Leadership Northeast Meeting Notes/Minutes from May 19, 2009
The May 19, 2009 meeting of Senior Leadership Northeast was convened at the Colleyville Chamber of Commerce building at 9:02 AM by Chairman Ed Havran.
There were fourteen (14) individuals present representing seven (7) Northeast Tarrant County cities.
Mitzi Long from Representative Truitt’s office and Frank Hinchey gave an update on the Texas legislative session. Frank voiced his concerns over U.S. spending and our national debt ($11.295 trillion and counting). Each citizen’s share of this debt is $36,888.81. Frank also spoke about controlling our borders (concerns over population increases-affects healthcare, education, services, etc.)
Mitzi presented handouts from Representative Truitt regarding the:
Appraisal Process Reforms (HB8 Reforms the Property Value Study (PVS)
Appraisal Standards Review HB 3612 Establishes a Pilot Program in the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH),
HB 3611 Permits Consolidation of Appraisal Review Boards (ARBs)
HB 3613 Eliminates “Highest and Best Use” Standard
HJR 36 would Amend the Texas Constitution to Enable HB 3611 and 3613 to Take Effect)
Texas Local Option Transportation Act.
A letter to Senator Carona from the chair of the Texas Transportation Commission regarding the current state of transportation funding.
Mitzi went through the handouts and answered questions regarding changes to the Appraisal Process regarding the “Highest and Best Use”. If this change is approved, your house will be appraised closer to the value when you moved in, not its current “ highest and best use”. Also, more local people will do the appraisals who know the history of the area. She also emphasized the importance of the Texas Local Option Transportation Act and the fact that businesses will move out of Texas if our mobility doesn’t improve. She reported that the session will be over June 1.
Kathy Welch, Events Director for the Colleyville Chamber welcomed everyone and mentioned the upcoming June 4 chamber luncheon with speaker Scott Murray and they are taking applications for the ’09-’10 Leadership Colleyville class.
Dr. Larry Darlage, President of the NE Campus of Tarrant County College, gave us an update on TCC’s programs and the increase in enrollment. TCC has four campuses and the 5th (downtown) will open this summer. The system has really grown over the last ten years (45,000 is the current enrollment for all four campuses). Two reasons for this are the bad economy (when people are out of work they go back to school) and tuition rate increases at universities. For the northeast campus (the largest of the 4), spring enrollment jumped 10% from last year to 15,000 students.
They have great transfers to universities. A&M chose TCC-NE as a priority transfer school. These students usually do better when they transfer than students who start at a university. The price is also a huge plus ($1500 per semester vs. $6000 at a state university). TCC has seen a dramatic decrease in funding from the state. Their current revenue sources are:
· Tuition/Fees (24%)
· State (25%)
· Local Taxes (40%)
· Grants (11%).
Their board adopted a policy of “pay-as-you-go”, so a building is paid for when they cut the ribbon. TCC offers many dual credit classes to Tarrant County high schools. Many classes are taught on-site at the high school and students are treated like college students. Now 10% of TCC-NE enrollment (1500 students) are in this program. The average age of their students is 26 (was 30 ten years ago).
Math is a problem for ½ the students and they are sent back for remedial math. They are working on a program to zero in on specific problems (ex: fractions). They have a College Connections program with Trinity and Haltom that takes placement tests to juniors so they can identify where their problems are and fix it in high school. Their College For Kids program in July had 1800 students and they will start a new Math/Science Camp for 14-18 year-olds this summer. They teach English as a Second Language because we need to get people speaking English because that’s how we conduct business.
Dr. Darlage recommended a great book about outsourcing, The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. (500,000 income tax returns are now being done overseas). TCC-NE enrollment is 15% Hispanic and 10% African-American. We have to educate our children, if we don’t India and China will take over.
Dr. Darlage also spoke about workforce education, continuing education programs and the senior education program where the Senior Council designs the curriculum (750-800 seniors each semester).
Other discussion included: Steve Jacob’s article on healthcare.
Meeting was adjourned at 10:30 AM.
Respectfully submitted,
Rebecca Barksdale
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