Chancellor Sonya Christian's Evaluation Portfolio

This goal is the same as goal 1 in KCCD’s Strategic Plan and is addressed in Section B of this document.

In addition to the regular work of promoting student success and equity, we have identified new populations of students to serve to provide them the skills and abilities to advance economic and social mobility.

Here are two examples:

• Work with High Schools: Deepening special admits by moving from dual enrollment to Early College for all high school students in our service area. This helped us grow our special admits FTES by 9% this year when the state declined by 15% in the same category. For 2021-22, the regular credit rate is $4212.26 compared to the special admit rate of $5,906.97. This helps us generate additional revenue with our special admits.
• Adult Learner Recruitment: Growing non-credit offering for adult learners and recruiting adult learners by partnering with organizations that have established access to adult learners in serving marginalized and underrepresented populations in our community. Taking education to them and meeting them where they are.

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This goal is new and was not part of the Kern CCD Strategic Plan.

There are three areas of focus for the Resource Development goal. The first is to pursue grants to support our mission. The second is to leverage the college foundations to increase programmatic resources by pursuing philanthropic opportunities. The third is to re-think the way we utilize our facilities in the post-pandemic era.

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Grants

This last year (2021-2022) we increased our focus districtwide to bring in resources through grant opportunities primarily through state and federal agencies. The state of California has had a windfall of onetime revenue, which has resulted in expanded funding opportunities becoming available for community colleges. By repurposing the work assignment of two individuals at the District Office, working collaboratively with teams from the colleges, we have been able to bring in significant grant dollars to the district.

FY 2021-2022 Grants Awarded

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Philanthropy

Facilitating an intentional partnership of the colleges with their foundations to expand the philanthropic resource development to go beyond scholarships to programmatic needs of the colleges. 

Some examples of how the Bakersfield College Foundation works with Bakersfield College and KCCD toward achieving funding goal that includes private philanthropy, public/private grants, and competitive public funding opportunities.

• Teamed up on writing the Rudy Salas Proposal ($6 million)
  Bakersfield Californian article
• Collaboration between BC Dean and Foundation to develop the Valley Strong partnership ($2 million toward Valley Strong Energy Institute)
  Bakersfield Californian article
• Foundation and BC Agriculture team promoting opportunities for the local ag community to support the college ($11,000 to help renovate the ag farm)

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Facilities Utilization

In 2016 when Measure J was passed, our facilities utilization was very good. We were quickly outgrowing our facilities in terms of classroom, office, and student spaces.

Since the pandemic and pivoting to online learning and remote working, we find that we have facilities - specifically, lecture classrooms - that are being underutilized. The table, an excerpt from a presentation made to the Resource Development and Facilities Subcommittee, shows the Facilities Load Ratios for the three colleges in Fall 2018, Fall 2019, and Fall 2021. The higher the percentage, the more the facility is underutilized. 100% means it is at capacity. If the number is below 100% it is overutilized. If the number is greater than 100% it is underutilized.

This has resulted in focused work on assessing our facilities and land assets, and exploring repurposing or monetizing these assets to generate revenue to help us during downturns in the state’s economy.

Here are some examples of the work we have done:

• Developing of the KCCD Board of Trustees Resource Development and Facilities Subcommittee
  April 6, 2022, Subcommittee Meeting
• Optimizing how we use our non-instructional space by contracting with a partner to develop innovative space re-purposing strategies including leveraging opportunities to generate additional revenue.
  Presentation to BOT Resource and Development Subcommittee
• Re-imagining how we use classroom space by converting classrooms to multi-modal Hyflex classrooms and upgrading technology to allow instructors to teach students in-person and online simultaneously.
  BC Construction Contract for HyFlex classrooms
  PC Zoom Platform and Theatre Streaming Construction Contract
• Utilizing Measure J funding to upgrade our facilities and build new buildings, with the latest technology, to create improved learning spaces for growing our current and future students.
  Measure J Dashboard
  BC Facilities and Construction Report - April 12, 2022
  CC Facilities and Construction Report - April 12, 2022
  PC Facilities and Construction Report - April 12, 2022

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This goal is a subset of KCCD’s Strategic Goal #5 – Strengthen Organizational Effectiveness.

Inter-district collaboration and cooperation is being enhanced in three ways. The first is through programmatic partnerships between our colleges, utilizing shared course curriculum. The second is through #KernCCD Learns, which focuses on professional development opportunities. The third is through growing our existing employees and providing new position opportunities..

