing them look up to you is just a very like good experience. Knowing I have a little brother just means a lot to me.

And we do also do camps in the summer with kids in the elementary school, middle school, and even high school. So it's just fun getting to see them like play the sport and knowing I was like them before. It just means a lot of being like a leader to them and just seeing how they look up to you.

And I even keep in contact with them to this day. Like a few of them, I have their numbers and they just reach out and they're like, oh I got an A on my test. And it's just really happy.

It's really happy to know that they like feel like I'm a leader to them and they can look up to me. So yeah. And then we do have a game on Monday the 20th at five.

So please come out and support because we beat them last time. So we're gonna do it again and beat them again. So yeah.

Thank you.

[Speaker 11] (7:53 - 9:00)
you you you

[Speaker 4] (9:28 - 9:34)
you

[Speaker 1] (10:26 - 12:53)
All right it's kind of like commencement we have to wait for Dr. Billingway but doing her thing but that's okay that's good all right next item on the agenda is disposition of minutes we have before us the audit and investment committee meeting September 2nd 2025 building committee meeting September 17th 2025 the board meeting September 18th 2025 and the policy committee meeting September 29th 2025 we'll take all these together all right we got a motion from Regent Hall second from Regent Montnoe any comments questions corrections on the minutes that were presented all right hearing none all in favor say aye aye opposed aye all in favor and I got a member to pause yeah okay all right so minutes have been approved as presented next item on the agenda report of the chairmen I've just got a couple items and I just want to say that you know some of you may not have been aware that last week there were a few people here at the campus doing a little review and I just want to congratulate Dr. Villanueva and the entire lee college team on an unprecedented SACS CLC review so I heard we barely squeezed by this time so I'm gonna let Dr. Villanueva tell us how close it was but in the end we were successful and we know it takes every employee at every level to know every every level to achieve the results of the review and again congratulations to an awesome lee college team just a little note on the foundation gala it was well attended I think we may hear the results of our friendly competition here in a little bit it appears we may have set a record for contributions and everyone had a great evening together and thanks to our foundation board and the foundation team for giving us a night to remember as far as events go I attended the Trinity Valley Expo parade and Liberty yesterday morning our lee college cheerleaders and other staff made sure lee college was present as we pass the announcer lee college was thanked for our commitment to the community and for being a part of the events and I know our lee college foundation team and others have been participating all week so thanks for representing lee college at the Trinity Valley Expo the last item the ladies brought it up volleyball home game is October 20th so let's get out and support our women navigators that's all I have I'll move on to the

[Speaker 9] (12:53 - 13:35)
building committee report Regent Fontenot yes we met yesterday we reviewed a couple of items that are on the agenda a little bit later the elevator projects that for upgrades to TV one and gray science building elevators we also reviewed the facilities master plan progress and we received updates on ongoing projects including the news that the cosmetology project is complete we also received a presentation from enterprise leasing on expanding their fleet management services that they currently have with the college to

[Speaker 1] (13:35 - 13:49)
include the entire fleet that concludes my report questions for Regent Fontenot very much move we'll move on to the policy committee report you know yes the

[Speaker 12] (13:49 - 14:29)
policy committee met on September 29th and there are included in action items tonight the outcome we it was basically doing combining several policies these are all TASB updates and eliminating now the unneeded policies that would be there so they're in the packet we also changed some wording in a local policy having to do with the jurisdiction of our security force and make sure that the jurisdiction is college property or with college personnel report okay any

[Speaker 1] (14:29 - 14:40)
questions for Regent Hall do we have others later in the meeting he'll stand ready to answer next committee meeting is audit investment Regent Gerald's you

[Speaker 7] (14:40 - 15:55)
have a report I do we met on Tuesday we reviewed the quarterly investment report that report has been sent to each one of you through at your college email so I'm sure y'all seen that we got a status update the fixed asset in inventory audit was completed there were a couple of moderate findings which will be corrected then we had the 2025 annual internal report has been submitted to the three state appropriate three state agencies and it has been published on the lead edu website some audits in progress for 2026 or cash management the P card use following up on student activity cash controls the EEC the Empirical Education Center will be divided into four parts professional development PD travel effectiveness testing convocation professional development admin and staff training then also they will work on a CTE assessment management and the main campus risk assessment and business impact analysis both of those last two items should have kicked off yesterday

[Speaker 1] (15:55 - 16:20)
and that's my report thank you very much any questions for Regent Gerald's okay thank you Regent Gerald's for that detailed update thank you to all our welcome thank you to all the committee chairs our committees are working hard every month and taking care of college business thank you for your time we'll move on to report of the president we'll start with dr.

