IMPLEMENTING POLICY GOVERNANCE MODEL

MIRACOSTA COLLEGE
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
BOARD POLICIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Executive Boundaries                                                      

General Executive Boundaries

Treatment of Students

Treatment of Staff

Compensation and Benefits

Financial Planning and Budgeting

Asset Protection

Financial Condition and Activity

Communication and Support to the Board

Governing Process

Governance Commitment

Governance Style

Board Job Description

Policy-Making Principles

Collegial Governance

Board Organization

Officers’ Roles

Board Committee Principles

Board Operations

Annual Board Planning Cycle

Board Members’ Code of Conduct

Board Education

Board Self-Evaluation

Board-Superintendent/President Relationship

Chief Executive Role

Delegation to the Superintendent/President

Monitoring Executive Performance

Designation of Acting Superintendent/President

Trustee Vision Statements

Access and Service

Adapting to and Fostering Change

Collaboration and Partnerships

College-Level Skills and Critical Thinking

Information Technology Sophistication

Local/Global Sense of Community

Transfer

Workforce Development

Revised—December 3, 2002

Executive Boundaries: General Executive Boundaries

The intent of the Board in establishing these policies is to create an atmosphere that stimulates vision and in which staff is encouraged to be creative.  The Board desires staff to have the broadest use of their creativity and flexibility to move forward.

The superintendent/president shall act at all times in an exemplary and visionary manner consistent with the responsibilities and expectations vested in that office.  The superintendent/president shall act in a manner consistent with board policies and with those practices, activities, decisions, and organizational circumstances that are legal, prudent, and ethical.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Cause or allow violation of relevant sections of Title 5 of the Administrative Code, the Education Code, and all other relevant state and federal laws and regulations.
• Deal with students, staff, or persons from the community in an inhumane, unfair, or undignified manner.
• Make decisions except by a process in which openness and collegiality are maintained.
• Permit financial conditions that risk fiscal jeopardy or compromise Trustee Vision Statements priorities.
• Provide information to the community, Board, or college constituencies, which is knowingly untimely, inaccurate, or misleading.
• Allow the public image of the college to be tarnished.    
• Permit conflict of interest in awarding purchases or other contracts or hiring of employees.
• Allow the day-to-day operations to impede the vision or prevent the achievement of the Trustee Vision Statements of the college.
• Manage the college without adequate administrative policies for matters involving instructional services, student services, administrative and business services, human resources, and economic development.
• Fail to take prompt and appropriate action when the superintendent/president becomes aware of any violation of any laws, rules, or regulations, or breach of board policies.

Executive Boundaries: Treatment of Students

With respect to interaction with students, and those applying to be students, the superintendent/president will ensure that students are treated safely, respectfully, fairly, in a dignified manner, and with appropriate confidentiality and privacy.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Create conditions that impede academic freedom for students.
• Use methods of collecting, reviewing, storing, or transmitting student information that fail to protect against improper access to the information.
• Fail to establish with students a clear statement of what may be expected and what may not be expected from the programs and services offered.
• Fail to inform students of this policy or to provide a grievance process to those students who believe that they have not been accorded a reasonable interpretation of their rights under this policy.

Executive Boundaries: Treatment of Staff

With respect to treatment of staff, the superintendent/president will ensure a fair, dignified, and safe work place.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Operate without written personnel procedures that clarify personnel rules for staff, provide for effective handling of grievances, and protect against wrongful conditions, such as nepotism and preferential treatment for personal reasons.
• Retaliate or allow retaliation against any staff member for expressing an ethical dissent.
• Prevent staff from grieving to the board when internal grievance procedures have been exhausted.
• Fail to recommend policies to the board consistent with the provisions of the administrator, faculty, and staff handbooks.  (See Appendix A)
• Fail to involve the board, at an appropriate level, in the development of personnel policy.
• Fail to establish and follow employment procedures that meet requirements of laws and regulations related to:
  • Illegal discrimination
  • Affirmative Action
  • Equal Employment
  • Sexual Harassment prevention
  • Americans with Disabilities Act
  • Drug-Free Workplace
  • Occupational Health and Safety
• Fail to acquaint staff with their rights under this policy.

[The MiraCosta Community College District operates without collective bargaining agreements for regular faculty and classified employees.  The Trustee policies and procedures relevant to employees’ rights and responsibilities, and benefits of employment presented in Appendix A remain in effect.  Changes in those policies and procedures will follow the process established by those policies.]   

Executive Boundaries: Compensation and Benefits

With respect to employment, compensation, and benefits to employees, consultants, contract workers, and volunteers, the superintendent/president will insure fiscal integrity.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Change the superintendent/president’s own compensation and benefits.
• Promise or imply permanent or guaranteed employment outside of current law.
• Establish current compensation and benefits that deviate from the provisions of the administrator, faculty, and staff handbooks located in Appendix A.
  

