ranger .org
The next Student Dialogue and Listening Forum will be Oct. 21 at SPC. Page 3
the
Student Government Association elects president
Serving San Antonio College since 1926
An independent forum of free voices
/readtheranger @therangerSAC /therangervideo
210-486-1773 • Single copies free
Volume 90 Issue 2 • Sept. 21, 2015
Diane Snyder, vice chancellor of finance and administration, said the approval of Playland Park at the new district services and operations office depended on the validation of the citizens advisory committee at the regular board meeting Tuesday. Katherine Garcia
Committee approves Playland Park for headquarters By Cynthia M. Herrera
cherrera151@student.alamo.edu
According to SACSCOC’s website, it typically takes four years for an institution to be accredited by its association. Items missing from the application are what usually keep institutions from being accredited within that timeframe, SACSCOC
The board of trustees approved the citizensadvisory committee recommendation to build a district support operations building at Playland Park, 2222. N. Alamo St., during a regular board meeting Tuesday. The 14-member advisory board was created May 15 to verify the need for the building and validate or recommend modifications of a building to the board. During a special board meeting July 21, $55 million in funding was approved for the building. According to a presentation July 21, one student, faculty and staff member will join the advisory board, but Gloria Ray, chair of the citizens advisory board, said they would join during the design phase of the building. Ray is a retired senior official of Kelly Air Force Base. Even though the advisory board recommended a student and faculty member be a part of the committee, Anna Bustamante, District 3 trustee and chair, said it should have been done from the beginning. Bustamante said. “I really do think we need to do that. It should have been done initially because that’s what I assumed was going to happen with those members at-large that we were going to choose.” Diane Snyder, vice chancellor for finance and administration, said during Tuesday’s meeting that in 10 years, $802 million in bonds has been spent to build or renovate facilities; district facilities have used $2.4 million. “During that time on the DSO facilities that house about 465 employees, we’ve had only 0.3 percent,” Snyder said. “So that’s what really this was the emphasis for, the needs that we had. Environmental issues, concerns for employee safety, the aging conditions of the buildings, to avoid continued throwing money at some of these facilities, the overcrowding and having our DSO employees so distributed that it affects the productivity,” she said. Support operations are in three buildings at two sites. Some of the buildings are portables. According to a Tuesday presentation by John Strybos, associate vice chancellor of facilities operation and construction management, employees at the Houston Street portable have seen homicides, prostitution, drug sales, public indecency and panhandling, including cases of panhandlers attempting to get in employee cars with them. Some employees have reported being bitten by roaches and rodents, and others have witnessed individuals urinating on their office windows. Ray spoke on Tuesday on behalf of the advisory members. “After looking very closely at the conditions of the current district support operations, we came together and unanimously decided there was no other action to be taken besides moving forward with a new upgraded district support operations building,” Ray said.
See ACCREDITATION, Page 3
See PLAYLAND, Page 3
STEMulate Pre-nursing freshman Claire Amaya holds a human brain while Dr. Gail Taylor, associate director of STEM initiatives at the University of Texas at San Antonio, tells Amaya where to stand for a photograph during the STEMulate science showcase Sept. 16 in the mall. Amaya said the brain, which has been preserved for 40 years, was heavier than she thought it would be. Read the story online at theranger.org. Daniel Carde
Higher tax roll increases tax revenue District expects flat tax rate to yield an additional $4.5 million. By Cynthia M. Herrera
cherrera151@student.alamo.edu
Despite a flat tax rate, the Alamo Colleges will receive increased revenue for 2015-16 because of an increase in the Bexar County property tax roll. Trustees approved a 9.03 percent tax revenue increase for the 2015-16 fiscal year during Tuesday’s regular board meeting in Killen Center. According to the minute order, residents with homes valued at $100,000 are expected to pay a $7.72 increase on the maintenance and operations taxes, a 7.92 percent increase. The combined effective tax rate on the same property would increase by $12.36, or 9.03 percent.
For the flat rate, there is a reduction in the current maintenance and operations tax rate to below the rollback level and reallocating $0.0011 per $100 valuation from the maintenance and operations rate to the debt rate, leaving a combined rate of $0.149150 per $100 valuation for the fiscal year 2015-16, the same level as the 2014-15 fiscal year. The maintenance and operations tax for a $100,000 home is $105.30. The debt tax is $43.85 and the combined rate is $149.15. This year’s effective tax rate is $0.136793 per $100 valuation, and last year’s rate was $0.143874 per $100 valuation. The maintenance and operations tax rate is $0.105300 and last year’s rate was $0.103400.
Last year’s debt taxes were $44,460,365 with a rate of $0.042750 per $100 valuation. This year’s projected debt tax is $51,518,523 with a rate of 0.043850 per $100 valuation. Tracey Sulak Bedwell, treasurer for Alamo Colleges, said Aug. 11 that the average homeowner paid $233.37 in taxes for the Alamo Colleges during the 2014 tax year. Property values were higher in 2015. Sulak Bedwell said the property tax rate would stay at the same rate for 2016 as it was in 2015. The Alamo Colleges held public hearings Sept. 1 and Sept. 8, but no one from the public attended. The board also provided 10 minutes, after the hearings started, to wait in case community members showed up late to speak.
NLC achieves accreditation milestone visit Vice president says uncertainty over audits and majors caused the delay. By Kyle R. Cotton
kcotton11@student.alamo.edu
In April 2005, Dr. Eric Reno, retired Northeast Lakeview College president, told the San Antonio Express-News the process for the college to achieve accreditation would take two years. A decade later, Northeast Lakeview is still applying to become an accredited college. Northeast Lakeview will receive its first on-site visit Feb. 22-25 from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the accreditation agency for the Southeastern U.S. Northeast Lakeview became its own campus in 2005 at
8300 Pat Booker Road where the Alamo Colleges’ University Center sits now. In 2007, the college moved to its current campus at 1604 Kitty Hawk Road. President Craig Follins described the visit as a big step. “Since we’ve started the process of accreditation, we’ve never gotten to the on-site visit portion of the process,” Follins said. “It’s a bit of a milestone for us.” Follins said if the visit goes well, the college should be elevated to candidacy in June at the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission’s biannual committee meeting, and he would expect a decision on the
Dr. Craig Follins, president of Northeast Lakeview College, stands in front of the NLC library on the campus green in March 2014. File college’s accreditation in 2017, a full decade after the college started operating on its own campus. Until Northeast Lakeview is accredited, the majority of the courses taught there are offered through San Antonio College and overseen by this college’s department chairs.