[Speaker 2] (16:20 - 22:21)
Ben on waiva okay I'm not sure exactly I interpret that okay so I have to say I think many of us are just still riding on the high of our first ever perfect reaffirmation just that a few people were here like actually ten ten reviewers spent three full days with us and they evaluated and interviewed us at main campus I want to make sure that you guys understand how how much they were reviewing us so they were at main campus the Liberty Center Dayton High School Goose Creek Memorial High School and three of our different prison units and they wanted to ensure that everything that we documented accurately reflected what who we are and what we did or what we do I'm incredibly proud of the entire college team we I mean we have just worked so well together and it was an all college wide I guess effort you know is what I would say but I want to make sure I especially recognize dr. Walters I don't know how many nights of sleep you have just lost during this entire thing but he's we've been engaged in this effort for two years to prepare and to achieve this outcome but he you know he is the face of sacks for us and so thank you so very very very much I mean I just have and I'll tell you in one of our one of our sessions in which we were being interviewed and and dr. Walters you weren't there but I made the comment before I and dr.

Walters arrived and it was like before there then and then one of our faculty members said no before dr. Walters was here like no you get no credit it's dr. Walters so around our effectiveness effort so wanted to make sure you knew that but also I wanted to thank the board you guys have supported us along the way and we wouldn't I think have achieved these efforts without your support along the way so really appreciate that so we were happy I would say to host our reviewers right but we were just as happy if not happier than to send them on their merry way back to their houses and their lives and the best part is that we don't have to see anyone for another 10 years so this is nice right who knows where everyone will be in 10 years but hey not for another 10 years so you already talked about the gala but I have to tell you so many people were just talking about the food like best food ever for a gala and we have record attendance I think this is record fundraising and almost two hundred thousand dollars and so I think great music great fun very very grateful though to the entire foundation team for pulling this all together as well as our foundation board members who just worked so well and collaboratively with our team to make this I think one of our best our best gala ever so thank you so I will just say about our challenge that due to a technicality technicality our friendly competition between the president's cabinet and the Board of Regents it was a tie it was a tie so the final amount though and the thing that we should really focus on is that combined we we raised almost $30,000 so kudos to well this we have a proposal no no no you can always you can always give us your money but in addition to your money okay we want to put make sure that you put your money where your mouths are so what we're proposing okay is that we have a tiebreaker okay so and so the cabinet challenges the board to a Thanksgiving pie-eating contest okay so it's your basic pumpkin versus pecan pie deal best of three rounds three cabinet members three regents yes it's like it's an actual pie eating contest okay guess what we have we have at least three great eaters who are like ready and up to the the task so so we'll take the money in addition to this but what you don't want to do the pie-eating is that what I'm I said pumpkin and pecan your traditional pumpkin and pecan you get to choose from either one I'd rather give more money or we can just get more money right so we don't need to do the tiebreaker so but thanks for accepting the challenge and we were happy to do it together I wanted to also share with the board and that we were we just were shared that the Houston Endowment awarded the college $500,000 for one year to focus and improve on our efforts of transfer so how many different grants did you say are supporting our efforts just around transfer dr. Walsh for which okay I will tell you I'm always like oh wow this is exciting right but then dr.

Walters like brings me down to earth and says no that means we have to meet four different masters on this right and spend all of this money that is very important right and has has deadlines so we appreciate though having the money to ensure that our students are successfully transferred it's transferring to their universities and completing their degrees and then on to their amazing careers that they want to have so that's that's basically all I

[Speaker 1] (22:21 - 22:51)
have to share thank you any questions for dr. Villanueva on her report David will note that Regent Cotton joined the meeting a few minutes ago online so hi guys hey good evening all right next we'll move on to informational reports we'll start with title 9 CEO report dr. Villanueva just

[Speaker 2] (22:51 - 23:01)
have to acknowledge that we have received you have received the report and you've received it and acknowledge it nothing to requirements nothing to

[Speaker 1] (23:01 - 23:12)
know we have it it's part of our packet we've all looked at it so all we do we need to vote on it or just say we accept it

[Speaker 2] (23:12 - 23:24)
that's it do we need I just wanna make sure do we need to actually we don't go ahead and vote on I think John would you was what to do on this one the title

[Speaker 1] (23:24 - 23:29)
9 CEO report that we have to certify it's under it's under informational

[Speaker 2] (23:29 - 23:38)
reports acknowledge it do we do why not just vote right yeah okay well I'm

[Speaker 1] (23:38 - 24:04)
looking for a motion to accept this title 9 CEO report I got a first motion from Regent Guillory and a second from Regent Warford any any questions about support all in favor say aye any opposed no I the title 9 CEO report as provided is accepted next we'll move to report of Lee college resignations and or

[Speaker 2] (24:04 - 24:22)
retirements reluctantly accepted the resignation of Fran parent but she's not leaving until is at the end of January retirement she doesn't want to come back I'm kidding she loves us we love her and

[Speaker 1] (24:22 - 24:40)
we are excited for her next great things for us we wish her well all right any questions for dr. Villanueva on the report all right we'll move on to our financial report mr.

