The coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact on the state of California budget, both in the reduction of funds available as part of the budget and also with regards to the timing of the budget, which has been delayed. On June 30, 2020 the Board of Trustees passed a resolution allowing the district to continue operations in the new fiscal year beginning July 1, 2020 while work to align the Peralta Community College District budget with the resources allocated by the final California budget continued. The District has made much progress on updating the Tentative Budget for Fiscal Year 2020-21 over the past few week. 

A special meeting of the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees took place on June 30, 2020. During the epic Board of Trustees meeting on June 23, 2020 - the nearly six hour meeting that included a hundred public comments - the Board tabled the planned discussion of the Tentative Budget for Fiscal Year 2020-2021. That budget discussion resumed at the special meeting. Dr. Carla Walter, Vice Chancellor of Finance and Administration, gave a presentation on the proposed Tentative Budget for FY 2020-21. 

In the wake of the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Ahmaud Arbery and others, educators are determining options for a thoughtful response. At first, school principals and college presidents responded by releasing public statements to their campus communities. See Peralta Community College District's Executive Leadership statement as well as statements by Chancellor Stanback Stroud, President Gilkerson at Laney College, President Johnson at Merritt College, President Garcia at Berkeley City College, and President Karas at College of Alameda. 

On Tuesday June 23, 2020, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees took an historic step by unanimously voting to terminate the District’s contract with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office (ACSO) after a six-month extension ending December 31, 2020.

Due to the continuing Alameda County directive to shelter in place, the Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees met via Zoom on June 23, 2020. This meeting was epic. Clocking in at 5 hours and 40 minutes or so, the meeting included a landmark vote on the District's relationship with Alameda County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) which helped draw 100 speakers for the public comment section of the meeting. Additionally, this meeting was the last for Dr. Tammeil Gilkerson, Laney College President, and Dr. Timothy Karas, College of Alameda President. The full video recording of the meeting is available on the Peralta YouTube channel here. 

As President of the Peralta Board of Trustees, I want to acknowledge that the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees is aware of the allegation of racist remarks by an instructor to a student at Laney College regarding the pronunciation of the student’s name. Consistent with his rights to due process, the instructor has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation into this matter.