Executive Boundaries: Financial Planning and Budgeting

Financial planning for any fiscal year or the remaining part of any fiscal year shall not deviate materially from Trustee Vision Statements’ priorities, risk fiscal jeopardy, or fail to be derived from a multi-year plan.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not cause or allow financial planning that:

• Contains inadequate information to enable credible projection of revenues and expenses, separation of capital and operational items, cash flow, and disclosure of planning assumptions.
• Expends more funds than have been budgeted and appropriated in the fiscal year.
• Creates obligations over a longer term than revenues can be safely projected.
• Allows unrestricted reserves to drop below 5% at any time.

Note:  Criteria in this category are the standards that must be met in order for the budget to be approved. If these are met during the budgeting process, then the budget must be approved.

Executive Boundaries: Asset Protection

The superintendent/president will insure that assets are protected and adequately maintained.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Fail to insure against theft and casualty losses in amounts consistent with replacement values or against liability losses to board members, staff, or the college itself in amounts consistent with limits of coverage obtained by comparable institutions.
• Allow unbonded personnel access to material amounts of funds.
• Subject plant and equipment to improper wear and tear or insufficient maintenance.
• Unnecessarily expose the district, its board, or staff to claims of liability.
• Make any purchase wherein normally prudent protection has not been given against conflict of interest consistent with legal guidelines.
• Fail to provide reasonable security for or to protect property, equipment, information, and files from loss or significant damage.
• Receive, process, or disburse funds under controls that are insufficient to meet the board-appointed auditor's standards.
• Fail to provide a district standing committee, as specified by law, to oversee the investments of the district.
• Dispose of surplus property without public notice and at a less than reasonable value.
• Fail to protect the College’s trademarks, copyrights, and intellectual property interests.

Executive Boundaries: Financial Condition and Activity

With respect to the actual, ongoing condition of the district's financial health, the superintendent/president will follow board priorities established in the Trustee Vision Statements policies.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Expend more funds than have been received in the current fiscal year.
• Indebt the organization in an amount greater than can be repaid by certain, otherwise unencumbered, revenues within 18 months.
• Use any long-term reserves.
• Conduct inter-fund shifting in amounts greater than can be restored to a condition of discrete fund balances by certain, otherwise unencumbered, revenues within the fiscal year.
• Fail to settle payroll and debts in a timely manner.
• Allow tax payments or other government-ordered and regulatory payments or filings to be overdue or inaccurately filed.
• Acquire, encumber, or dispose of real property.
• Fail to aggressively pursue receivables after a reasonable grace period.

Executive Boundaries: Communication and Support to The Board

With respect to providing information and support to the board, the superintendent/president will ensure that the board is adequately informed in a timely manner.

Accordingly, the superintendent/president may not:

• Neglect to submit monitoring data required by the board (see policy on Monitoring Executive Performance) in a timely, accurate, and understandable fashion, directly addressing provisions of the board policies being monitored.
• Let the board be unaware of relevant trends, actual or anticipated legal action, anticipated adverse media coverage, material external and internal changes, particularly changes in the assumptions upon which any board policy has previously been established.
• Fail to advise the board if, in the CEO's opinion, the board is not in compliance with its own policies on Governance Process and Board-Staff Relationship, particularly in the case of board behavior that is detrimental to the work relationship between the board and the superintendent/president.
• Fail to marshal for the board as many staff and external points of view, issues, and options as needed for fully informed board choices, particularly with respect to faculty on academic and professional matters and to staff and students on policies that have a significant effect on them. (See Governing Process Policy, pages 12-33.)
• Present information in unnecessarily complex or lengthy form or in a form that fails to differentiate among information of four types: monitoring, board decision preparation, board education, and general information.
• Fail to provide a mechanism for official board, officer, or committee communications.
• Fail to deal with the Board as a whole except when (a) fulfilling individual request for information or (b) responding to officers or committees duly charged by the board.
• Fail to report an actual or anticipated noncompliance with any policy of the board.
• Fail to supply for the agenda all routine items delegated to the superintendent/president yet required by law or contract to be board-approved, along with relevant monitoring assurance.

Governing Process: Governance Commitment

The purpose of governance is that the board, on behalf of the general public in the district, guarantees the accountability of the MiraCosta Community College district by assuring that it (a) achieves appropriate cost-efficient results for the district,  (b) governs by the vision, mission and principles of the district, and (c) avoids unacceptable activities, conditions, and decisions.

Governing Process: Governance Style

The board deliberates with many voices, and governs with one.  The board will govern with an emphasis on outward vision, encouragement of diversity in viewpoints, strategic leadership rather than administrative detail, clear distinction of board and chief executive roles, collective rather than individual decisions, future orientation rather than past or present, and proactively rather than reactively.

The board will:

• Act with group responsibility.
• Be responsible for excellence in governing.
• Use the expertise of individual trustees to enhance the ability of the board as a whole, rather than to substitute the individual judgments for the board's values.
• Direct, control, and inspire the organization through the careful establishment of broad written policies reflecting the board's values and perspectives.
• Enforce whatever discipline is needed to govern with excellence.
• Fulfill the responsibility to be stewards of the public’s interests by seeking, recognizing, and considering multiple perspectives from diverse communities in deliberation of issues and in the pursuit of a common vision for the district.

