The Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will hold a business meeting Wednesday, Feb. 12, beginning at 5 p.m. The board will first meet in closed session at 4 p.m.
Among the items on the agenda the board will consider is the adoption of the Board of Trustees Goals for 2025. Those goals will be presented during the meeting.
The board will also consider rescinding an action taken at the Jan. 31 board meeting to reinstate plans for affordable student housing. The action would be taken to “cure” a possible Brown Act violation regarding the Jan. 31 vote.
The agenda item reads:
On January 31, 2025 the Board of Trustees, approved a motion to direct the CEO to send a letter to the California Community College Chancellor’s Office indicating that the District would like to rescind its previous decision and subsequent communication to that office to return the $61,848,000 affordable student housing grant.
Legal counsel informed the District that this motion and vote was a potential violation of the Brown Act, California law governing public meetings. There is a question as to whether the public was properly notified of the potential action of the Board of Trustees. The Brown Act permits the District a cure to this potential violation by reconsidering the item after properly placing the item on a subsequent agenda. While the Board does not believe and does not concede there was a Brown Act violation, to avoid any appearance of a violation, the Board is considering the item again.
The District and the Board of Trustees unconditionally commit to complying with the letter and the spirit of the Brown Act.
At the October 9, 2024, Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees meeting, the Board voted to return the Student Housing Grant to the State of California. The item, titled Approval of Resolution No. 2024/25-12: To Return the Student Housing Funds to the State of California, was approved with a vote of 3-0-1. This vote was informed by the comprehensive August 14, 2024 presentation to the Board concerning the Student Housing Grant. That recorded presentation remains available for public viewing on the District web site.
In the presentation, the District outlined the total cost of building, operating, and maintaining the student housing building, as well as the changes to the student housing grant, the requirement to work with the State Public Works Board, the Department of Finance, and the California Community College Chancellor’s office to secure lease revenue bonds in place of the original grant funding. The presentation also reviewed the maximum amount of rent that could be charged for the units, the number of units that could be built, the requirements to develop and make changes to the facility, and the number of new college employees needed to safely operate and maintain the facility.
The Board decided to return the money to the state for these principal reasons:
Funding would not cover the full cost of construction – Due to rising construction costs, the $61.8 million allocation would no longer cover the full cost of building the same size facility as originally planned in 2021. The District had worked with architects to design a 209-bed facility, which would have exceeded the $61.8M budgeted for the project. To build a 209-bed facility, the District would need to identify and secure an additional $5 million beyond the available state funding.
Cost of operating a smaller facility would exceed revenue – The District could reduce the scope of the facility by removing amenities and housing units to keep the construction cost under the $61.8M. However, the operating costs would exceed projected rental revenue. Rental rates are capped by the state, so rent is not a revenue factor the District can increase to offset operation costs. The district would have to budget general funds to cover the annual costs of operating the building.
Requirement to provide collateral – The funding initially was awarded to the District as a grant. However, the state revoked the grant funding and replaced it with lease revenue bonds. To receive the funding from lease revenue bonds, Districts were required to use campus facilities as collateral to secure to secure the state’s bonds. The Board and the District did not want to utilize two buildings as collateral for the lease revenue bonds.
On December 19, 2024, the District received an invoice from the State to return all $61,848,000 of the 2022 Higher Education Student Housing Grant funding. The District processed the invoice and the check issued from LACOE on January 13th.
This item is an action item. The Administration recommends the Board to hear and consider a second comprehensive report on the student housing grant prior to curing its January 31, 2025 violation.
RECOMMENDATION:
Administrative recommendation is to rescind the 01/31/2025 motion by majority vote and to allow the October 9, 2024 action of the Board of Trustees stand.”
The meeting will be held in the Dr. Dianne G. Van Hook University Center, Room 301 on the Valencia campus of College of the Canyons, located at 26455 Rockwell Canyon Road, Valencia, CA 91355.
This will be an in-person meeting with the ability to view the meeting virtually.
The Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will be discussing the operating cost, or Pro Forma, and potential environmental challenges of having student housing at a special board meeting on June 22.
Due to its Jan. 22 regular meeting being canceled because of local fires, the Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will hold a special meeting on Friday, Jan. 31.
The Santa Clarita Community College District Board of Trustees will hold a business meeting Wednesday, Oct. 9, beginning at 5 p.m. in closed session. Open session will follow at 6 p.m.
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