Gateway Community and Technical College has approved its budget for the next fiscal year despite a lack of board appointees.
The college’s board of directors met Thursday to approve the budget and discuss President Fernando Figueroa’s annual performance evaluation. Although the budget projections were optimistic, the discussion surrounding them and the president’s evaluation shined a light onto the peculiarities of the technical college system in Kentucky and the frustrations the board members experienced as a result.
Christi Godman, the college vice president of operations, and Paul Tontillo, the associate vice president of finance, presented the proposed budget to the board.
Notable changes to the budget included increased state funding allocations, a 1.6% tuition increase, a raise for the college’s adjunct faculty and continued tuition waivers for dual credit students.
An increase in tuition dollars from greater-than-expected enrollment was one of the driving factors for the college’s revenue growth, Tontillo said. The college has seen a 4.5% increase in student head count since spring of 2023 and a 3.6% increase in credit hours in the same time frame. The total amount of the money budgeted for the next fiscal year was about $28 million with most expenses associated with instruction.
All of the board members cast yes votes on the proposed budget, except one, Charlie Coleman, who cast a present vote, meaning that he neither approved of nor opposed the proposed budget.
Coleman complemented the college staff’s work on the budget then gave his reasoning for why he voted the way he did.
“I think politics are destroying this country,” Coleman said. “I think politics need to stay out of Gateway.”
He did not elaborate specifically on what he meant during the meeting.
Later in the meeting, the question of the president’s performance evaluation came up. Notably, Figeuroa’s marks in two categories–external relations and board relations, which focused on the president’s ability to communicate with the community and directors, respectively–had declined from an exceeding expectations mark to a meeting expectations mark.
In order to understand the importance of these marks, one has to understand the structure of technical college governance in Kentucky, which is somewhat peculiar. Gateway is part of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, which is governed by a board of regents. Each college then has its own board of directors, who act less as unilateral decision makers and more like localized advisors to the state board of regents, who have final say in policy decisions. There are 10 seats on Gateway’s Board of Directors. Seven members are appointed by the governor, and then there are three elected members: a faculty member, an administrative staff member and a student.
There are currently only seven members on the board. The three open seats came about after one of the former member’s term expired and two others resigned their positions. A seven-member board is enough to conduct business, Baines said, but it inevitably constrains the points of view on the board. What’s more, Baines said, in spite of the attempts to contact the governor about the problem, new appointments have not occurred. It’s been like this for almost a year.
“We tried to follow up on that,” Baines told LINK nky after the meeting. “We’ve asked for clarity, and I have not gotten anything back. So, I will continue to ask and continue to push, but it’s a source of frustration.”
These troubles informed the meeting discussion.
“I will say it’s been a difficult year for us to understand how to govern and provide good feedback when it’s really unclear what changes could be coming and how that might affect the college,” Baines said during the discussion.
Coleman also expressed frustration with this state of affairs, saying that the board of directors didn’t seem to have much power to make decisions.
“I just seems like the board of regents is going run it, no matter what we say,” Coleman said. “Even if we said we don’t like the budget, they can say, ‘Too bad, this is the budget,’ just to give an example.”
Coleman also asked if it would be more appropriate for the board to enter executive session to discuss the president’s performance privately, arguing that it would allow for more open discussion among the members. An attorney was not present at the meeting, but Figueroa said that it was not permitted.
When asked to give his own point of view on the evaluation after the meeting, Figueroa said, “So there’s been a lot of transition, a lot of conversation about the future of [the Kentucky technical college system], a lot of uncertainty there.”
He affirmed what Baines said about the lack of appointments.
“Without really bringing back the full perspectives of multiple members of the community, it just has a way of not creating as broad a view as would be available with a larger body,” Figueroa said.
The Kentucky Community and Technical College System Board of Regents will cast a final decision on Gateway’s budget at their meeting next month.
The next meeting of the Gateway Board of Directors will take place on Sept. 5 at the Boone County campus of Gateway Technical and Community College in Florence.