Governing Process: Board Job Description

The job of the board, operating under Section 70902 of the Education Code, is to represent the general public of the district in determining and demanding appropriate organizational performance. To distinguish the board's own unique job from the jobs of the staff, the board will concentrate its efforts on the following job "products" or outputs:

• The link between the college and the general public of the district.
• Written governing policies that, at the broadest levels, address:
  • Trustee Vision Statements:  Organizational services, benefits to the community, outcomes, results, recipients, and their relative worth and impact.
  • Executive Boundaries:  Constraints on authority that establish the prudent, ethical and legal  boundaries within which all activity and decisions must take place.
  • Governing Process: Specification of how the board conceives, carries out, and monitors its own tasks.
  • Board-Superintendent/president Staff Relationships: How authority is delegated and its proper use monitored.
  • The assurance of superintendent/president performance and institutional effectiveness against policies in the Trustee Vision Statements and Boundaries.
• Taking positions on public policy and, where appropriate, advocating for legislation.
• Actively supporting the MiraCosta College Foundation.

Governing Process: Policy-Making Principles

Policy will represent the board’s determination of the best interests of the ownership. The board will be an initiator of policy and policy directions. The policy-making process will be open and inclusive and will seek the expertise of those within the district.

Policy-making will focus on statements of broad values and perspectives. Policy statements shall be narrowed until the board is willing to accept any reasonable interpretation of a policy statement.

Policies that have a significant effect on faculty, staff, and students shall not be adopted without providing an opportunity to those groups to participate in the development of those policies. Specifically, the board shall provide an opportunity for:

• Academic Senate involvement on policies related to academic and professional matters (see Faculty Handbook in Appendix A).
• Classified staff involvement on policies related to areas that have a significant effect on them. (See Classified Staff Handbook in Appendix A).
• Student involvement on policies related to areas that have a significant effect on them.
• The board will review the Governing Process, Board Staff Relationship, and Executive  Boundaries policies annually, and make changes as needed.  It is the intention that outcomes of policies are measurable.

Governing Process: Collegial Governance

The Governing Board embraces the concept of collegial governance as a fundamental policy of the College, while retaining its own rights and responsibilities as the ultimate authority in all areas defined by state laws and regulations.

Collegial governance is defined as the collaborative participation of appropriate members of the College in planning for the future and in developing policies and recommendations under which the College is governed and administered.

Each constituency of the College that has responsibility and expertise in a particular area participates in the development of policies and procedures relating to that area. Such participation will bring together multiple segments of the College in instances where policies and procedures affect employees and students. It is the responsibility and obligation of members of the classified, faculty, administration, and Governing Board to participate in the collegial process. The Board also provides the opportunity and encourages students to participate in the process.

The District's standing committees and employee councils of the College shall be structured to include appropriate representation by faculty, administrators, and classified employees when matters being considered are within their purview. Student representation shall be included on such groups whenever appropriate and possible.

1. Academic Senate Role in Collegial Governance

The Board recognizes the Academic Senate Council as the body that represents the Academic Senate in collegial governance relating to academic and professional matters, as well as personnel issues involving Senate members. The Board acknowledges the definition of academic and professional matters to mean the following as defined in Title V of the California Administrative Code:

• Curriculum, including establishing prerequisites and placing courses within the disciplines.
• Degree and certificate requirements.
• Grading policies.
• Educational program development.

• Standards or policies regarding student preparation and success of District and college governance structures, as related to faculty roles.
• Faculty roles and involvement in accreditation processes, including self-study and annual reports.
• Establishing policies for faculty professional development activities.
• Processes for program review.
• Processes for institutional planning and budget development.
• Other academic and professional matters as mutually agreed upon between the Governing Board and the Academic Senate.

The Board recognizes the right of the Academic Senate to assume primary responsibility for making recommendations in the areas of curriculum and academic standards. If a Senate recommendation in these areas is not accepted, the Governing Board or its designee, upon request of the Academic Senate, shall promptly communicate its reasons in writing to the Academic Senate.

The Board recognizes and endorses the rights and responsibilities assigned to faculty by state statutes regarding personnel matters to include affirmative action, hiring, evaluation, tenure review, dismissal, and administrator retreat rights. The Board also recognizes the Senate Council as representing Senate members in matters dealing with compensation. With the acknowledgment of the Academic Senate Council, the Board recognizes its legal responsibility and authority under the Education Code to employ and determine the compensation level of the superintendent/president. The superintendent/president's salary is traditionally determined using the faculty salary schedule as a base.

Upon request of the Academic Senate, the Board, or its delegated administrators, shall confer with Senate representatives regarding recommendations or proposals by the Senate. If parties to the discussion do not reach consensus, the Senate may present its views to the Board and the Board shall consider and respond to such views. Likewise, Senate representatives have the responsibility, when requested, to confer with the Board's delegated administrators and to respond to their proposals and recommendations.