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Programmatic Partnerships

The idea of programmatic partnerships is complex and needs careful consideration. To develop a culture that values programmatic partnerships, we started this year with a few pilot projects that are in various stages of implementation.

• Cerro Coso Community College and Bakersfield College shared program and course curricula to strengthen each other’s Nursing programs.
  The Medical Assisting Program at Cerro Coso is now being offered in the BC service area. A total of 8 sections (4 in-person and 4 online) were offered as late start classes in Spring 2022.
  CC Medical Assisting Web Site
• BC’s Industrial Automation curriculum is shared with Cerro Coso in support of efforts to offer this degree to students in the Rising Scholars program at various prison facilities.
  BC Industrial Automation Web Site
• Porterville College shared its Entrepreneurship curriculum with Bakersfield College, which is now a full-fledged degree with embedded certificates.
  PC Entrepreneurship Web Site

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Growing Our Employee Leaders - #KernCCD Learns

The professional development work has been largely focused on building a learning community across the district on current topics that are impacting the college. An intentional byproduct of this work is to facilitate employees getting to know each other, which helps build trust and allows us to do the deeper, more difficult work.

Here are some examples:

Partnered with Porterville Academic Senate president to:

• develop 3-part series on the Future of Teaching and Learning, sponsored by the Chancellor’s Seminar Series.
  https://www.kccd.edu/chancellors-office/chancellors-communications/chancellors-seminar-series
• develop, sponsor, and promote the Teaching and Learning Experiences blog.
  http://kernccdtaleblog.org

Co-developed the Agricultural/Water/Energy Seminar Series

• AWE Webinar I: An Introduction to Existing and Potential Opportunities in Kern County
• AWE Webinar II: Future Impacts of Technology and Water Resources on Farming
• AWE Webinar: The Future of Microgrids
• AWE Webinar: Zero Emission Vehicles - Opportunities and Incentives

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Growing our Existing Employees

Publishing a weekly blog featuring the three colleges. This has been well received by the employee groups. https://sonyachristianblog.com/

Joint appointment of administrative positions and faculty leadership positions. Several administrators across the district took on additional districtwide projects to help grow their leadership skills as well as deepen their understanding of districtwide issues. In addition, we selected a 7-member faculty cohort from the three colleges to participate in leadership initiatives, working with the Vice Chancellor of Ed Services and Associate Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development.

Faculty Diversification Fellowship Program – Focuses on preparing faculty from underrepresented groups, particularly in hard to fill disciplines like STEM, with skills for faculty positions, increasing the diversity of community college faculty, and increase retention, progression, and success rates of underrepresented minority students.

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This last year, we developed a focused plan on investing in technological solutions to better serve our employees and students. There are three areas of technology focus. The first is improving our enrollments through new and innovative software. A lot of the work related to enrollment expansion was being done manually, and this year, working with the three presidents, we established some technology infrastructure development to support the colleges. The second is improving the safety and security footprint to ensure data is kept secure and our employees are kept safe. The third is around improving our organizational efficiency and keeping our key business systems upgraded and current.

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Enrollment

• Dualenroll.com – Dual Enrollment Nearly done. Bakersfield College up and running with Banner integration for registration activity in January, and CC/PC planned to launch in April 2022.
  IT Project Site – DualEnroll.com
• CRM Recruit - In Progress. Some juggling of the project to account for unique processes of KCCD. Looking to launch the first phase in the early Summer (May/June 2022).
  IT Project Site – Ellucian CRM Recruit

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Safety and Security

• Okta – New authentication system. In Progress. Some systems in production already, but most have been scheduled for conversion over the next 3 months.
  IT Project Site - Okta
• NeoEd Software – Human Resources software to automate recruiting, onboarding, and performance management.
  KCCD NeoEd Web Site
• Ready Ed Integration – COVID-19 Contact Tracing App. Done. Completed just in time for the Spring 2022 registration in November. Allowed us to enforce the vaccine requirements for face-to-face courses for Spring 2022 in an automated way.
  KCCD Website Campus App Information
• TouchNet - Working on the technical pieces of getting software installed.
  IT Project Site - TouchNet

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Organizational Efficiency

• Banner 9 SSB Registration implementation.
• Modern Campus - Web Site Redesign - In Progress. Going through the design process and then will be implementing that design into a new content management system. Looking toward a prospective launch of the end of the year.
  IT Project Site – Modern Campus
• Ellucian NGS – Next generation of Banner - In Progress. Current “target” is March 2023.
  IT Project Site – Next Generation SaaS

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Vision for Success goal is to increase by at least 20% the number of KCCD students annually who acquire associates degrees, credentials, certificates, or specific skill sets that prepare them for an in-demand job. KCCD and its colleges have surpassed this goal for the last four years, and have dramatically increased the number of awards conferred to students

Bachelors, Associates, and Credit Certificates Awarded

Vision for Success goal is to increase by 35 percent the number of KCCD students transferring annually to a UC or CSU. KCCD and its colleges have surpassed this goal, and data indicate the number of students who transfer to a 4-year college after leaving KCCD continues to grow.