Jacob Atkins chief financial officer and vice president of

[Speaker 3] (24:40 - 27:50)
finance we're ready for you nice to be with you all this evening so we will be reviewing the activity through the end of September please keep in mind that this is only one month of activity you'll notice that our cash on hand for the operating account is about twelve point six million dollars this is a little lower than anticipated partly due to the federal government shutdown so our ability to draw down funds on our federal grants is being delayed while we we work through the shutdown so we will recoup some of that cash in the future as we are able to charge that down from the federal government as far as our restricted accounts go our board reserves are strong we have four months in our board reserves and we continue to invest in our capital projects as we look at our revenues collected to date you'll notice that our tuition and fees are at 44% that is ahead of our budget on tuition and fees we haven't really collected any of our other revenue through the end of September our salaries are running at seven point six seven percent and are operating at twelve point ten again a reminder that with our efforts to trim the budget and to be more transparent with how we're spending money we're actually making progress towards being very precise with our amounts as of the end of the year so here you can see based on the activity in September our projection would be around seven hundred eighty thousand dollars in surplus as of the end of the year that also includes a five hundred thousand dollar contingency fund right with so so where we're we are progressing in the direction that that we hope for as we set this budget in terms of our facility projects as mentioned the cosmetology project is complete now in October we had just a few things left to do as the end of September and you can see the other progress on our construction projects these are a summary of the new projects that were approved by the board as part of our capital projects fund we have totaled these by area so that you can see where we're making progress and we are going to work diligently this year to make sure that we complete all of those by the end of the year and then finally we have our restricted funds that you can see this 1.7 million dollar deficiency right that that is a reflection of our difficulty with drawing down funds from the federal government Gordon sweet are there any questions thank you thank you very much

[Speaker 1] (27:52 - 27:59)
on to next item is public comment do we have anyone signed up to speak we do we

[Speaker 14] (27:59 - 28:06)
do mr. chairman we have Paisley Wells and Elizabeth Garza I think they want to

[Speaker 1] (28:06 - 29:01)
do this together the chairman's discretion I think it's three are you I think they're handling it up from the from the booth good evening my name is

[Speaker 5] (29:01 - 29:35)
Elizabeth Garza I am the vice president of the criminal justice club thank you I am vice president of the criminal justice club and sadly our president Eric and our secretary Mitzi I weren't able to come and join us today because of their work schedule which is it's okay but they are here in spirit they wish as well and hopefully this meeting goes well I'd like to introduce my secretary also of the club Paisley Wells and today we'll be going over our club meetings that we have scheduled our budget and hopeful events that we

[Speaker 6] (29:35 - 29:57)
can get planned for this semester so we did already introduce our officers we also have now 25 other members we are asking to reinstate our club because the last advisor sadly passed away and it's been kind of dormant for the last few years and mr.

[Speaker 5] (29:57 - 30:57)
Stevenson the criminal justice professor is trying to help us get it back together so our first interest meeting which has been approved and approved her post I guess you could say I've made this poster for our club meeting that is actually I'm gonna be on Tuesday the 21st of next week from 12 to 12 30 p.m. and mr. Stevenson's classroom up in 345 and the club will be exploring how the criminal justice system works while also gaining real-world experience beyond the classroom such as hopefully going on field trips looking at the police academy we have a few members who are interested in being police officers so we were saying and we can get a real life experience for them so they can you know be be it be there physically in the police academy maybe they might not like it maybe they will and you know maybe we can even get detectives out of it and police officers and you know get

[Speaker 6] (30:57 - 31:39)
more help in the community um we are asking $500 for the club we already have actually now it's $1,600 because we did fundraise today at the fall fiesta we're requesting this money for specifically for the bus travel and for our events we're gonna try to take kids to the prison in Huntsville um only problem is is not all of them are 18 so we're trying to figure that out um but we are also trying to fundraise to get money for that yes as she said we did fundraise

[Speaker 5] (31:39 - 31:46)
today at the fall fiesta roughly made a good $100 that bumped us up to 1600 and

[Speaker 6] (31:51 - 31:59)
this is all of what we sold today this is what we were selling today from the

[Speaker 5] (31:59 - 32:37)
fall fiesta so our future event is on October the 16th which was today was the fall fiesta and our next event will be our trunk or tree October 23rd will be right here off of Decker actually and this event will allow members to interact with the community and they will also provide a fun experience for members who have joined to volunteer and we were planning we haven't got an official date because we still want to see about transportation and we still want to get our money going going through and we do plan to see and visit the Police Academy in prison in November mid-November before Thanksgiving break

