[Speaker 1] (0:00 - 0:16) That one's for real. All right, I call to order the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on March 19, 2026 at 6 p.m. We have a quorum present. Next order of business is invocation and pledges to our flags. Regent Pam Warford will lead us. [Speaker 10] (1:01 - 1:15) 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] (1:19 - 1:29) 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 1] (1:29 - 1:39) Thank you. All right, next order of business is the way we should start every meeting in that student spotlight. President Adkins. [Speaker 2] (1:41 - 1:48) I'd like to invite our athletic director and head men's basketball coach Nick Wade to the podium to introduce our speaker today. [Speaker 4] (1:58 - 6:27) Thank you guys so much for having us. You know, this last week just wrapped up our conference tournament and just an incredible week, incredible week for the city. It was really a lot of fun. No, came up one game short, but that's okay. There's a lot to, you know, take home and be proud about these guys. I mean, that was their fifth game in seven days, which is already a mountain of a task. In that same week, we had beat the number five team in the country, the number 11 team in the country. And, you know, that was our third championship game in five years. And I don't know if people are aware of that. So it still holds true. If you're a freshman and you complete your journey with Lee College, at some point you've played in a championship game or went to the national tournament. And I really, really think that's special. There's a couple of people I want to point out before we get to our speaker. If our lone sophomore that's here can stand up, please. Josh Smith garnered a ton of accolades this year. He was one of the top hundred ranked juco players in the country. He was second team all-region. He was first team all-tournament team. And he holds a host of offers. So he'll be actually traveling the last little bit of school, going on different visits to his four year university. And most importantly, the thing we're proudest about, he will graduate and walk across the stage in May. All right. In May. Yes. Exactly. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. The three of our other sophomores actually, believe it or not, are all on visits to other universities for their four-year schools at the moment. Jayden Thomas was second team, excuse me, honorable mention all-region and first team all-tournament team as well. Shamir Green was honorable mention all-region. And like I said, they are all on pace to graduate and they hold multiple offers to continue their careers at the Division One level, which is what it's about. So that's really, really awesome for them. With some of our freshmen, if Mo, you don't mind standing up real quick. Mo was second team all-region this year in his first year and had a great season as well. So we want to make sure to just give him his kudos as well. And then if the whole team would just stand up just so we can give you guys a round of applause. Really, really special group from every corner of the globe. But these guys worked incredibly hard and kept pushing the standard of what Lee College is, what it means to be that. So really, really proud of those guys. And as always, obviously I can't do any of this by myself, have a great department, great staff, but Russell Bundage is here. Please stand up, Coach Russ. He's a full-time teacher in our Goose Creek system. He's a volunteer coach here. You know, we've known each other for well over 15, 20 years now. And we started our coaching career together, so can't do it without him. And Coach Kasia Petri too, who is on the road right now recruiting, so doing all those things. So no, we're really, really thankful for the staff and everything they poured into the guys. Next, I'm going to pass the mic to Matias. Matias is a transfer that we have. He was a red shirt freshman this year. I'll let him tell you a little bit about himself, just kind of his journey over here and a little bit about him. But again, thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate you guys not only pouring in our program, but the athletic department. You know, we kind of reshuffle and get ready for volleyball. Our volleyball coaches are so special. They work so hard. They're great to be around. I mean, every day up at the tournament, they were there cheering and we would talk after games about how just invested they were. And you can see it in their eyes that they're ready to make that jump too. So I appreciate each and every one of you being at the games. I saw you guys and that means the world to me. And please come support them as well because they're putting in the work and they're right on the cusp from doing just special, special things. So. [Speaker 3] (6:30 - 10:37) Yeah. So thank you for this opportunity to speak here. As Coach already said, my name is Matias. I'm an international redshirt