The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Daily Journal and is being reprinted with permission.

Community college board wants to make popular program permanent

An aerial view of Skyline College, one of three campuses in the San Mateo County Community College District.

After state legislation allowed for the San Mateo County Community College District to provide free tuition for its students at a cost of $6.4 million, the Board of Trustees made making it permanent a priority for next year.

Bringing the school year under a newly established chancellor’s tenure, the board outlined its goals and priorities for 2024-25, maintaining many of its already established efforts toward making higher education accessible for county residents.

District officials have spent the past few years working to reduce financial barriers to higher education in part by doing away with some fees and lobbying for Senate Bill 893. The bill took effect last year and allowed the district to waive and use unrestricted funds to cover a state-mandatory $46 per unit enrollment fee for county residents.

Those waivers cost about $6.4 million, according to the policy that was adopted in April 2023. To support continuing the free college program, Chancellor Melissa Moreno was tasked with securing a permanent financial source to support the continued effort to lower barriers to higher education.

Another goal outlined was to construct student housing at all its three campuses in San Bruno, San Mateo and Redwood City, and expand the district’s nursing program — which aims to mitigate the nursing shortage seen in the health care industry.

The goal to provide student housing at its three schools as well as a new athletic center at Skyline College tasked the board to amend the district’s facilities master plan to include these coming developments.

District officials approved a $4 million contract for initial planning efforts of a $66 million student housing site at the College of San Mateo in 2023, and has an expected move-in date slated for June 2027. Trustees have said previously that students enrolled at any of the three colleges would be able to live in this first housing development.

The board also hopes to make strides toward innovating scheduling options, such as compressed schedules and switching from a semester system to a quarter system. Trustee Richard Holober said studies have been conducted on the efficacy of providing more evening, weekend, and late start classes and hopes to consider what would be possible for piloting and experimenting.

“It feels like this is something that has been kicked around and studied and not gone anywhere for at least a decade,” Holober said. “More than explore, I’d like to explore and then implement.”

Though the board is open to considering starting courses later in the year and alternative scheduling options, such changes would mean a significant upheaval of district operations.

In reference to the board’s goal to reinforce a thriving workplace where employees feel supported in professional growth and innovation, Trustee Lisa Petrides said she wants to promote more conversations about having conversations that “make people nervous” in regards to pay equity and transparency.

“I want to see more equanimity across our functions,” she said. “I still sense in different kinds of conversations and different issues we deal with, a little bit of ‘they have this’ and ‘we don’t have that.’ … There hasn’t been a strong appetite to really address that.”

Petrides also placed an emphasis on wanting more development of apprenticeship programs and promoting more representation in those programs.

Other overarching goal to be maintained from years past include ensuring “radical transparency and accountability” of the board; encourage innovation in recruitment retention and enrollment; establish meaningful community partnerships and engage with stakeholders; and establish the SMCCCD Foundation as a fundraising agent for the district.

The board’s goals and priority areas are “fairly general,” with minimal specific targets to aim to reach, noted by board President John Pimentel, but were described to be on a “living document” that could be revisited as necessary.

“When you created these goals last year, you accomplished them,” said Cindi Reiss, a consultant to the board. “So, I think there’s something to be said about putting these goals on paper, that you’re all working toward the same thing, and really getting it done.”

The board is made up of five members, Petrides, Holober, Wayne Lee, Vice President Mike Guingona and President Pimentel. Trustee Petrides is up for reelection this November, defending her seat against Keith Holden. Pimentel and Lee are running unopposed.