College named in national magazine as one of the fastest growing community colleges

By Marlene J. Bohr
mbohr@steelcountrybee.com

Northeast Texas Community College was listed as one of the fastest growing colleges in an annual report compiled by and listed in Community College Week. NTCC President Dr. Brad Johnson presented this information in his report to the board of directors at its March 25 meeting.
“Again this year, we made the list of the top 50 fastest growing colleges,” Dr. Johnson said. “We were listed as #47 out of the 50. This is a national publication. This is garnered from information that is really a year old. Three of the past four years we have been on this list.
“The college also has had a very good year as far as student achievement and acknowledgements.”
Members of the Phi Theta Kappa attended the meeting and reported on the many successes they had achieved. They will be attending an awards ceremony in Orlando, Fla. in the near future.
Dr. Johnson touched on several subjects in his report.
“We have received approval of our core curriculum,” Dr. Johnson said. “That change is a significant change state-wide and will have some implications for us. With enrollment, we ended just slightly down in students and in contact hours, we were up slightly.
“We have heard about the JET grant application and were disappointed to learn we did not receive it this time. There will be at least one more competition and we may have chance with that. They have a short-term program created by the legislature and they are winding down.
“On the good news side, we learned the Pioneer Foundation has approved $200,000. That is a new relationship as we have not had a relationship with the Pioneer Foundation before. In addition to that, they have offered to cover the cost of developing staff to go to training in the future. I want to thank James Henry Russell, who is president of Texas College. It was his desire to help further the program as a whole. We have a grant because of his introduction and his direction. We had a good partner and a good friend there.”
Dr. Johnson said in May, some of the college will be taking a trip to New York.
“We had 25 signed up,” he said. “This is the government class.
“Also, we will be celebrating Community In Schools 25th anniversary with a reception and luncheon. This is a once in every 25 years event.”
Dr. Johnson said this was the first time in his tenure that there will be an election at the college.  It will be held May 10.
“We will have a watch party in the lobby of the Whatley Center on May 10,” he said.
The curriculum change was discussed by the board members.
“This is the curriculum change that is state mandated,” Dr. Johnson said. “The state has revisited its core curriculum and we have to align with their requirements. They have reduced the number of hours that they will allow us to utilize to earn an associate’s degree. This won’t go into effect until the fall of 2015.”
Dr. Johnson updated the board on the strategic planning.
“In the strategic plan, the students’ information system is picking up speed,” Dr. Johnson said. “We learned the support for the operating system used by Poise will end in 2017and after that when a new computer is needed, we will not be able to run Poise on it. It is becoming clearer that the colleges will have to change. If this project works well and schools see they can make the change from Poise to the system under our control, we think we will have folks lining up. We are getting calls from other colleges wanting to know when they can get at the table. We could be in a phase where we bring in new partners in a year and a half.
“On the campus planning, input on what is needed has been compiled from students and faculty. We are recommending the college checks input from the communities on this. I think we need this information by our June workshop. I am suggesting the college hold some public forums or meetings so we can seek information from our communities on what they like and don’t like in the list of projects.”
In other business, the board approved a letter of engagement from Wilf and Henderson.

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