freshman from Hamburg, Germany, where I was born and raised as well in a big family. And as a younger brother to my three years older sister, who I got to see play field hockey at the D1 level. And as a young boy growing up, seeing her go through that whole recruiting process made me for sure solidify this goal of wanting to play college basketball. And yeah, that's why I started play like playing around the age of 13. And I made the state team at about 14. That's the picture at the lower bottom left that you see. They were for the first time in my life got to like really practice so much because back home in Germany, we have very few like facilities where you can even like practice basketball. So before I made that state team, it was only possible to like. Oh, perfect. Thank you. So yeah, before I made that team, I really only could like practice basically twice a week. Real close. OK. Yeah. I only got to practice twice a week and then making a jump to the state team where I could practice daily and started really developing as a player helped me. The next big jump was moving out of home when I was 16. The picture to the up left you see where I played in Braunschweig, which is the team where Dennis Schroeder played. And after he made it and made it to NBA and everything, he went back and bought his own old club and started a basketball academy there where I was one of the first classes to be able to receive the help that he had, like the funding that he did for our program, for us to be able to develop. Then after overcoming an ACL injury, I committed to the University of Tyler, Texas to spend my redshirt year there. Unfortunately, we didn't end up really having a good record like that. We were 14th in conference that year, which made me, you know, not knowing if I want to be a part of this type of play next year again. So that's why my roommate back during that time was from Houston and started just looking around, seeing where I could like play basketball a little bit. And I got the contact from our assistant coach, Casey, and I got to, you know, go out here and play, got to introduce myself to coach Wade. And from there on, I was invited to visit shortly after. And shortly after, I received an offer from Lee and was able to commit to Lee College and be a navigator. And now I've only got like a couple of slides left with pictures during the season, throughout the region for team play, where we just got to compete. A picture of our starters, the people that were mentioned that didn't make it here today because they were on visits. And yeah. Oh yeah. I plan on graduating in psychology as a psych major at the next school that I'll hopefully attend. Yes, sir. [Speaker 9] (13:37 - 13:51) Coach. Thank you very much. [Speaker 11] (14:07 - 14:07) All right. [Speaker 4] (14:19 - 14:21) Thank you, guys. [Speaker 1] (14:25 - 15:23) Right. Thank you, guys. Okay. Next order of business is disposition of minutes. We have special board meeting February 2nd, 2026. Policy committee meeting February 3rd, 2026. Special virtual board meeting February 4th, 2026. Audit and investment committee meeting February 16th, 2026. Building committee meeting February 18th, 2026. Board meeting February 19th, 2026. Special board meeting February 26th, 2026. Board retreat workshop meeting February 27th, 2026. And board retreat workshop meeting February 28th, 2026. I'll entertain a motion from someone. A motion from Regent Cotton, second from Regent Warford. Are there any, were there any comments or questions or corrections to any of these minutes? Good. All right. Thank you. All in favor say aye. [Speaker 10] (15:24 - 15:24) Aye. [Speaker 1] (15:25 - 16:35) Any opposed no. All those minutes that I just read are approved. All right. Next, we'll move to a report of the chairman. I've just a brief, just a couple of brief comments. I wish the guys were still here. You know, they gave us some exciting games, especially in the tournament. And if you were there, you probably had these little snapshots of different plays, different things they did. And there's a few that I recall. But the guy named Mo, there was one play where the other player and he grabbed the ball and neither one of them would let go. Were you there to see that? He claimed that ball. He was not letting it go. The refs got there. The teams got there. And those two guys were locked up. And he said, my ball, my home court. And he wouldn't give it up. Man, that guy, I don't, I'm glad they separated peacefully. But he claimed the ball and the court. So a lot of exciting times with those guys. I'm going to mention a couple things. I know President Adkins got more detail on this. We did have a ribbon cutting since our last regular board meeting, the branch campus in Barbers Hill, Mount Bellevue. So that was well attended by a lot of folks in the room. So thank you for that. Not a ribbon cutting, Mr. Chairman, a groundbreaking. [Speaker 8] (16:35 - 16:38) Groundbreaking, I'm