2.  Classified Staff Role in Collegial Governance

In accordance with provisions of Title V of the California Administrative Code, the Board recognizes the right of classified employees to participate in the collegial governance of the college and further acknowledges the benefit of such participation to the college and its students.

The Board recognizes the Classified Senate as the employee organization and the Classified Senate Council as the representative body of the Classified Senate for purposes of this policy section.  Classified managers will also participate in the collegial governance by virtue of their membership in the Interdivisional Coordinating Council.

Classified employees are to be included in all standing committees and councils of the College, as well as on ad hoc groups as appropriate. The president of the Classified Senate shall recommend individuals who represent the classified staff as a whole on collegial governance committees and councils with concurrence of the Classified Senate Council.  Classified staff membership on certain committees whose focus is primarily on administrative or operational matters will be appointed by the superintendent/president, after consultation with Classified Senate President,  by virtue of the specific knowledge and expertise inherent in their positions.

Classified staff shall be provided with opportunities to participate in the development of college policies and procedures, and in those processes for jointly developing recommendations for action by the Board that the Board determines, in consultation with staff, have or will have a significant effect on staff.

Except in unforeseeable, emergency situations, the Board shall not take action on recommendations significantly affecting classified staff unless the staff has had an opportunity to participate in the development of those recommendations. The Board shall give reasonable consideration to recommendations and opinions of staff on all matters that significantly affect them.

The Board asks supervisors to provide flexibility in work schedules to permit classified employees to participate in collegial governance activities associated with the Classified Senate and the college committees and councils.

3. Student Participation in Collegial Governance

In accordance with Title V, Section 51023.7, of the California Administrative Code, the MiraCosta College Board of Trustees affirms the role of students in the collegial governance process. The Board recognizes the Associated Student Government of MiraCosta College as the representative body authorized to make recommendations to the administrators and the Governing Board on policies and procedures of the College which have or will have asignificant effect on students. This right shall include the opportunity to participate in processes for jointly developing recommendations on policies and procedures under which the College is governed and administered and that have or will have a significant effect on students, to the administration and Governing Board.

The Associated Student Government of MiraCosta College has the authority to select student representatives for participation on college committees, task forces, and other governance groups. The Board will give reasonable consideration to recommendations of students with regard to college policies and procedures related to the hiring and evaluation of administrators, faculty, and staff members. Except in unforeseeable, emergency situations, administrators and the Governing Board shall not take action on a matter having a significant effect on students until it has provided students with an opportunity to participate in the formulation of the policy or procedure or the joint development of recommendations regarding the action.

The Board acknowledges the following as areas that have or may have a significant effect on students:

• Grading policies.
• Codes of student conduct.
• Academic disciplinary policies.
• Curriculum development.
• Courses or programs that should be initiated or discontinued.
• Processes for institutional planning and budget development.
• Standards and policies regarding student preparation and success.
• Student fees within the authority of the District to adopt.
• Any other district and college policy, procedure, or related matter the Governing Board determines have or will have a significant effect on students.

a.   The Student Trustee

The Student Senate President, who is elected at-large each May in accordance with the Associated Student Government’s Constitution, shall serve concurrently as the MiraCosta College Student Trustee. The student trustee shall have the right to make and second motions at board meetings. His/her vote will be advisory. It shall be the responsibility and obligation of the student trustee to bring issues of collegial governance compliance, on all matters that have or will have a significant effect on students, to the Board's attention.

b.   Committee Membership

Associated Student Government of MiraCosta College shall have the right to be represented on all committees whose business may directly or indirectly affect students.  College committees, of which student representatives are members, should make efforts to accommodate student members' class schedules in planning their meeting times.

c.   Role of Students in Hiring

A student representative may be included on each permanent full-time faculty screening committee whenever it is possible to do so. At least one student representative should be invited to serve on screening committees for the following positions: any college vice president; any Student Services administrator; any Student Services supervisor; articulation and transfer coordinator; any counselor; and the secretary assigned to student activities.

Governing Process : Board Organization

The Board consists of seven trustees, elected at large, and a student trustee.  The District is comprised of seven areas, each of which is represented by one of the seven trustees.  All trustees must be qualified electors of the District, and live within the area they represent.  The student trustee, who is also president of the MiraCosta College Associated Students, serves as a non-voting member of the board, but has the right to make and second motions at board meetings.

Each trustee shall be elected for a four-year term, beginning the first Friday in December following the election, and shall serve until a successor is elected or appointed and qualified.  The term of the student trustee will coincide with the term of president of the Associated Students.

Vacancies will be declared and filled according to applicable state laws and regulations.  A trustee’s seat becomes vacant upon his/her ceasing to discharge duties of the office for a period of three consecutive months except when prevented by sickness or when absent from the state with permission as required by law.  Any vacancy on the board shall be:

• Filled by either a special election or by provisional appointment for a 30-day period.  Unless five percent (5%) of the electors petition for a special election to fill the vacancy, a provisional appointment shall be permanent until the next regular election for the board members.
• A charge for the costs involved in filing for board vacancies will be levied against each candidate desiring to have a candidate’s statement or other materials as described in Elections Code Section 10012 sent to the voters along with the voter’s pamphlet and sample ballot.
• If a tie vote makes it impossible to determine which of two or more candidates has been elected to the governing board, the county Superintendent of Schools, having jurisdiction, shall so certify to the governing board.  The governing board shall forthwith notify the candidates who have received the tie votes to appear before it either personally or by a representative at the time and place designated by the governing board.  The governing board shall at that time and place determine the winner or winners by lot.