Transfer to UC or CSU

Vision for Success goal is to decrease the average number of units accumulated by KCCD students earning associate degrees from approximately 92 total units to 79 total units. KCCD data shows that the average number of units that KCCD associates earners accumulate has decreased from 89 units the 2016-17 baseline year to 84 units for associates earned in 2019-20. With two more years, to reach the goal, KCCD still needs to reduce the number of units accumulated by another 5 units. This mirrors the progress that all California Community Colleges have made on this goal, with all 2019-20 associates earners at all California Community Colleges averaging 84 units accumulated at graduation.

Average Number of Units, All Associates Earners

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The context for approaching economic and workforce development this year has been looking at new industries that are targeting under-employed and under-represented workers to provide them with pathways for economic mobility. Some of the areas of growth are:

Some of the areas of growth are:

Healthcare

Expanding existing programs at all three colleges and developing new programs as determined by workforce needs in the area.

• Expanded the RN program at BC, and will expand the RN program at PC once program requirements for the Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) are addressed; Cerro Coso is in the process of submitting its application for an RN program to the BRN.
• Entered into partnership with Futuro Health to identify incumbent workers in the healthcare field looking to upskill. Pilot project with Cerro Coso’s Medical Assisting Program, and anticipating an increase in enrollments for this program.
• Received US HHS Public Health IT grant in partnership with CSU Long Beach, UC Berkeley, and Futuro Health. The result of this grant will be the development of Public Health Information Technology, a new field of study.
• Applied for the EDA Good Jobs Grant in Healthcare focusing on building partnerships between community and industry while expanding the pipeline of high-wage jobs throughout the Southern San Joaquin Valley.
• Development of the ultrasound program at BC.
• Expansion of medical assisting through an inter-district cooperative agreement between Cerro Coso and Bakersfield College.
  https://www.cerrocoso.edu/programs/hcrs-administrative-medical-assisting-certificate

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Adult Learners

KCCD has refined our model for adult learner recruitment to connect underrepresented workers to good jobs by partnering with agencies that represent these workers.

• Summer 2022: Development of Non-Credit education throughout the community with Non-Credit Academies

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Early College/Concurrent Students

• Expanding Early College (Concurrent and Dual Enrollment) across the district.
  Baseline Report: Dual Enrollment, Concurrent Enrollment & Early College in Kern Community College District
• Implementation and expansion of Dualenroll.com.
  KCCD IT Projects Website

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Increased Degree Opportunities/Completion

• Continued expansion and use of the Pathways Program Mapper
  Program Mapper Website
• Applied for additional bachelor’s degrees to meet the needs of our students and our community (AB 927).
  KCCD Baccalaureate Degree Website

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This has been an area of focus for me in strengthening and expanding the scope of KCCD’s influence in workforce development. This is allowing us to capture the wave of new economic development activities in the region, for example energy, with the one-time infusion of dollars from the state as well as the federal government. Here are some examples of accomplishments:

Expanded from local focus to regional focus

• Recognized as Regional Chair for the Central Valley Motherlode Regional Consortium, a workforce development coalition between 15 community colleges in the San Joaquin Valley.
  KCCD News Release about Central Valley Motherlode Regional Consortium
• Co-hosting Good Jobs with Equity: The Future Workforce symposium with Chancellor Eloy Oakley on May 3, 2022
  Good Jobs with Equity: The Future Workforce website
• Won significant recognition from the US Department of Energy when the county of kern and the city of Bakersfield received two of the 22 awards for technical assistance from the Department of Energy’s Communities LEAP grant.
  KCCD News Release announcing LEAP grant coalition

