Trustees vote to keep Harley-Davidson program in Frontenac

Fort Scott Community College's Harley-Davidson program will remain in Frontenac for the foreseeable future.

The FSCC Board of Trustees unanimously approved a lease agreement with the city of Frontenac during Monday night's regular board meeting. The program has been housed in Frontenac since 2005.

According to information made available to the trustees, "Annual rent payments (currently) total $111,600. Since the original agreement in 2005, laws have changed and FSCC is no longer prohibited from owning property outside of the defined service area. The city of Frontenac has presented an agreement that would transfer ownership of this property to FSCC after an additional 10-year term."

The agreement is effective as of July 1, 2015, with the newly approved annual lease payments totaling $75,600.

"I think it makes good sense to reduce the lease payment wherever we can do that," FSCC President Clayton Tatro told the The Tribune Monday night. "The lease payment at $75,600 is less expensive than to build a new facility here in Fort Scott. With that reduction in lease, we should be able to turn a negative return per credit hour into a positive return per credit hour for that program. So in that sense, it's a very good financial move not only to be in the black on the program, but also being able to benefit from the reduction in lease."

Public Forum

Fort Scott resident Bob Marshall, during the public forum portion of the meeting, said he has heard about a possible past FSCC truck driving school grade-change scandal. Marshall told The Tribune Tuesday afternoon that he had learned of this information from "multiple sources."

"We have heard that certain members of the board of trustees have received information regarding these grade changes," Marshall said. "Have you as a Board of Trustees been made aware of this issue?"

"It will be handled in executive session," FSCC Board of Trustees President Robert Nelson said.

On Tuesday, Nelson declined to comment on whether the issue was discussed during an executive session designed for discussion of non-elected personnel to protect their privacy.

Marshall also asked about summer enrollment numbers for the school.

"We have ongoing summer enrollment in July, where we will pick up additional enrollment," Tatro said. "But right now, our enrollment is roughly in the neighborhood of 2,500 credit hours for summer. That will increase as we go through the month of July."

Fort Scott resident Dana McKenney, asked whether the FSCC position of director of institutional research was publicly posted. Charles McKown, who held that position, was named dean of research and technology in June.

"The director of institutional research that did get advanced to a dean's position was not posted," Tatro said during the meeting. "We had an opportunity to select an amazingly qualified person that became available. The board was made well aware of that prior to that appointment."

McKown was present during the meeting to discuss another agenda item.

"We had an opportunity to seek out a particular individual that could help us with our database and our student information system," Tatro said. "Interviews were made, and were done, and a committee recommendation was made."

McKenney later asked for an explanation of the school's hiring process regarding "new job positions."

"We have a hiring process that we go through as a typical matter of course," Tatro said. "There are reasons and opportunities not to go through that at times. And there's always opportunity to deviate in extreme circumstances. This was a unique opportunity to secure the employment of someone that quickly became available to us. And we did not go through the standard selection process."

According to a June FSCC press release, "McKown has over 26 years of experience in community college administration, technology and teaching. Most recently he served as vice president of research and technology at Cowely College in Arkansas City. McKown has also worked and taught with Barton County Community College."

Nelson addressed the issue at length.

"It is a function of the board of trustees to establish policy for the college, looking into the future for the college," Nelson said. "It is not the function of the board to become involved in operations on a daily basis of the college. We don't have that expertise. We're not here every day, five days a week, making those types of decisions.

"So when you ask those kinds of questions... it puts the board in a position of being operational. And the board is not an operational entity at the college. We are not another level of the administration of the college. Our jobs are totally different from making those types of decisions. So, we can't do that. And when it calls for comments from the public... it calls for comments, not questions and answers.

"So we need to be careful about that, because it can cause some problems in the college -- and the function of the college and the function of the board. So we as a board, we have to be careful how we respond to questions. We can't do that, because we aren't here everyday, seeing what needs to be done on a daily basis. That's not our function. Our function is policy, and seeing the college function under those policies."

After Nelson finished, Marshall addressed Nelson from the audience, asking if he could "comment or ask a question."

"It says open comments from the public," Nelson said.

"Are we still on that (public forum)?" Marshall asked.

"I'm ready to move on so we can go to the agenda," Nelson said.

Later in the meeting, trustee Jim Sather asked Nelson for an explanation of the guidelines regarding public forum comments.

"This is just a question, but is it possible to go back and listen to a few comments for just a few minutes," Sather said. "You gave a great explanation of board policy, but I think there's people here that might have a question or a comment about that. I just know, some people prepared to come out this evening for comments."

Fort Scott resident Jim Scott said he was concerned about not being afforded the opportunity to speak during the public forum.

"Your comments, I feel like are kind of inhibiting for people in the community," Scott said. "It's almost like we're being chided just for asking a simple question. Hypothetically, if the community no longer has the confidence in the management of the college, they no longer trust the answers, they no longer believe they're telling the truth -- can they not turn to the board and say, 'Help, could you answer some questions for us because we don't understand how this works?'

"And I want to remind the board, you're not representing the college, you're representing the people in the community because you're elected officials. Which tells me you do have an obligation to listen and help us when we have questions that we don't understand. But I just get this feeling, what was just said to us was, 'don't bother us.' Where's the transparency? Where's the openness with the community? When we have a question we'd just like to ask it. And I get the feeling like we're being made the bad people."

Wireless network upgrade

The board unanimously approved a wireless network upgrade proposal submitted by Yellow Dog Networks for locations at the main campus, Burke Street campus, Miami County Campus and Pittsburg Education campus. According to information provided to the board, "the estimated cost will be between $110,000 to $115,000. The information states that "Monies are budgeted in the 2014-15 general fund and dorm budgets. The cost for this update will be finalized in the presentation."

"I think anything you can do to improve technology for students is huge," Tatro said. "I think it makes good sense to do as much as we can with wireless access. Definitely, as we talked about tonight, the wave of the future. It's going to be extremely hard for us to upgrade any other technology if we don't have that wireless access piece in place."

Executive session

A 60-minute executive session to discuss non-elected personnel was extended by 30 minutes, with no action taken. After the executive session, the board returned to open session and then adjourned.