The president and vice president of the board are elected at the annual organizational meeting held between December 7 and December 21 inclusive.    

The superintendent/president may serve by appointment as the board secretary/clerk.  The board also may appoint an assistant secretary.  Board officers will be elected on a rotation basis in accordance with the following guidelines:

• The secretary to the board will maintain a rotation list reflecting seniority as a trustee and time since each individual served as president of the board.
• Upon election or appointment, each new trustee will be placed at the bottom of the rotation list.  Two or more new trustees elected at the same time determine their positions on the list by random drawing.
• At each annual meeting, the outgoing president will move to the bottom of the rotation list.  The vice president will be elected president and the next trustee on the list will be elected vice president.  The usual term of office for president and vice president will be one year.  Under exceptional circumstances, the board can vote to suspend the rotation policy for any reason.
• A trustee must have served on the board at least three years to be eligible to serve as president.  If an ineligible trustee would otherwise be elected president, this individual will normally move one position down the rotation list and the next trustee on the list will be elected president.  A trustee who would otherwise be elected president or vice president may exercise the option to delay his/her election one-year, and the next trustee on the list will be elected to the office.  An individual in any position on the rotation list may request to be moved to the bottom of the list.  Individual option requests will be made during the meeting at which the annual meeting date is set.

Governing Process : Officers' Roles

Board President

The role of the board president is to lead the board members in carrying out their duties and responsibilities in partnership with the superintendent/president.

The board president shall:

• Be knowledgeable about MiraCosta College and the communities that comprise its District and use that knowledge in part to help the board and the superintendent/president focus on the future.
• In leading the District’s commitment to planning, ensure a board role in the planning process, including creating and recreating the board’s vision for the college.
• Communicate regularly with the superintendent/president and as needed with the board to keep all members informed about MiraCosta Community College District matters specifically and community college issues in general.
• Represent the board to the public.  The board president may attend public events on behalf of the board or designate other trustees to do so.
• Speak for the board, including advocating board positions in public forums.  In doing so, the president shall speak only on issues on which the board has agreed. Other trustees shall refer inquiries from the public and the media to the board president, the superintendent/president, or the district public information officer to ensure coordination of statements regarding the District.
• Preside over board meetings, ensuring orderly, deliberate, and appropriate discussion and decision-making.
• Strive to develop the effectiveness of the board as a team and of individual members of the team.
• Appoint trustees to ad hoc committees to formulate initiatives and policies for recommendation to the board.
• Plan board retreats to maintain board vitality and effectiveness; encourage trustees to attend regional, state and national conferences; and include current issues for timely discussion in board agendas.
• Play a major role in orientation and in continuing support and informing new board members.
• Ensure conduct of annual board self-evaluations and superintendent/president evaluations and appropriate follow-up.

Vice President

In the absence or unavailability of the president, the vice president will assume the responsibilities of the president of the board.

Governing Process: Board Committee Principles

The board shall act as a committee of the whole and shall not create, use, or rely on standing committees for any purpose.  The board may establish ad hoc committees as necessary.

Governing Process : Board Operations

The board will operate in an open, consistent, and legal manner, following the policies detailed herein, and unless otherwise noted, adhere to these operational proceedings:

1. The board will meet at a predetermined time on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, normally in the boardroom at the Oceanside Campus.  At least five meetings per year will be held at the San Elijo campus, and one meeting per year at the Community Learning Center.
2. Meeting discussion content will primarily derive from the board planning cycle and will only be those issues that, according to board policy, clearly belong to the board to decide or examine, not the superintendent/president. Deliberation at meetings will be fair, open, and thorough, but also efficient, timely, orderly, and kept to the point.
3. The board president, considering the long-term agenda and input from board members, will set the meeting agendas in consultation with the superintendent/president.
4. An agenda containing a brief general description of each item of business to be transacted or discussed at the meeting shall be made available to the public at a minimum of three conveniently accessible district locations at least seventy-two hours before each regular meeting.
5. The board will adhere to the intent and provisions of open meeting laws.  The board will give high priority to the college community and public participation, but reserve the right to take partial testimony, to limit debate, or to take whatever actions are necessary to offer a fair hearing to an individual within the time necessary to complete the published agenda.
6. The agenda of each regular meeting of the Board of Trustees will include provision for members of the public, including employees of the district, to address the board.  Time for public comments will be limited to a total of fifteen (15) minutes per topic, unless extended by a majority vote of the board.  Each individual who desires to address the board will be limited to five minutes.  If more than three individuals who desire to address the board on the same topic, they may be asked to divide the available time to stay within allotted time.

