Community Colleges

From the Desk of J. David Armstrong, Jr.
Executive Director ---  2001

 

Time to Prepare for a New Beginning

Governor Bush continues to show his exceptional commitment to quality and performance for education in Florida. Last week he named an outstanding and diverse group of citizens to the Florida Board of Education (FBE), to be chaired by Phil Handy, and a person with sincere commitments to quality education in Senator Jim Horne as the Secretary of the FBE.  (View photos of the new board members.)  As one newspaper writer accurately reported (view article on community college leadership), I am still beaming with support for this new board and our new secretary.  (View a photo of David with Governor Bush and FBE members during the signing of the governance bill). 

Jim Horne understands the needs of community colleges -- he understands our mission and wants to continue to help us become even better at serving our students and our communities.  Phil Handy has spent hundreds of hours learning about our colleges, visiting with presidents, with me, with other board members and others in our communities. I think he will tell, you as you all get to know him over the next few years, that he has always had an appreciation for community colleges.  Over the past year in particular, he has spent much time learning about our real value, and will in the future spend even more time listening and learning and helping us become even better.

Julia Johnson has become a real community college advocate over the last couple of years.  As Chair of the IT Florida Task Force (ITFLORIDA.com), she and Governor Bush asked me to serve on that task force and chair the E-Workforce Committee because of their understanding of the importance of our colleges in the workforce area. She will be a committed supporter of what our colleges are doing in workforce areas.  Dr. Bill Proctor is a great educator who has been a friend of community colleges for years.  As president of Flagler College, he developed upper division programs on community college campuses providine Governor's press release on the appointment of FBE members.)

I he system.

GOVERNOR TO SIGN BUDGET, RELEASE VETOES LATER TODAY:  We have been in contact with the Governor's Office for the last several weeks on the budget and this afternoon we will have the final story.  Given our conversations, I believe that our budget will be in very good shape with the Governor’s Office, indicating again the very strong support the Governor has for community colleges.  With the exception of a few items that were not in our system budget request, I expect almost everything from our PECO to operating budgets to be in good shape.  Other state agencies and educational entities are likely to have serious cuts because items in their budget did not go through a process and because the state is likely facing some serious budget crunches for next year (see articles below).  When the budget and veto messages are released later this afternoon I will forward them to presidents' offices.

GOVERNOR BEGINS UNIVERSITY BOARD APPOINTMENTS:  Governor Bush has invited me to participate in the announcement of the new board of trustees for Florida A&M University, slated for today at noon. The Governor and his staff, assisted by Sherry Plymale, has put hundreds of hours seeking outstanding, world-class people to govern the universities.  The Governor is also committed to diversity on each of the university boards, and I expect we will see a number of people with community college connections appointed to the university boards, just as we saw those connections on the new Florida Board of Education.  In fact, this afternoon I expect that one of our prominent State Board of Community Colleges’ members will be appointed as a member of the FAMU board.  When that announcement is completed later today we will send you more information.  The other university board members will be appointed beginning next week, with a goal of all of them being appointed by the end of this month.

GLANCE AT THE MONTHS AHEAD:  Here’s a quick glance at some upcoming events …

June     20-22       Council of Presidents Annual Retreat

            30            Sunset of the State Board of Community Colleges

July       1             First governing day of the new Florida Board of Education

            8-11         Annual Reports Workshop

            26-27       Council of Presidents             

 IN THE NEWS:  Selected articles from this past week in Florida's major daily newspapers 

            Armstrong "Beams" over new Florida Board of Education

            Bush to reveal FAMU trustee appointments

            State colleges to feel pinch of tight budget

            EDUCATION:  New leadership

            Horne ready for new responsibility

            Court rules BCC erred in firing employee with DUI

            Florida's new system of educational governance has great potential to help

            State Gov. Bush warns of dour fiscal prospects

            BCC names Titusville campus head

            Editorial:  With new state board

            ECC links to portal to up tech training

            Rhetoric's right, but education picks raise doubts

            Horne education deal looks bad, smells even worse

            Wolfson Campus gets grant

            FCCJ could take off at Cecil Center

            SFCC president endorses current colleges' leader in reorganization

                      

 For more information on these items, please feel free to contact staff of the Division of Community Colleges listed on our directory.

 

This Information Update is designed to provide you with current "hot topic" information on items of interest to the Florida Community College System.  Please visit our website:  http://www.dcc.firn.edu for general information about the system.   We welcome your input and comments on this update.  Please contact me directly at:  David@FLCCS.ORG

 

Please direct technical questions to Trinity Colson at: Trinity@flccs.org 

 

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