Thursday November 16, 2023

Dear Campus Community,

Today we are delivering our second memo regarding our annual planning process.  Thank you for your patience as we have been working diligently to gather and synthesize this information for you.

Budget Modifications

It is because of the engagement and work of the budget managers, combined with input from staff across departments at the College, that we at Shoreline have been able to create a comprehensive view of our overall fiscal needs. We want to thank everyone for sharing your institutional knowledge, and for your time in creating a Budget Plan which has been approved by the Board of Trustees. 

Our goal was to construct a process which would largely correct budget errors from last year and, within our limited means, create budgets that better reflect the needs in each area of the College. To do this we employed a strategy called “incremental budgeting” which means we examined the amount spent last year and used it as a starting point for the current year’s budgeting conversations. 

When a budget is created each year, estimates are made for what each area expects to spend.  As we go through the annual budget review process, we determine if the estimated amounts are correct, or if each area has over or underspent.  If over/underspending occurs, budget adjustments need to be made and taken into consideration for the future. If we were to have approved all the adjusted amounts for this year, then the total budget amount would have equaled $55,048,640. This would have been an amount equal to $1,167,025 over the Board approved amount of $53,881,615.

However, through the diligent work of our budget managers and the Budget Office in locating expected reductions in needed costs throughout the departments, we were able to reduce our adjustments, so the total budgeted amount equaled $53,990,330, which is a difference in the amount of $108,715 and within the 1% flexible budget authority granted by the Board of Trustees.

The Executive Team and Area-Leads met with the Budget Office to review every area line-by-line given the total budgeted amount we could work within.  In this analysis, several improvements were made to last year’s rollover budget.  These included items like:

• Corrections for costs on salaries that were inaccurate
• Adjustments for expenses charged to incorrect departments
• Reduced budgets in areas where budgeted amount was no longer needed
• Reviewed and updated budgets to align with new managers and appropriate areas 
• Improved our expense transfer process which allows us to align expenses with the right budget amount for improved tracking 

This year’s work is moving us toward a process where all of us can be better stewards of our own budgets.  As stated in the Strategic Planning Budget Council (SPBC’s) guiding principles, the budget is the responsibility of the campus as a whole.  Though we weren’t able to say yes to everything, we are continually looking for avenues (e.g., grants, alternate contracts, community partnerships) so that we can say yes to items that serve our community and are reflections of our goals and planning. Until then, we thank you for your partnership in realizing our strategic budget plan and ensuring that we are good fiscal stewards for the College.

We will continue to finetune and improve processes as we go. This fiscal year we will add:

• Proactive monthly reporting from the budget office 
• Controls to prevent overspending
• Increased communication with the Budget Office: The Budget Office will make departmental budget changes after consulting with the budget manager. 

Thank you to everyone for being integral to this process, and for sharing your knowledge with us so that we can better serve our students and our community.

Budget uploads should be available in ctcLink later this month.  

Annual Planning

Perhaps the most important part of the Annual Planning process is ensuring that each area has the structure, support, and plan to work on area goals throughout the year to ensure they move their goals forward. To aid with this process:

• The Executive Team has prioritized big picture projects based on your suggestions in the Area Reviews (see chart below).
  • Please note that these are big picture projects only; however, there are many smaller projects happening within areas per the Area Reviews. For Instruction and Student Services, because there is so much work happening and projects ongoing, we have tried to capture “themes” vs. specifics the way we did in other units. The specifics are reflected in the Area Reviews for those units, of course. There just wasn’t room to capture them all here. 