sorry. We're looking forward to a ribbon cutting. [Speaker 1] (16:38 - 17:39) Groundbreaking, looking forward to a ribbon cutting soon. Yeah, groundbreaking, that's right. That was a lot of dirt out there. Regent Cotton, your shovel's still in the in the room next door there. So let's see. Other than that, and I failed to mention, I think because I didn't read the newspaper, last meeting we met on Thursday. But in that February edition of that meeting, whatever the meeting was, the 19th, I guess, I think there was a profile of of you in there, wasn't there? There was a profile. And I failed to mention it because I didn't read the paper till I got home that night. And I guess no one else saw it and didn't bring it up. But it was a very good profile on Jacob Atkin and all his background and his history and what he does here at Lee College. And, you know, we're always proud when someone from Lee College is recognized that way. And it was it was a great profile. And I'm sorry that I didn't bring it up last month, but I'm a month late. But anyway, thank you. Thank you for agreeing to do that with the Baytown Sun. [Speaker 2] (17:40 - 17:47) It's my pleasure. And it was a very excellent article. I was honored to be featured in the paper. [Speaker 1] (17:48 - 17:53) All right. That's all I have. I'm going to move on to building committee report. Do we have a report? [Speaker 8] (17:54 - 18:29) Yes, Mr. Chairman. So we met yesterday and we had a review of the facilities master plan. Workshops were held recently. Good feedback on on that participation. Great ideas were exchanged. And then their first steering committee meeting will be next week. We also received a briefing on a proposed land swap between the city of Baytown and Lee College. I believe we're going to discuss that further tonight in executive session. And we received updates on on current projects. [Speaker 1] (18:30 - 18:44) So any questions for Regent Fontenot? Thank you very much. Policy committee. Okay. Thank you. Audit Investment Committee. Regent Geralds? [Speaker 7] (18:44 - 18:46) We're scheduled for April 13th. [Speaker 1] (18:46 - 18:50) Okay. Thank you very much. We'll move to report of the President. Lee College update. [Speaker 2] (18:52 - 19:29) Thank you, Chairman. If I could take a moment of personal privilege. This is my first meeting and I just have to say the relationship with the board has changed a little bit. I was a little slow to respond to one of Regent Himsel's emails. And yesterday at lunch, he sprayed tomato juice all over me. So I've learned. I will respond timely. My apologies. I'm not sure how you got that much juice out of one little tomato. [Speaker 9] (19:29 - 19:31) You got to squeeze it with both. [Speaker 2] (19:32 - 25:57) You're a good shot. So for my report, I would like to provide a few more details about the ribbon. I'm sorry, the groundbreaking at Mont Bellevue. That is an important milestone in what is a historical agreement between Lee College and Barbers Hill Independent School District. At that facility, we will have programs in sonography and respiratory therapy. We'll have several programs that students can complete within IT-related fields. And students will be able to acquire up to 42 credits of general education at that facility. Tremendous benefit. We expect great, great things from that facility and our continued partnership with Barbers Hill. So we're excited to finally have that construction underway. A few additional comments on the men's basketball region 14 tournament. This was our second year hosting. We have, without comparison, the very best facility in region 14 for basketball and volleyball. And we received tremendous compliments from the other teams visiting. It was executed very well. We had no issues. We had no disruptions. And we even had Trinity Valley try to steal Michelle Lewis from us during the event. And so it was very well hosted. Honestly, I think most of the athletic directors are lamenting the decision to move it to Tyler for the next two years. But I'm very confident we'll have it back here after their contract has expired. Next, I'd like to talk about SNAP ENT. We have officially been approved as the third-party provider for SNAP Employment and Training Program. So SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that helps to provide food for financially challenged individuals. This allows us to extend those services to help them achieve high-wage and in-demand career opportunities. We are the first in the state to be awarded this opportunity. This is a big deal for us. And we plan on being the leader and the model for the rest of the state in utilizing these federal resources to help our students find even greater success at Lee College. I'd like to provide the board with an update regarding our workday implementation. We receive an update every Friday from PTG, our implementation partner, where we track our progress and monitor how well we are staying on