Friday, March 20, 2020
Greetings Peralta Community! Welcome to issue #12 of Peralta Gems. This issue contains important information about the District response to COVID-19 so please read closely. Last week was densely packed with events so this issue is being sent on Sunday March 22nd. Thank you to everyone for your flexibility, positive attitude, and continuing support in these very stressful times. --Mark Johnson
Oakland Fire Department Removes Laney and Merritt Colleges from Fire Watch
President Gilkerson says, "Let us virtually CELEBRATE!"
How about some fantastic news? Earlier this week, the Oakland Fire Department conducted inspections at both Laney College (on March 18) and Merritt College) (on March 19). As a result of these inspections, which included thorough tests of the emergency fire alarm systems, both Laney College and Merritt College were removed from Fire Watch status.
Laney College President Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson says, "I'm happy to announce that we have successfully been taken off Fire Watch as of [March 18, 2020]! I am so grateful to you for your patience and your belief that we could rise to meet this challenge.Thank you to Amy Marshall, VC Sata, and our engineers for all of their support."
Dr. David Johnson, Acting President at Merritt College, wrote to the Merritt community on Thursday, March 19, "I want to thank all of you for your patience and cooperation during this time. It has been a long and frustrating road, but we are finally on the other side. I also need to take a moment to recognize a few people in particular. Vice Chancellor Leigh Sata has been a tremendous advocate for Merritt College. He really stepped up to push the contractor to expedite the work and get it done correctly, so I want to thank him and his team of engineers for a job well done. Vikki Menzies also deserves a tremendous amount of credit for shepherding the project along. She kept us apprised of the progress at every step, and her flexibility/long hours underscore her commitment. Hopefully, this news provides a bit of optimism during this challenging time."
Dr. Leigh Sata (Vice Chancellor, Department of General Services), stated "The lifting of fire watch and the successful remediation of the many deficiencies reflect the contributions of many, including College and District leadership, Classified Staff and Consultants. Solving complex issues takes an entire village!" Here is a short and certainly incomplete least of individuals involved that helped:
- The Chancellor prioritized the issue and empowered her staff to find creative solutions to the problem. The Board of Trustees provided strategic support by approving the many contracts associated with this effort.
- Laney College President Tammeil Gilkerson demonstrated strong leadership and incredible patience. Director of College Facilities, Amy Marshall and Asst. Chief Jason Busby coordinated the Johnson Controls (JCI) team on site.
- At Merritt College, Acting President David Johnson provided steady leadership, with Business Operations Director Victoria Menzies and Asst. Chief Engineer Benny Aranda providing on site District support to the JCI team.
- General Counsel and Chief of Staff Delisle Warden was instrumental in bringing all parties to the table and ensuring that JCI provided adequate support to the team.
- DGS, Purchasing, and Finance teams came together to make sure invoices were paid timely so the work could continue. Thanks to Brian Slaughter, John Hiebert, Adil Ahmed, Andrea Stokes, Nick Shear, Stacy Lancaster, and Jamille Teer.
Hooray! Congratulations and thank you to everyone for your commitment and hard work.
COVID-19 Updates
For the latest information about the Peralta Colleges and COVID-19, bookmark https://web.peralta.edu/health-services/coronavirus/. Here is the status as of Friday, March 20, 2020:
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Updates during the Spring Break week included:
- Announcement that classes are cancelled from March 23-April 5, 2020
- An FAQ about the cancelations posted on March 17
- Information for Students emailed and posted on March 18
- Update from Chancellor Stanback Stroud sent on March 20, 2020
Following Alameda County’s “Shelter-in-Place” order, Governor Newsom has now issued the same directive statewide. The PCCD Emergency Management Team has been convening via Zoom every day to respond to the emergency and facilitate institutional and academic continuity.
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Please be reminded, all classes are canceled March 23-April 5, 2020. Remote instruction is scheduled to resume on April 6, 2020. |
Over the next two weeks, faculty will continue the excellent work of converting face-to-face classes into remote instructional formats. Non-instructional faculty and staff will continue to provide important student services using remote formats. Thank you to the many faculty and staff who have been working with us to transition on this unprecedented scale. We will continue to disseminate information related to the many details that are being worked out in order to maintain institutional and academic continuity. Chancellor Eloy Ortiz Oakley has projected, based on data from the California Department of Public Health, that the need for social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 will continue well into June and perhaps beyond. Vice Chancellor Siri Brown and her team, the college Vice Presidents of Instruction, the District and College Academic Senate leaders, Distance Education coordinators and leads are exploring options for laboratory, career education, and activity classes. Thank you to the more than 35 science discipline faculty who participated in the Labster demonstration as they consider remote laboratory instruction. We will continue to update you as the situation evolves. The latest updates from Peralta regarding COVID-19 are available at https://web.peralta.edu/health-services/coronavirus |
Board of Trustees Meeting March 10, 2020
The Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, March 10, 2020. The full meeting (3 hours 19 minutes) is available on the Peralta YouTube channel. The Chancellor's Report, which includes an update by Chancellor Regina Stanback Stroud on the novel coronavirus and its impact on the District, a statement from Ms. Andrea Dawson, chair of the Bond Measures Oversight Committee, and recent campus highlights reported by each of the college presidents, is available here (28 minutes). As mentioned last week in Peralta Gems, the Trustees conferred Tenure status to 30 faculty members across all four colleges. Congratulations to our newly tenured faculty! The meeting also featured an excellent presentation on Student Success Metrics created by the Office of Academic Affairs and Student Success, Office of Institutional Research, and the college Vice Presidents of Instruction and Student Services. The slides are available here. You can watch on YouTube here. Additionally, during the closed session, the Board of Trustees approved Chancellor Stanback Stroud's recommendation to follow on the previously approved cost of living (COLA) increase for PFT and Local 39 with a 3.26% COLA pay increase for the remaining employee groups including confidential staff and administrators. Thank you Chancellor Stanback Stroud, Trustee President Julina Bonilla, Trustee Vice President Cindi Napoli-Abella Reiss and the Board of Trustees for granting the COLA increase to all employees! |
District Facilities Committee Meeting features Bond Management Plans
At the District Facilities Committee meeting on March 6, 2020, Keith Kajiya and Sharon Serrano from AECOM presented to the committee the plan for how AECOM, Peralta's new bond program management partner, will work together with the Department of General Services and the Colleges to effectively progress the many current and planned bond projects. Slides from that presentation are available here.