Annual Planning Projects
Area	Project Name	Description	Presidents Goals
Budget	Automated Budget Status Reporting.	Implement a “push” of budget status reports to budget managers monthly.	Communication
Budget	Budget Funds Availability Checking.	Activate budget funds available, non-sufficient funds (NSF) checking in cTcLink.	Infrastructure
Budget	Budget Development Transparency and Stakeholder Engagement.	Develop published annual budget process and timeline that includes stakeholder input and meets accreditation standards	Communication/Infrastructure
C&M	New Web Update Management Process	Create training and implementation process to launch Shared Web Update Process with reps across campus	Communication/Infrastructure
C&M	Targeted marketing plan	Created Targeted Marketing Campaigns to help meet strategic enrollment goals	Communication/DEIA
C&M	CRM Streamlining	Clean up student communication by streamlining existing student communication platforms down to a much more manageable number	Communication
C&M	Virtual Tour	Research and launch a virtual campus tour for prospective students as per our innovation grant	DEIA, Communication
College Council	Participatory Governance	Work with Constituent groups reps to bring a model to campus	Infrastructure
DEIA	PD for campus	Ensure compliance with legislation for staff & student DEI training	Training
DEIA	DEI Legislation	Ensure compliance with ell DEI legislation	Training
DEIA	Colocation Project	Find space for Workforce/Centers to collaborate	DEIA
DEIA	Antiracist Framework	Incorporate Antiracist Framework in College Initiatives	DEIA
DEIA	Naming Project & Beyond	Work with Native community to provide continued guidance and direction for Capital projects	DEIA
DEIA	Antiracist Policy	Work with Constituent Groups to advance Anti-racist Policy	DEIA
Facilities (Custodial, Grounds, Maintenance)	Stakeholder service and engagement	Fully staff position vacancies to support and maintain a clean, safe, and welcoming environment.	Infrastructure/DEIA
Facilities (Custodial, Grounds, Maintenance)	Enhance Professional Development	Work with Pro-D committee to determine and plan training for job requirements, operational safety, and enhancing skills sets.	Training
Facilities (Custodial, Grounds, Maintenance)	Capital Renewal Plan	Develop building and infrastructure maintenance, repair, and prioritization plan.	Infrastructure
Financial Services	Financial Statement and Audit Completion	Complete FYE 6/30/2023 annual financial statements and audit prior to the April 2024 Accreditation Visit	Infrastructure
Financial Services	Stakeholder service and compliance	Fill vacant positions to stabilize core financial, budget, and compliance functions of the College	Infrastructure
Financial Services	Enhance Professional Development	Engage in prof. dev. and training on core cTcLink financials processes, accounting pronouncement changes, and effective compliance controls.	Training
Foundation	Annual Fund	Create and implement an annual giving plan that increases the amount of unrestricted dollars that come to the foundation.	Infrastructure
Foundation	Scholarship Equity	Evaluate scholarship and emergency aid distribution for equity and assess current model of how scholarship information and emergency assistance is disseminated on campus.	DEIA
Foundation	Foundation Infrastructure Review	Revise job descriptions to prioritize fundraising and advancement duties and to reflect common small shop Foundation staffing models more accurately	Infrastructure
Human Resources	Annual Pro-D calendar/reporting and self-reporting.	Develop/post annual Pro-D offerings and report to College Council on progress.	Training
Human Resources	Creation of Employee Engagement Committee.	Create/implement a calendar of campus engagement events.	Infrastructure
HR – Security	Emergency Drills	Bring back quarterly/annual fire drills. Identify/train Building Marshals.	Infrastructure
IE	IE funding model benchmarking	Research best practices with area colleges to incorporate more long-term planning and strategy in IE funding model	Enrollment/Infrastructure
IE	Pursue new overseas partnerships	Strengthen existing partnerships and pursue new ones that allow Shoreline to continue to attract international students from around the world.	Enrollment
IE	Update IE marketing plan	Update marketing plan that allows SCC to be more effective in our diverse overseas markets.	Communication
IE	Expanding global engagement with community partners	Proactively engage with new local communities that have global ties as a way of attracting local communities to our campus and exploring opportunities to collaborate	Community Engagement
IE	Enhance global engagement on campus	Provide opportunities for campus for more global awareness and engagement.	Community Engagement
Inst. Advancement	Support cultural events for public	Increase knowledge of and opportunities for diverse lectures, programs, films, and other activities that draw the public to campus.	Community Engagement, DEIA
Inst. Advancement	Draft community communications plan	Work with Communications & Marketing to Improve and deliver a campus wide calendar that can be used to market and promote on campus activities that are open to the public	Communications/Community Engagement