[Speaker 6] (32:38 - 33:08)
and yeah as it says right there this is just for people who do want the first-hand experience I know me if I was to want to work in a prison I want to see what's going on in there before I cuz TV isn't always right I just want to see what's kind of going on and it also helps us in the classroom to better understand procedures thank you do y'all have any questions all right thank

[Speaker 5] (33:08 - 33:19)
you for your presentation thank you so much for having us all right

[Speaker 1] (33:19 - 37:18)
mr. moment anyone else signed up okay we'll move on to items of action we have before us consent agenda iteration of new hires the administration recommends that the board approved the new hires as presented below we have miss Katrina Johnson and mr. Wesley Wiseman second got a motion for Regent Guillory and a second from Regent Fontenot are there any questions on this item hearing none all in favor say aye aye any opposed no all right the hires are approved thank you all right we'll move on to new business consideration of adoption of board policy revisions for local policies the administration and Board Policy Committee recommend that the board approve and adopt the revisions to local board policies as presented and recommended by the Texas Association of School Boards update number 49 second and motion from Regent Hall the second from Regent Fontenot are there any questions on this item or anything you would like to highlight Regent Hall okay all right nothing else all in favor say aye aye any opposed no all right the motion is approved for the adoption of board policy revisions for local policies next item is consideration of adoption of local board policy revision and Board of Regents procedures manual update the administration recommends that the board approve and adopt the revisions to the BDB local board policy along with the corresponding updates to the Board of Regents procedures manual motion Regent Hall second from Regent Warford this side can jump in anytime you like any questions any other questions or hearing none all in favor say aye aye any opposed no all right motion is approved on the adoption of local board policy revision and Board of Regents procedures manual update next item is consideration of approval of elevator modernization for the technical vocational one and gray science buildings the administration recommends that the board authorize the president or her designee to negotiate final terms and approve the elevator modernization to cone for the amount of two hundred eighty thousand three hundred and twenty dollars and forty one cents at a motion from Regent Hensel and a second from Regent Warford any any questions or discussion on this item it's gonna go

[Speaker 8] (37:18 - 38:04)
down and be done right I asked the Coney project manager about those that and he says it's more normal for three floor above high-rise buildings to do this it's it's it can be done and we're gonna go check and see you know these two buildings don't have generator backup right now at all so but but we will look to see what generators we have on the buildings and see what we can do about getting that hooked up yeah yeah yeah yeah they have the evac you track

[Speaker 1] (38:04 - 38:26)
that was a follow-up item from the building yesterday that the staff was going to look at related to this these two items any specific questions on these two items and the scope of work and the budget we have we don't have a

[Speaker 8] (38:26 - 38:40)
generator okay yeah you can it can be a it's part of this we don't have a generator backup for these two buildings so we can yeah so should we look in the

[Speaker 1] (38:40 - 38:49)
future at a generator for these buildings we can at that time then add the generator interface to this system other buildings have we will do that as

[Speaker 8] (38:49 - 39:00)
a follow-up for next month yeah yes yeah yeah we will look at that and report that that was a requested

[Speaker 1] (39:00 - 40:35)
follow-up item from the building committee meeting any other questions on this item all right hearing none all in favor say aye aye any opposed no all right we've just approved the elevator modernization for TV one and gray science buildings all right consideration of the adoption of the 2025-26 tax levy order and resolution the administration recommends that the board adopt the 2025-2026 tax levy order and resolution fixing and levying the Lee College District ad valorem maintenance and operations rate of zero point one eight zero eight one per $100 valuation and a debt service rate of zero point zero zero six two five cents per $100 valuation for the total combined rate of zero point one eight seven zero six cents per $100 valuation for the fiscal year 2025-2026 second all right we got a motion from Regent Hemsel a second from Regent Thomas this different than what we did last month I think this is this is the official this is the official vote of what we've reviewed last month right this is what you presented yes just come on up for just clarification yes so in

[Speaker 3] (40:35 - 41:02)
the adoption process in September you set the rate so that it gives us the opportunity to advertise this publicly and then October you formally adopt it and so this is the same as what was reviewed and approved in the September meeting yes it is so we were at nineteen and a half cents last year so this is a eight

[Speaker 1] (41:02 - 41:48)
tenths of a penny reduction any other questions comments hearing none all in favor say aye aye any opposed all right the we've just adopted the 2025-2026 tax levy order and resolution all right next order of business we'll be moving into executive session the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above listed date after proper posting and in accordance with chapter 551 of the Texas government code for the specific purposes provided will recess from open meeting to closed meeting no action will be taken while the board is

[Speaker 14] (41:48 - 41:54)
recessed in executive session the over-under was 9 p.m.