schedule. So far, every Friday, we are in the green. And that means that we're on target, both on time and on budget. So far, we have completed the pre-planning stage. Right now, we're scheduled to complete the planned stage activities on March 27th. And after that, we'll begin with architecture and implementation work. So it is a massive project. Many of our individuals in finance, HR, and IT are contributing a lot of extra hours in order to make sure that we stay on time and on target. But it's going very well for us so far on our implementation. The college underwent a competitive process for our learning management system. Presently, we're using Blackboard. We considered Blackboard Ultra and Canvas as potential solutions. As a result of that competition, we elected to stay with Blackboard and move it fully into Blackboard Ultra. I will mention that we had over 100 faculty who participated in that selection process and also submitted responses to our survey. 50% recommended that we stay with Blackboard, 30% recommended Canvas, and 20% were undecided. So we will be moving forward with Blackboard Ultra. I will note that we're not required to sign a long-term agreement on this. So we will be year-to-year. And if everything goes well, we'll stay with Blackboard. If we have problems moving into Blackboard Ultra, we may be redoing this process sometime in the near future. I'm happy to report that 95% of our nursing students who graduated in December have passed the NCLEX state licensure exam. They deserve a round of applause for that. We have an exceptionally high passage rate in our nursing program, and our faculty and students should be proud of the work that they're doing in that program. Finally, we have finished a pilot program for diagnostic pre-assessment testing in math and English entry-level courses. This testing is designed to help us identify student needs earlier in the process so that we can help provide tutoring assistance and other intervention services to help our students be successful in these critical courses. Once we finish the semester and we complete our data, we expect to go fully live with this starting next fall based on the success of the pilot program that we've implemented this year. So we're excited about the extra efforts we're making to help our first-time students be more successful. Those courses are strong indicators of future success. Past those two courses, it's a strong indicator of their ability to persist and to graduate, and so we hope that this will yield positive results for us long into the future. And with that, I will turn the time back over to you. Thank you. [Speaker 1] (25:57 - 25:59) Any questions for President Adkins? [Speaker 7] (26:00 - 26:42) I have a comment. I just want to thank Jacob, and there were some staff, faculty, and staff that went to Alamo Elementary across America Day. Is there anybody out here who read? Thank you so much. The kids absolutely love having somebody come in and read to them that is not their teacher. And thank you, Leslie and Jacob, for getting information out. But I just appreciate, I don't work at Alamo anymore, but that's where I retired from, and I'm still connected with them, and my heart is still there. And I just am so proud of this college that will take time out of their busy day to go over and read to some children. So thank you, thank you. [Speaker 2] (26:44 - 26:59) If I could just say, it was so much fun. It's one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had since coming to Baytown. It's a special treat, and in the future, if you have the opportunity, everyone should take advantage of that. [Speaker 1] (27:04 - 27:12) There we go. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to informational reports. Next, we have report of Lee College resignations and or retirements. [Speaker 2] (27:13 - 27:38) Thank you. So David Heinlein, a faculty professor, is retiring on May 9th. He's a 30-year veteran of the college, and we're very grateful for the service that he's provided over the last three decades. Amanda DeVore is resigning. Her last day will be August 14th. She is a faculty member that works in our Huntsville Center. [Speaker 1] (27:41 - 27:50) Very much. Next, we'll move to our financial report. My favorite person that's still around, Renee Woodruff, our controller. Would you please come up? [Speaker 5] (27:53 - 31:46) Good evening. So the financial reports I'll be going over today are the financial results as of February 28th. We're halfway through the year. We'll begin with the cash and investments. Pretty strong on our cash. 46.5 million in operating and 34.6 in our restricted. The unrestricted is about seven months of operating expenses, and the restricted covers about five months of operating expenses. One thing I'd like to highlight is our cash is pretty strong, but we've collected 100% of our tax collections as of February 28th. So with that, I'll move on to the summary of financial