Instruction	Increase enrollment of underrepresented populations in high-demand areas	Enrollment (into benefits programs associated across workforce funding programs) and retention initiatives in all programs, but focused on high-demand programs – While working to close success gaps, improve opt-in opportunities and cross training among TANF, BFET, Worker Retraining, etc.	Enrollment, DEIA
Instruction	Learning Resources – building capacity through improved processes and cross-training	Consider vacant positions across instructional units, solicit feedback on efficiencies and supports needed (to include cross-training) so they the College can serve students more effectively.	Enrollment, DEIA
Instruction	Improve Program Pathways	(1)   As part of the cyclical review process, consider and update pathways to build enrollment in programs both Prof Tech and Transfer.  Improve transitions from (2) Adult Basic Education/English as a Second Language into college-level coursework, focusing efforts on under-represented students in high demand fields where wages provided improved quality of life and access to healthcare; (3) Reduce redundancy of degrees without eliminating access to career clusters and embed short-term certificates so students have earlier access to employment while pursuing degree or transfer opportunities	Enrollment, DEIA
Office of the President	Internal President Connections	Increase in number of appointments the President has had with members of the community (including virtual office hours attendance)	Communication
Office of the President	Campus Event Participation	Increase number of attendees to campus events as compared to the previous year.	Communication
Office of the President	President’s Office Focus Group	Conduct focus groups for feedback in spring 2024.	Communication
Office of the President	Coffee/Food to campus	Bring coffee and food service back to campus	Infrastructure
Parent Child Center	Full childcare classroom availability	Fully staff the Parent Child Center (PCC) to operate at maximum capacity to serve the community	Infrastructure/Community Engagement
Parent Child Center	Professional Dev. & Required Training	Bring PCC staff current and fully document required licensing trainings.	Training
Parent Child Center	Family Engagement	Enhance opportunities for family engagement, i.e. parents, grandparents, to support the mission of PCC.	Communication/Community Engagement
PIE	Accreditation Mid-Cycle Visit	Prepare campus for accreditation site visit (April 18-19, 2024) with a mock visit and study guides.	Infrastructure
PIE	Accreditation Mid-Cycle Report	Prepare accreditation report by the due date of March 7, 2024, with a draft sent to NWCCU Liaison for feedback by February 1, 2024.	Infrastructure
PIE	Culture of accreditation	Foster a culture of accreditation, assessment, and continuous improvement via the Accreditation & Institutional Effectiveness Committee.	Infrastructure/Communication
PIE	Create Institutional Effectiveness team	Create Planning & Institutional Effective (PIE) department. Within PIE, rebuild Institutional Research (IR) team and begin rebuilding data, reports, dashboards, and queries that were lost in ransomware incident in March 2023.	Infrastructure
PIE	Stabilize ctcLink	Continue to stabilize ctcLink/PeopleSoft operations via ctcLink Leadership Team. Institutionalize Business Analyst support network (staffing, as well as communications).	Infrastructure
PIE	Grants to support President’s Goals	Strategically pursue grant opportunities that support DEIA goals at the College.	DEIA
Printing Services	Restore Printing Services hardware.	Fully reintegrate hardware to efficiently and effectively serve stakeholders.	Infrastructure
Printing Services	Rebuild Printing Services Design Capability	Rebuild online design and support capability to serve stakeholders efficiently and effectively.	Infrastructure
Student Services	Revise New Student Orientation	Launch optional Canvas-based New Student Orientation for new winter students	Infrastructure/Enrollment
Student Services/DEIA	Enhance Basic Needs planning and support	Hire Basic Needs Specialist this fall	DEIA
Student Services/Other Areas	Develop Near Term Student Retention Strategies	Implement weekly student retention activities each quarter, beginning Winter 2024	Enrollment
Student Services	Draft/revise student service policies and procedures	Develop/update at least three policies/procedures per quarter	Infrastructure
Student Services	Advising Enhancements Project	Develop new domestic advising model	Enrollment/DEIA
TSS	Wired Network Rebuild	Replace and rebuild wired network and communications infrastructure.	Infrastructure
TSS	MS Teams VoIP Telecom Changeover	Modernize and improve telephone communications to increase availability and mobility for all users.	Infrastructure
TSS	Cybersecurity Enhancements	Implement multi-layered cybersecurity standards and best practices to protect college information, assets, and reputation.	Infrastructure
VP-BAS Office	Financial and Budget Department Review	Review current division’s organizational structure and propose reorganization ideas to consider how to improve critical processing, compliance, and efficiencies to support the College’s mission and President’s Strategic Goals.	Infrastructure

