There was a lot of talk about money at Tuesday’s meeting of the North Central Missouri College Board of Trustees as the board approved the 2021-22 salary schedule, agreed to prepay a lump sum on the new residence halls and heard a budget projection for the coming year.
At the April meeting, faculty members Dr. Lindsay Oram and Maryellen Harmon had outlined four priorities faculty members had in regard to salaries and benefits: continuation of the 100 percent board-paid health insurance premium; a $1,000 increase to the base salary; a vertical step movement on the salary schedule; and a $25 per credit hour increase to the rate paid for adjunct instructors and those teaching an overload number of credit hours. The health insurance issue was approved at the April meeting and the three other priorities were approved at Tuesday’s meeting.
Information provided by the board indicated that the increase to the base and the vertical step would result in an approximate 5 percent increase for non-nursing faculty. Nursing faculty will be allowed one vertical step on the nursing faculty salary schedule, for an increase of approximately 1.7 percent. Classified staff will receive a 4.5 percent increase to the base salary, while those listed on the Administrative, Management, Professional (AMP) salary schedule will receive a 2.5 percent increase.
Adjunct/overload rates were increased as requested, with instructors holding master’s and bachelor’s degrees receiving a $25 per credit hour increase. Those with a master’s degree will earn $575 per credit hour, while those with a bachelor’s degree will earn $500 per credit hour. In addition, the clinical nursing rate was increased from $280 per day to $288 per day.
With the new salary schedule, a first-year faculty member with a bachelor’s degree would earn $32,187, while one with a master’s degree and no experience would earn $35,957 and one with a doctorate would earn $39,727. That schedule, as well as the nursing faculty schedule, classified staff schedule and salary ranges for professional/management staff (which includes five groups) were also approved.
Increases of $500 were approved for coaching stipends, which sets the stipend for basketball, baseball and softball head coaches at $6,500; golf head coach at $4,250; assistant coaches at $3,250; dance team coach at $2,500; and shooting club coach at $2,500 to be split between two employees.
Board members looked over a projection of how the 2021-22 consolidated budget will look. It includes income of $13,262,592 and expenditures of $13,086,668. Income includes tuition and fees of $7,433,078 (based on minor enrollment increases and an approved credit hour increase), state appropriations of $2,939,169 (based on an increase of $373,000 in state appropriations), local tax revenue of $362,800 and other income of $376,500. Added to $2,151,045 in auxiliary operations funds, the total comes to $13,262,592.
On the expenditure side, salaries account for $5,755,288 (including a raise approved at the meeting), fringe benefits of $1,726,282, other, listed at $3,454,053 and auxiliary operations expenditures of $2,151,045 for a total of $13,086,668, leaving a surplus of $175,924. Vice President of Business and Finance Tyson Otto said he feels that amount is a good “cushion” to have as the college moves into a year in which there are some unknowns such as the new residence halls and the new Savannah site in Andrew County. The new budget is expected to be presented and approved at the June meeting and goes into effect July 1. The “COVID” funding that the federal government has approved was discussed at several points along the way during the meeting and will be allocated as allowed for various projects for both the college and the Green Hills Head Start program, which is administered through NCMC.
In personnel matters, board members accepted the resignation of Traci Norris as math faculty member and division chair of the Math, Science, History and Social Science Division. Her last day will be June 30. The board hired Megan Erickson of El Cajon, CA to serve in the AMP position of athletic trainer at a salary of $37,500 beginning Aug. 2 and Janna Ingram of Brookfield as a full-time behavioral health instructor at an approximate beginning salary of $37,097. She is set to begin her duties Aug. 18. Cassie Franken was hired as an adjunct instructor, teaching imaging courses this summer ,and Alex Holcer of Meadville was hired to serve as a part-time, exempt, clinical adjunct instructor for the nursing department, beginning in the fall.
In other business at Tuesday’s meeting, the board:
• approved a memorandum of understanding with Metropolitan Community College that puts Buchanan County in NCMC’s service area (see sidebar).
• exercised its option to prepay a lump sum on the new student housing project to Weldon Builders and Construction in the amount of $1.2 million. Otto said the prepayment on the lease will reduce the future lease payments to approximately $87,000 per year. In addition to estimated operating costs, the annual lease amount can be covered by the annual revenues generated through housing fees. The funds for the prepayment will come from capital project reserves. In a letter presented to board members, Scott Weldon had requested the funds be available by July 1, which would leave the balance on a line of credit at BTC Bank under $900,000. The current project cost for the two buildings is $2,016, 381.95, although Weldon said the cost of insulation and drywall will likely result in a few change orders but that amount would only be a few thousand dollars per building. The college had earlier entered into a public-private arrangement with Weldon in which the college owns the land and Weldon owns the buildings.
• approved new or revised job descriptions for the positions of senior network/security administrator, athletics assistant, digital media specialist and grant writer.
• approved a board policy change that allows existing employees transitioning into new roles within six months of July 1 to be eligible for salary range adjustments such as cost of living, etc.
• approved the continuation of auditing services for the next three years with KPM CPAs and Advisors of Springfield at annual costs of $45,000, $45,600 and $46,100 respectively.
• heard multiple reports, including information from Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Tristan Londre on a group of Tongo Americans who were on campus and are trying to recruit more students from the Kingdom of Tongo to attend college in the U.S. Head Start Directors Janet Gott and Sue Ewigman said there were no findings in a recent monitoring review and Tina Marrs presented information on a recent Head Start assessment on center- and home-based outcomes. Chief Information Officer Jennifer Triplett updated the board on the ongoing infrastructure refresh project and said bids have been sought for the IT equipment needed for the new residence halls. She also discussed an upgrade to the OneCard physical access system and the new email security system.
The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22.
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