statements. You can see here district taxes as of February is 100% and the state revenues. We've received two of the three payments and will receive the remaining 25% in June. Tuition and fees is at 86%, which is the, sorry, the dual credit and out-of-district revenues, and our expenses are right at the pro-rata benchmark of 50%. We're looking pretty good on our expenses. Now that I've gone over where we're at today as of February, let's move on to where we're going to be at August 31st. You can see we're looking at a possible 3.4 million dollar surplus as a result of 1.5 in revenues over and expenses a savings of 1.9. Our revenues is primarily due to tuition and fees. As I said before, the out-of-district and dual credit. We've already met the budget for dual credit, so anything from here on is exceeding budget. Our my books fees, 181,000. So that's given us a total of 1.5 in a surplus in revenues. Our expenses, our salaries and benefits, we're looking to almost break even as of right now. Our contract services, 784,000 in savings, but that should slightly decrease due to timing of all of our contracts being paid the remaining of the year. Other operating expenses, this is primarily due to the my books expenses. Back in December, we changed from WU to VitalSource and we're still working out some of the billing kinks. So this could decrease, this will probably decrease these savings from about three to four hundred thousand. Here we have our facility projects. We had no activity for February. Capital projects, we had 224,000 in expenses in February and those are on the wireless upgrade project and the alert speaker projects and our restricted funds. We're a little behind on our federal grants and contracts, but as the funds are authorized and approved, we'll be drawing those funds down as well. Pretty much it. Any questions? [Speaker 1] (31:47 - 32:12) All right, any questions? Well, thank you. Send Regent Hempstead down to give you a score to catch up. All right, thank you. All right, next we'll move on to public comment. Do we have someone to speak? Yes, Mr. Chairman, we have David Isaac. All right, Mr. Isaac, come on up. [Speaker 6] (32:15 - 35:19) I want to take a moment to thank the basketball team for doing such a great job this year. I want to comment on the comments on the paper of the Baytown Sun in the last article. Mr. Chairman, one of the individuals from this board said that the president's going to move on to greener pastures, yet I don't think that's fair to those who would assess the job or ask the question that was proposed in the paper. Why did the president leave? It said that she left, but it never said or asked or compelled people to think as to why she left. I'll lower my voice. Thank you, Mr. Okay, so why did she leave? Well, for starters, Sela Takoni was fired. Okay, an attempt to using AI was fired, was attempted to be fired inappropriately on the same day she took FMLA leave. We heard it right here. Okay, we heard the president tried to fire her because of silly reasons that she wasn't in the picture for undue cause. There was no evidence as to why she tried to fire her, but there was more to it than that. Board, Chairman, the president had misspent some money for quite a while. We didn't know about this. How did I find this out? I found this out through a source, Don Coffey. We all know that when you talk back there, Don finds out. That's why he named a basketball court after him. Speaking of which, I think this board by doing that is aiding and abetting Don Coffey. $200,000? $10,000 for 20 years. I don't know how long he's going to last, but he is an advisory board member of the Baytown Sun. Maybe that's why the Baytown Sun never covered those articles. The Baytown Sun never covered the president's misspending. The Baytown Sun never covered the fact that the president tried to fire Sela Takoni for inappropriate reasons, even though the Baytown Sun was here for six hours and listened to the same hearing we all did. That's not doing good for the public. We heard Briscoe Cain say things like, a state senator, Don Coffey, belongs in jail. We heard Lucia Bates, current justice of the peace, voted in by a Democratic primary. Then Don Coffey sabotaged her seat and tried to disparage her. We've seen Don Coffey go on trips with Al Bush, architect. I believe we still do business with him. Lee College sold one of its buildings to the city of Baytown and one of the councilmen bought it and then sold it to this college, thanks to the help, perhaps, of Don Coffey. So if anybody knows anything is about cover-ups, it's the Baytown Sun advisory member who has a vendetta. It's Don Coffey, who gets a sweetheart deal supposed to save the president. We know she thought she was going to keep her job that night, but she didn't. Don did get that court named after him, and those kids over there, those young African-American kids busting ass for this institution, have to play on a court named after a