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Employees want college board to work on teamwork

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The Coast Community College District Board of Trustees needs to improve teamwork and efficiency, according to a recent district employee survey.

In addition to revamping and completing their self-evaluation in August, district trustees developed a survey that allowed employees to measure the board’s effectiveness.

The decision to improve the survey stemmed from remarks made by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges in July after finding board inefficiencies and issues at the district’s three campuses, said board President Lorraine Prinsky.

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“One of the warnings is to follow self-evaluation policies,” she said. “Our board decided to go a step further and develop a more comprehensive survey for our evaluation. We also developed an evaluation for all of our staff to evaluate the board.”

The district has been working for several months to correct employee and educational practices that have placed its three colleges at risk of losing their educational credentials.

Every six years, the commission evaluates colleges to ensure that they are complying with regulations that govern what they must do to receive accreditation — a measure of educational quality that ensures students can transition to four-year universities and that the colleges can maintain government funding.

The district has until March to make changes.

While the board received some encouraging comments in the survey, the bulk of responses from the 357 staff members were brutal criticisms, especially in terms of the board’s perceived in-fighting and lack of transparency, according to the survey’s summary.

“This district used to be amazing, student centered, a place people felt fortunate to work. It has changed for the worse and continues to do so. I don’t know a happy person in their job,” one staff member wrote.

In addition to the comments section of the survey, staff members were also asked to rank the board in specific areas, the best option being “outstanding” and the worst being “unacceptable.” Staff members also had the option of “unable to evaluate” if they didn’t have enough information to make an informed selection.

Asked about the board’s effectiveness in policy making to “ensure the quality, integrity, and improvement of student learning programs and services and the resources necessary to support them,” 34% of respondents replied that the board needs to improve, while 7% rated them outstanding in that category.

The survey also shows that 28% of the respondents feel the board needs to improve in working as a team when making decisions.

Prinsky said the board is taking the comments seriously and will use them as a benchmark for development.

“We’re interested in the perceptions that our employees have of the board,” she said. “Their comments are legitimate. It’s their opinion of us. Regardless of what it is, it’s still that employee’s perception of the board and we need to pay attention to that.”

Prinsky is putting together a report, based on the results of the survey, outlining specific areas where the board needs to improve. She will present the report for board approval at a future meeting, she said.

“We’re not afraid of the negative,” she said. “We’re going to use this to improve.”

In their own evaluation, four out of five trustees said they need to improve communication with one another to reflect a climate of trust and respect.

“The lack of trust and mutual respect among members creates problems for working as a team. When there is distrust and hostility coming from the board, it permeates the entire district,” trustees wrote.

Trustees also acknowledged that they need to improve communication with Chancellor Andrew Jones, according to the comments section of the self-evaluation.

They need to “get the chancellor to make clear, effective recommendations on all issues — not sit back and let the board hammer things out,” the trustees wrote.

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