• Members of the public, including employees of the district, may request that an item be included on the agenda for discussion or possible action at a future regular meeting of the board in one of two ways: (1) In writing to the Board Secretary at least one week prior to the regular meeting; (2) In person during the public comment section of a regular meeting.
• Special meetings may be called at any time by the board president or by written request of four or more members eligible to vote.  The secretary shall advise all members at least twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the time of the meeting.  Notice of such meeting, indicating time, place, and agenda of said meeting, shall be posted at the entrance of the district offices, and delivered to board members at least twenty-four (24) hours in advance of the time of the meeting.       
• Regular and special meetings may be adjourned to a different time and place by a majority vote of the trustees, and all business which would have been proper at the meeting from which adjournment is taken may be transacted.
• The board will consider proposed new or revised policy twice, first as a discussion item, second as a recommendation for approval. Upon majority vote of the Board, the policy will be incorporated into the board's policies.
• Robert’s Rules of Order, Revised shall be a reference guide for the conduct of board meetings in matters not otherwise covered by statutes or board policies.  However, the Rules shall not be binding on the board. 
• The board, when it is found to be in the best interest of the college district, may by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote, suspend its rules and take statutorily authorized action overriding previously adopted policy.

Compensation of Trustees shall be as follows:

• Each trustee shall receive compensation in the amount provided by law.  The student trustee shall receive monthly compensation equal to fifty percent (50%) of the compensation paid to the trustees.

• A board member may be paid for any meeting when absent if the board by resolution duly adopted and included in its minutes finds that at the time of the meeting he/she is performing services outside the meeting for the community college district, he/she was ill or on jury duty, or the absence was due to a hardship deemed acceptable to the board, e.g.:
  • Death of a member of the immediate family.   A member of the immediate family means mother, mother-in-law, father, father-in-law, grandmother, grandfather, husband, wife, son, daughter, brother, sister, or grandchild of the board member, any relative living in the immediate household of the board member, and other persons closely related by blood or marriage.
  • Serious illness of a member of the immediate family.
  • Accident involving the board member’s person or property or the person or property of his/her immediate family, including unavoidable transportation delay.
  • Unavoidable family commitments.
  • Emergency administration of estate problems relative to the immediate family.
  • Observation of a day(s) of religious significance.
  • Appearance in court as a litigant, witness, party or under official order other than subpoena or jury duty.
  • Other personal emergency or necessity leave as approved by the board.
• Each trustee and student trustee may be reimbursed for mileage at the District’s current mileage rate for attendance at annual, regular, adjourned, or special board meetings and at meetings when the trustee is on official board business, including official functions to which trustees are invited by virtue of their membership on the board.

Governing Process: Annual Board Planning Cycle

To accomplish its job outputs with a governance style consistent with board policies, the board will have an annual planning cycle that includes re-exploration of Trustee Vision Statements policies and an annual planning meeting in which a calendar is set and integrated with internal college planning and budgeting cycles. 

Governing Process: Board Members' Code of Conduct

The governing board commits itself to the highest standards of ethical conduct while carrying out its duties and responsibilities under applicable provisions of the Education code of the State of California and other local, state, and federal laws.

The governing board shall:

• Recognize that its primary duty is to represent the entire community while realizing that occasions may arise when it is appropriate for a member to advocate particular needs of residents in the individual's trustee area.
• Recognize that the strength and effectiveness of the board is as a board, not as a group of individuals.
• Encourage active involvement of students, employees and citizens in planning and policy development, and consider their views in deliberation and decision-making.
• Take official actions only in public sessions, unless otherwise authorized by law.
• Ensure an atmosphere in which controversial issues can be presented fairly and in which the dignity of each individual is maintained.
• Delegate administrative authority to the superintendent/president and confine board action to planning, policy development, and other legal responsibilities.
• Individual members of the governing board shall:
• Devote time, thought, and study to the duties and responsibilities of being a board member.  Such responsibilities include participation in educational conferences and workshops.
• Work with fellow board members in a spirit of harmony and cooperation, respecting differences that may arise during discussion of matters before the board.
• Maintain confidentiality of privileged information.
• Recognize that individual members of the board have no legal authority outside the meetings of the board, and maintain relationships with the faculty and staff, the local citizens, and media representatives on the basis of this fact.
• Base decisions upon all available facts in each situation and vote the trustee’s honest conviction in every case.
• Resist temptation and outside pressure to use the trustee position to benefit any individual or agency in a way not in the best interest of the total MiraCosta Community College District.
• When on official district business, incur and claim reimbursement only for costs that are legitimate, necessary, and reasonable.
• Avoid situations that could result in a business, professional, or personal conflict of interest.

Governing Process: Board Education

The board, as a team is committed to improving its function and excellence.  Individual board members are committed to improvement of their board skills and knowledge.

Orientation to new members shall be provided.

Board and individual trustee education may include board retreats, informational board meetings, attendance at state and national conferences, and readings on trusteeship.

