College trustees get look at new features of Gordon Parks museum

Fort Scott Community College Board of Trustees monthly meeting featured a change of venue for board members and guests on Monday, with business being moved to the Gordon Parks Museum inside the Danny and Willa Ellis Family Fine Arts Building.

The move was in conjunction with a report to trustees by museum Director Jill Warford on the Nov. 30 "Chair-ity Auction."

The occasion, which commemorated what would have been Parks' 100th birthday, featured 44 custom designed chairs that were auctioned off to raise money for the museum. Warford said about 120 people attended the event, which raised $3,100 for children's programming at the museum and featured artists from Fort Scott, Uniontown, Nevada and Pittsburg.

Warford took trustees and guests on a brief tour that included new additions to the museum, including a timeline wall, chronicling Parks' life and career, touchscreen computer screens, an "apartment" wall screen simulating the windows inside Parks' New York City apartment, a grand piano and memorabilia case.

Warford also updated trustees of future plans for the museum, including an African-American history of Fort Scott, a children's exhibit, a visiting artwork exhibit and a glass case to display some of Parks' wardrobe.

Trustees also received financial statements and independent auditors' report from Terry Sercer, of Diehl, Banwart, Bolton Certified Public Accountants, which showed that FSCC had no violations of Kansas statutes, federal laws or regulations in its accounting practices.

Sercer said he is always amazed to see just how much federal money is channeled into FSCC. This year, that included more than $11.3 million in federal funds.

"That's a huge impact," Sercer said.

The only deficiency found was in the area of control, Sercer reported, which involved having the same entity prepare financial statements as the one that audits them. Sercer said this is the case in an overwhelming majority of audits he has seen.

"My advice is to do nothing," Sercer said.

Trustees also approved the 2012 audit contract agreement with the firm.

During the president's report, FSCC President Clayton Tatro said next semester should be a busy one in the Kansas Legislature and he anticipates "a lot of activity" around issues that will affect the campus, including budget adjustments and guns.

In other business, trustees:

*Approved a memorandum of understanding with Greenbush on FSCC's role in the Southeast Kansas Education Service Center to provide services for special education, vocational education and other services in conjunction with USD 101, Neosho County, USD 248 Crawford County, USD 366 Woodson County and USD 404, Cherokee County.

*Approved the hiring of Diane Sodders as a case manager and Andrew Havercamp, as an environmental water technology instructor, effective Jan. 3, 2013.

*Approved separations for Nathan Bagnall, custodian, effective Dec. 12, and Robert Oswald information technology technician, effective Dec. 4.

*Approved a consideration of agreement with CDW Government LLC, Vernon Hills, Ill., which allows FSCC to purchase IT related merchandise at substantial discounts.

*Heard a presentation from Ellen Edwards, of CEM Environmental Mechanical Service, pitching an integrated control system for heat, air conditioning and other systems at FSCC.

*Received a report from the athletic department on fall sports, which included accomplishments on and off the field and listed numerous community service projects student athletes participated in.