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Energy

• Entered into MOU with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to evaluate curriculum and training for future careers in carbon capture and sequestration
  BC Announcement of Livermore Lab Foundation Partnership
• Hosted a virtual webinar with representatives from California Resources Corporation and Lawrence Livermore to keep the district community informed on research and development of nascent carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
  Valley Strong Energy Institute Homepage
• Valley Strong Institute partnership
  Bakersfield College News Release on Valley Strong Energy Institute approval
• Worked with the County of Kern, industry leaders, and community-based organizations to receive technical assistance funding for implementing carbon capture and sequestration in the Southern San Joaquin Valley as part of the Department of Energy’s Communities LEAP grant.
  KCCD News Release announcing LEAP grant coalition
• Partnering with Greater Bakersfield New Car Dealers Association to provide training opportunities for electric vehicle maintenance
  Advancing BC's Automotive Technology Programs webpage highlighting partnerships
• Awarded $490,237 for implementing equitable training in zero-emissions technology as part of the IDEAL ZEV Workforce Pilot.
  KCCD Grant Status Report, April 2022
• Hosted a series of informational webinars on legislation and workforce development opportunities around zero-emission vehicles and microgrids as part of the Ag/Water/Energy Education Series hosted by the Valley Strong Energy Institute.
  Valley Strong Energy Institute webpage
• Partnered with Kern Council of Governments on Phase II Blueprint Implementation of the EV Ready Communities Grant with the California Energy Commission.
  Kern COG webpage highlighting EV Blueprint partnership
• Applied for the EDA Good Jobs Grant focused on Healthcare, Energy, Construction and Utilities focused on building partnerships and expanding the pipeline of high-wage jobs throughout the Southern San Joaquin Valley.
  KCCD Grant Status Report, April 2022

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We have been closing the equity gaps for our Hispanic/Latinx student populations in multiple success metrics.

Our completion data districtwide show that the equity gap for student completion has closed for both Hispanic and First-Generation Students:

The transfer data are also showing a closed or closing equity gap for these students:

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This was covered above in Section A under “Develop inter-district collaboration and cooperation as well as Technology Development.”

Inter-district collaboration and cooperation is being enhanced in three ways. The first is through programmatic partnerships between our colleges, utilizing shared course curriculum. The second is through #KernCCD Learns, which focuses on professional development opportunities. The third is through growing our existing employees and providing new position opportunities..

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Programmatic Partnerships

The idea of programmatic partnerships is complex and needs careful consideration. To develop a culture that values programmatic partnerships, we started this year with a few pilot projects that are in various stages of implementation.

• Cerro Coso Community College and Bakersfield College shared program and course curricula to strengthen each other’s Nursing programs.
  The Medical Assisting Program at Cerro Coso is now being offered in the BC service area. A total of 8 sections (4 in-person and 4 online) were offered as late start classes in Spring 2022.
  CC Medical Assisting Web Site
• BC’s Industrial Automation curriculum is shared with Cerro Coso in support of efforts to offer this degree to students in the Rising Scholars program at various prison facilities.
  BC Industrial Automation Web Site
• Porterville College shared its Entrepreneurship curriculum with Bakersfield College, which is now a full-fledged degree with embedded certificates.
  PC Entrepreneurship Web Site

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Growing Our Employee Leaders - #KernCCD Learns

The professional development work has been largely focused on building a learning community across the district on current topics that are impacting the college. An intentional byproduct of this work is to facilitate employees getting to know each other, which helps build trust and allows us to do the deeper, more difficult work.

Here are some examples:

Partnered with Porterville Academic Senate president to:

• develop 3-part series on the Future of Teaching and Learning, sponsored by the Chancellor’s Seminar Series.
  https://www.kccd.edu/chancellors-office/chancellors-communications/chancellors-seminar-series
• develop, sponsor, and promote the Teaching and Learning Experiences blog.
  http://kernccdtaleblog.org

Co-developed the Agricultural/Water/Energy Seminar Series

• AWE Webinar I: An Introduction to Existing and Potential Opportunities in Kern County
• AWE Webinar II: Future Impacts of Technology and Water Resources on Farming
• AWE Webinar: The Future of Microgrids
• AWE Webinar: Zero Emission Vehicles - Opportunities and Incentives

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Growing our Existing Employees

Publishing a weekly blog featuring the three colleges. This has been well received by the employee groups. https://sonyachristianblog.com/

Joint appointment of administrative positions and faculty leadership positions. Several administrators across the district took on additional districtwide projects to help grow their leadership skills as well as deepen their understanding of districtwide issues. In addition, we selected a 7-member faculty cohort from the three colleges to participate in leadership initiatives, working with the Vice Chancellor of Ed Services and Associate Vice Chancellor of Workforce and Economic Development.

Faculty Diversification Fellowship Program – Focuses on preparing faculty from underrepresented groups, particularly in hard to fill disciplines like STEM, with skills for faculty positions, increasing the diversity of community college faculty, and increase retention, progression, and success rates of underrepresented minority students.

Back to Top