Board members may attend MiraCosta College committees for trustee education purposes.

Governing Process: Board Self-Evaluation

The board is committed to continuing evaluation of its performance and progress. Self-monitoring will include comparison of board activity and discipline to policies in the Governance Process and Board-Staff Relationship categories.

Self-evaluations and goal-setting discussions will be held at least annually to identify areas of board functioning that are working well and those that may need improvement.

Board-Superintendent/President Relationship: Chief Eexecutive Role

The superintendent/president, as chief executive officer, is accountable to the board acting as a body. The board will instruct the chief executive through written policies, delegating to him or her interpretation and implementation of those policies.

As the board's official link to the district, the superintendent/president is responsible to ensure the organization’s performance. Consequently, the superintendent/president's job products can be stated as performance in the following areas:

• Organizational accomplishments of the provisions in the Trustee Vision Statements.
• Organizational operation within the boundaries of prudence, ethics, and law and regulations established in board policies on Executive Boundaries.

Board-Superintendent/President Relationship: Delegation to the Superintendent/President

All board authority delegated to staff is delegated through the superintendent/president, so that all authority and accountability of staff—as far as the board is concerned—is considered to be the authority and accountability of the superintendent/president.

The board will direct the superintendent/president to achieve specified results for specified recipients at a specified worth through the establishment of Trustee Vision Statements. The board will limit the latitude the superintendent/president may exercise or allow in practices, methods, conduct and other "means" to the Trustee Vision Statements through establishment of the Executive Boundaries.

As long as the superintendent/president uses any reasonable interpretation of the Trustee Vision Statements and Executive Boundaries policies, the superintendent/president is authorized to establish, determine, or delegate all further procedures, all decisions, all actions, all practices and all activities. Faculty, classified staff, and students shall be provided an opportunity to participate in the development of procedures and processes that have a significant effect on them, specifically in the areas designated in related Title 5 regulations.

The board may change its Trustee Vision Statements and Boundaries policies, thereby shifting the boundary between the board and superintendent/president domains. By doing so, the board changes the latitude of choice given to the superintendent/president. But so long as any particular delegation is in place, the board and its members will respect and support the superintendent/president's choices. This does not prevent the board from obtaining information in the delegated areas, except where prohibited by legal and ethical provisions for student and employee privacy and confidentiality.

Only decisions of the board acting as a body are binding upon the superintendent/president.

Decisions or instructions of individual board members, officers, or committees are not binding on the superintendent/president, except in rare instances when the board has specifically authorized such exercise of authority.

In the case of board members or committees requesting information or assistance without board authorization, the superintendent/president can refuse such requests that require--in his or her opinion--a significant amount of staff time, or funds, or are disruptive.

Board-Superintendent/President Relationship: Monitoring Executive Performance

Monitoring executive performance is synonymous with monitoring organizational performance against board policies on Trustee Vision Statements and Executive Boundaries and the superintendent/president job description. Any evaluation of superintendent/president performance, formal or informal, may be derived only from these monitoring data.

The purpose of monitoring is simply to determine the degree to which board policies are being fulfilled. Information that does not do this is not considered to be monitoring. Monitoring will be as routine as possible, using a minimum of board time so that meetings can be used to create the future rather than review the past.

A given policy may be monitored in one or more of three ways:

• Internal report: Disclosure of compliance information to the board from the superintendent/president.
• External report:  Disclosure of compliance information by a disinterested, external auditor, inspector or group who is selected by and reports directly to the board. Such reports must assess executive performance only against board policies, unless that board has previously indicated that the external party's opinion to be the standard (e.g., legal, audit, and accreditation standards).
• Direct inspection:  Discovery of compliance information by a board member, a committee or the board as a whole. This is a board inspection of documents, activities or circumstances directed by the board that allows a "prudent person" test of policy compliance.

The superintendent/president must produce information and data for the board that convinces reasonable people that the criteria contained in policy have been adhered to.

Upon the option of the board, any policy can be monitored by any method at any time. For regular monitoring, however, each Trustee Vision Statements and Boundaries policy will be classified by the board according to frequency and method.

Schedule and method follows.

Each July, the board will conduct a formal evaluation of the superintendent/president.  This evaluation will consider only the monitoring data as defined here, as it has appeared over the intervening year.

The job description of the superintendent/president includes:

• Shall be the executive officer of the board and shall administer policies and enforce rules and regulations adopted by the board.  Superintendent/president shall be responsible only to the board and shall have administrative and supervisory authority over all other employees of the District.
• The board shall formulate the educational policies of the District within the provisions of state law and shall then delegate to the superintendent/president the responsibility for administering said policies, requiring such reports as are deemed necessary to determine both the wisdom of the policies and the manner of their execution.  A written procedure developed by the board shall serve as the basis for an annual board evaluation of the superintendent/president.
• Specific duties and authority assigned to the superintendent/president by the board shall include, but shall not be restricted to, the following:
• Represent the board in its relationships with the citizens and various social, civic, educational, and governmental agencies within the District and, when appropriate, speak for the board.
• Direct preparation of board meeting agendas and minutes.  Serve as secretary for the board.
• Enter into contracts for and on behalf of the District.
• Direct the total educational program of the college.  Recommend curricular changes that have been developed through District policies and procedures.
• Coordinate the development and submission of budget proposals to the board. Supervise the administration of District financial affairs.
  