crook. It's time to do right. I hope we turn the page and we do right. Do right by these citizens, do right by the taxpayer, do right by the faculty and staff, and do right by these students. Today is going to be a new era. It is. And we're going to turn the page. I got 10 seconds left. Don't look at the time. It's time to turn the page and do right. Have an ethical Lee College from here on out, from this board. No more cover-ups. Thank you. [Speaker 1] (35:21 - 37:17) All right, moving on. Items of action. First item under personnel is consent agenda. All right. Confirmation. Consideration of new hires. The administration recommends that the board approve the new hires as presented below. First, we have Ms. Yasmin Hassan, Executive Director of Procurement and Administrative Services, and Mr. Anthony Wells, Director Respiratory Therapy Program. Got a motion from Regent Warford, a second from, was that you, Regent Hall. All right. Any questions or comments on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. All right. The consideration of these new hires is approved. Next item is consideration of developmental leave recommendation for fiscal year 2026-2027. The administration recommends that the board approve developmental leave for Curtis White. Motion from Regent Hemsel, second from Regent Cotton. Are there any questions or comments on this item? Details explain it. Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. All right. Developmental leave for Curtis White is approved. Thank you. Move to new business. First item to on the agenda is consideration of approval of the academic calendar for January to December 2028. The administ, hold on, but I got you, I got your credit there. The administration recommends that the board approve the academic calendar for the 2028 calendar year. We have a motion from Regent Gerald. So, we have a second. [Speaker 9] (37:17 - 37:17) Second. [Speaker 1] (37:18 - 42:15) Yeah. Second, Regent Cotton. Any questions on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. All right. Academic calendar for January to December 2028 is approved. Next item, consideration of purchase of simulation mannequins and related equipment. The administration recommends that the board approve the use of Texas nursing shortage reduction program grant funds to purchase simulation mannequins and related equipment from Laredal for $207,536.75 and from Gomard for $135,876.40 for a total expenditure of $343,413.15. Is that a motion from Regent Guillory? Second. Second, Regent Cotton. Any questions or comments on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed, no. The purchase of simulation mannequins and related equipment is approved. All right, next item. We will, the board of meeting, the meeting of the Lee College Board of Regents on above list date after proper posting 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 recessed in executive session. We will consult with legal counsel regarding advice on any item on the agenda. We'll deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, and reassignment duties, discipline, dismissal, or compensation of the interim college president, discussion of regarding real property, and discussion of Lee College interim president's duties and responsibilities. We will now recess into closed session. All right, the closed meeting has adjourned and the board will reconvene into open meeting. Next item on the agenda is new business. First item is consideration of Lee College employee contracts for fiscal year 26-27. Okay, the administration recommends the board approve contracts for the academic year 26-27 for employees listed herein. I had a motion from Regent Guillory, a second from somebody over there, Regent Cotton. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. All right, contracts for fiscal year 26-27 as presented are approved. Aye. Aye. Aye. You know what, I didn't realize you weren't there. Sorry. Oh, I didn't even notice you. Sorry about that. I need a visit too, so. All right, next item. Consideration of approval of the college's organizational restructure. The administration recommends that the board approve the proposed organizational restructuring. Second. Motion from Regent Warford, second from Regent Geralds. Any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. All right, the college's organizational restructure is approved. Next item is consideration of supplemental duties agreement for interim college president and related action. Okay, we got a motion from Regent Hall, second from Regent Cotton. Cotton's very vocal tonight. All right. All right, any discussion on this item? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed no. All right, supplemental agreement is in place for our interim president. Okay, we have no other action resulting from closed session, so last item on the agenda is matters of concern for future agendas. All right, hearing none, next item on the agenda is adjournment. We are done.