Each ET representative will work with faculty, budget managers, and staff on the items listed above and will continue to prioritize items within their respective units, updating the campus regularly about their progress. Updates will be delivered:

• In monthly Community Meeting 
• In weekly emails (as appropriate)
• In monthly Faculty Program Coordinator (FPC) and Division Planning Committee (DPC) meetings 
• At Faculty Senate Council, when Dr Rucks and I visit 

The Office of Instruction also will host monthly Faculty Planning Coordinator (FPC) meetings to facilitate workshops to monitor progress and goal plan for the future. Through the Area Review process for 2024/25, we will first consider interventions implemented in the last year, and then utilizing new data in concert with last year’s review, we will make requests for faculty positions and equipment for 24/25. From there, the monthly meetings will focus on completing the 24/25 Area Reviews to ensure that learning outcomes assessment, curriculum, and other faculty projects move forward with support.

Recruitment & Hiring Updates:

Per Planning Memo #1, the College already has begun moving forward with the following position requests approved in the 2023/24 budget process: 

• Hiring of additional Student Ambassadors/Peer Mentors for International Education
• Increasing the Senior Graphic Designer back to 100% FTE Funding 
• Reclassifying Financial Aid Staff (from Customer Service Specialist 2 to Program Specialist 2 positions)
• Hiring a new Campus Security Officer position 

Executive Team (ET) also has been able to pool together temporary funding  (primarily from Guided Pathways funds and a small amount of operational funds which we hope will be reimbursed by Title III grant funds) for a 2^nd Research Analyst position in Planning & Institutional Effectiveness (PIE) (this was #1 on the unfunded prioritized position requests) which will focus on rebuilding data, reports, and dashboards lost in the ransomware incident- all of which is needed for grant reporting, as well as accreditation purposes. 

Moving forward, to ensure the College is completing thoughtful and consistent analysis around personnel recruitment requests and is working within our allocated budget, ET has authorized the creation of a “Hiring Criteria” form for completion by position supervisors when requesting approval to recruit for a vacant position. The Hiring Criteria form will be supplemental to the Personnel Requisition form and used by ET to evaluate requests for recruitment of both new and replacement positions. 

Criteria considered when determining if a position will be filled include such things as whether the position is legally/contractually required, how it supports the President’s Goals, whether similar positions exist already, impact if the position is not filled, etc. Should a position not be approved to move forward with recruitment, the funding will then be applied to the remaining unfunded prioritized position requests from the 2023-24 budget request process.   The position also may be determined to be funded at a later time depending on the urgency of the positions on the priority list.

Lastly, the College will continue to assess our fiscal situation at the end of each quarter to determine if new funding (from revenue, etc.) is in place and could potentially be applied to remaining unfunded, prioritized position needs. Updates regarding new funding for positions will continue to be shared via campus updates and Planning Memo communications. 

Conclusion

Once again and I would like to thank you for your time and attention to this new planning process.  I know it took a lot of effort from everyone, but I truly believe that it will make the College stronger.  I am excited to see your projects come to fruition so that we may better serve our students and our community, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds.

Best Wishes,

Jack