• Define and designate duties and assignments and recommend to the board employment of all classified employees of the District within the classification structure established by the board.
• Recommend employment of all employees of the District employed in positions requiring minimum qualifications and assign these employees to the positions in which they are authorized to serve, in accordance with District policies and procedures.
• Implement an evaluation plan that assures job performance of each employee.
• Recommend to the board regular (permanent) employment of those academic employees who have earned tenure status, in accordance with the District’s tenure review policies and procedures.
• Coordinate the development and oversee the implementation of all District policies and administrative procedures.  Make recommendations for changes in organizational structure and management of the District.
• Direct the development and submission of all reports required by local, county, state and federal agencies.
• Represent and interpret the college to the communities in the College District through community contacts, membership in community organizations and support of public information activities.
• Keep the board apprised of pending legislative changes affecting the District and maintain liaison with elected officials representing the District in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
• Represent the College District by serving on local, regional and state committees and boards and by participating in conferences to facilitate the development and understanding of county, state and national higher education policies.
• Appoint and oversee the functioning of District/College standing committees.  Chair the President’s Cabinet, Planning/Budgeting Council and Interdivisional Coordinating Council.
• Inform the board orally and in writing regarding the progress of all aspects of the college and general information pertaining to the office of the State Chancellor and board of Governors and California higher education in general.
• Direct the preparation and implementation of a master plan for building and construction.
• Direct strategic and operational long-range planning for the District.
• Promote good health and safety practices to ensure that employees work under conditions that protect their health and safety, and urge full and continuous staff support of energy conservation efforts.
• Serve as secretary of the MiraCosta College Foundation Board of Directors.
• Develop and submit an annual report to the board.
• Supervise and evaluate the vice presidents and the administrative assistant to the superintendent/president.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Authorization to Act in Emergency

The superintendent/president shall have the power to act in cases where emergency action must be taken and the board has not provided guidelines for administrative action.  The board shall review the superintendent/president’s decision at the next regular board meeting.  The superintendent/president shall keep the board president informed of any action taken under this policy.  The board president shall use his/her discretion in informing other board members before the next regular board meeting.

Other Approval Authority

In addition to the general and specific duties and authority detailed in this policy, the superintendent/president may act on requests from other community college districts to offer courses or workshops in the MiraCosta District in subject areas not offered by MiraCosta College. The board shall be informed periodically regarding approvals granted under this authority.

Board-Superintendent/President Relationship: Designation of Acting Superintendent/President

If the superintendent/president is incapacitated for any reason and unable to carry out his/her duties for more than five days, the cabinet-level administrator with greatest seniority in the position will serve as acting superintendent/president until the board has met to decide on a course of action.  For periods of five days or less, the superintendent/president or, in his/her absence, the board president will designate an available cabinet-level administrator to serve as acting superintendent/president.

In the absence of the superintendent/president and when an acting president has not been named, administrative responsibility shall reside with (in priority order):

• Vice President, Instructional Services
• Vice President, Student Services
• Vice President, Business and Administrative Services

Trustee Vision Statements:  Access and Service

Because of MiraCosta College's diverse educational delivery systems, curricula, facilities, and services that respond to student and community needs, an increasing number of students will attend MiraCosta College and achieve a broad range of educational goals.

Trustee Vision Statements:  Adapting to and Fostering Change

Because MiraCosta College values change, it will respond quickly to the changing environment and will initiatechange to maintain vital, effective leadership in education.

Trustee Vision Statements:  Collaboration and Partnerships

Because of MiraCosta College's collaboration and partnerships with businesses and other community organizations, the college will increase resources to serve students, and benefit the economic development of the community.

Trustee Vision Statements:  College-Level Skills and Critical Thinking

Because of MiraCosta College, students will gain college-level skills in literacy, numeracy, and critical thinking.

Trustee Vision Statements:  Information Technology Sophistication

Because of MiraCosta College’s excellence in technology, all students will have college-level information technology skills; students who transfer will have sufficient information technology skills to succeed; students who seek entry-level jobs, or new jobs, will have sufficient information technology skills to succeed.

Trustee Vision Statements:  Local/Global Sense of Community

Because of MiraCosta College, students will value responsibility to and increase their connectedness to the local/global community.

Trustee Vision Statements:  Transfer

Because of MiraCosta College, students of various skill and preparation levels who want to transfer to a four-year college or university will have the opportunity to develop, in a supportive environment, the required educational skills to transfer and succeed in achieving their educational goals. 

Trustee Vision Statements:  Workforce Development

Because MiraCosta College is a comprehensive community college, and workforce development is integral to its mission, students will be able to obtain skills and knowledge to earn a family living wage and to expand their career development in a constantly changing global economy.