Also during the meeting, Dr. Leigh Sata, Vice Chancellor, Department of General Services, shared an update on the many facilities projects in progress and recently completed across the district including the repair of windows and the doors at the Laney College Theater, emergency repairs of leaking water pipes at College of Alameda, completion of the HVAC upgrade project at COA's Aviation Campus and other projects.
District Wide Managers Meeting and Standards of Excellence
On the morning of March 10, 2020, administrative managers from throughout the Peralta Community College District met at the District boardroom. This was the second time that Chancellor Stanback Stroud had the managers meet since she joined the District. At the first meeting, on December 3, 2019, managers were led on a brainstorming session by Chancellor Stanback Stroud and guest facilitator Dr. Angelica Garcia (Vice President of Student Services at Skyline College in San Bruno CA) to identify leadership standards of excellence that all managers can support and live by as we work to make the District and the four colleges even more excellent. The resulting lists of standards were compiled, workshopped, wordsmithed, and finally approved by the managers. The Standards are listed below. Click here to download a PDF of the Peralta Community College District Leadership Standards of Excellence.
The meeting on March 10 included a presentation by Delisle Warden (General Counsel and Chief of Staff) and Brandi Howard (Contracts and Legal Affairs Coordinator) on the new workflow for contract review at the District. Working closely with Antoine Mehouelley (Director, IT) and the IT Team, the legal team has used the IT ticketing system to create a workflow for better tracking and more timely approvals of contracts. The result is a new, more efficient process while using existing District software resources. We'll be announcing more details of the new workflow soon.
Chancelle Whittaker (Vice Chancellor, Human Resources & Employee Relations) presented a tutorial on providing meaningful employee reviews and other important topics. Chancellor Stanback Stroud and Vice Chancellor Leigh Sata also gave updates on the work the District had done to that point in response to the novel coronavirus and preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Chancellor Ron Gerhard Visits Peralta
Ron Gerhard is the Interim Chancellor at the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District and a good friend of Chancellor Regina Stanback Stroud. Dr. Stanback Stroud invited Chancellor Gerhard to visit the Peralta Cabinet session on Monday, March 9, 2020 to discuss research he and the Chabot-Las Positas District have done around the new Student Centered Funding Formula (SCFF).
This research helps inform colleges and districts on how to maximize funding from the state based on the new forumula. The research has also revealed that the SCFF has some challenges in terms of equity for districts in more expensive areas, and particularly San Francisco Bay Area community college districts like Chabot-Las Positas and Peralta. Student grants and aid in these districts only pay a fraction of living expenses for students when compared to districts in geographic locations with lower costs of living, so fewer students are rewarded with such grants and aid in the Bay Area. Chancellor Gerhard and Chancellor Stanback Stroud are working with other Bay Area chancellors to identify and recommend corrective measures. |
Suzanne Kunkel's Retirement Luncheon
On Wednesday, March 11, 2020, Chancellor Stanback Stroud hosted a luncheon honoring Executive Assistant Suzanne Kunkel who is retiring this month after 10 years of service at the Peralta Community College District. The event was catered by the fabulous Culinary Arts department at Laney College, so the food was excellent. A photo gallery of the event is available on the Peralta District SmugMug site here. Congratulations Suzanne and enjoy your well-deserved spa trip and your new life of leisure!
Brandon Christian, Suzanne Kunkel, and Brenda Martinez
Upcoming Events
Following the Alameda County and now also the California statewide shelter-in-place directive, the District and all four college campus locations are closed and in-person events are cancelled.
Board of Trustees Meeting Tuesday, March 24, 2020
To reduce exposures and transmission of the novel coronavirus, the District Board Room is closed but the Board of Trustees meeting will go on as scheduled. Mechanisms are being put in place to allow the Board of Trustees, the Chancellor and her Cabinet, and elected student, classified, and academic representatives to participate remotely using teleconference technology.
The meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 7 pm on Tuesday, March 24, 2020, will be available via live stream on the Peralta Colleges YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/peraltatv/featured. If you would like to speak at this meeting as part of the public comment agenda item, please contact Brenda Martinez, Board Clerk, at bmartinez@peralta.edu by 3pm on Tuesday March 24, 2020.
