[LEADVILLE] – Colorado Mountain College’s Board of Trustees held its September 2014 meeting Monday at the college’s campus in Leadville, one of CMC’s three residential campuses.
During the meeting the board unanimously voted to approve:
- Articulation agreements with the Colorado Department of Higher Education, for two dozen associate degrees with specific discipline designations
- Accepting the preliminary financial report for the first quarter of the current fiscal year
- Amending the contract for President Dr. Carrie Besnette Hauser, changing the date of her first annual performance evaluation to coincide with the end of the college’s fiscal year June 30, 2015
- Several new college policies in the area of human resources.
The new policies approved by the board included shifting paydays for hourly employees to every other Friday, supporting a drug-free workplace in accordance with recommendations from the state Office of the Attorney General, and phasing out compensatory time while still allowing overtime pay as appropriate.
Trustees approved a recent action from the Partnership for Education (a partnership between the Eagle County School District and Eagle County) to convey acreage in Edwards to Colorado Mountain College, land that has been held by the college in a lease. Trustees voted to approve the relocation of Colorado Mountain College’s instructional site in Salida to 349 E. 9th Street, in the Salida School District’s main administrative building.
In addition, trustees approved that the college president negotiate and execute a contract with Ellucian, which currently provides computer software operating systems to the college, allowing CMC to upgrade mission-critical student information systems at a cost of no more than $750,000 in the current fiscal year and no more than $1.5 million total over three years. Many of the software modules the college currently uses have not been updated in nearly 10 years.
“The software upgrades will provide usability from the student side,” said Dr. Matt Gianneschi, chief operating officer for the college. “They will allow us to modernize all our student-facing technology, including registration and payment. Improving our organizational effectiveness, empowering students to be successful and improving access are three of the goals in our new strategic plan.”
The trustees received a report regarding a partnership between the college and Freeport-McMoRan Inc., parent corporation of the Climax Molybdenum Co. and Henderson Mill, in which Colorado Mountain College is providing diagnostic electrician training for company employees in Leadville and Summit County. The training is delivered in a hybrid format and through use of the college’s mobile technology lab, which is based at the Rifle campus. The courses are funded by Freeport-McMoRan and will qualify employees to be eligible for the highest salary range locally.
The trustees also received preliminary information about some proposed initiatives at the campus in Summit County, including a greenhouse and solar panels.