TRC board hears clean audit report

The Three Rivers College Board of Trustees heard a clean audit report during its monthly meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Jeffrey C. Stroder with Beussink, Hey, Roe and Stroder LLC, presented the independent auditors’ report.

During the audit report, Stroder said, there were no findings that required corrective action.

The audit looked at the net position of the school, changes to the net position including revenues and expenses, and the cash flows for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which ended June 30.

According to the report, total liabilities decreased while total assets increased. For net position, the total at the end of the fiscal year was $28,855,607.

When looking at the changes in net position, the report states, tuition and fees decreased by approximately $471,000. The audit cites this decrease was due to an overall decrease in enrollment. There was a decrease of approximately 5% in tuition and fees due to this change.

There was also a decrease of $247,000 from state aid and grants due to the expiration of a campus improvement grant.

However, according to audit documents, these decreases were mitigated by an increase of $632,000 in other state grants.

Non-operation expenses totalled $975,161 and operation expenses totalled $22,910,434, according to audit documents.

The cash flow, which looks at the cash activity of the college, saw a slight decrease in what remains in savings. The 2017-18 fiscal year ended with $15,363,941 while the 2018-19 year ended with $14,865,598.

According to the audit report, the college has a total of $20.8 million in outstanding debt, which is a decrease of $1,044,061 from the previous year.

The auditors concluded that the financial condition of the college remains sound with “adequate fund balances and reserves.”

Nothing needed to be reported or corrected and no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies were identified.

“That’s kind of rare in my world,” Stroder said.

Stroder said he experienced no problem with estimates, there were no disagreements with management and he had no reason to believe there was any “opinion shopping” during the process.

The college will retain it’s status as a low-risk auditee, which it has held for about 10 years.

National Community College Benchmark Project

TRC received a report from the National Community College Benchmark Project, which compares data to 218 community colleges around the U.S.

Dr. Wesley Payne, college president, said the results of the report were good with the college placing in the “middle of the pack” or higher in all categories looked at in comparison to five other similar colleges.

“We are really doing well in our peer group,” he said.

Payne said one of the categories that stuck out was the number of students completed, transferred or continuing.

This looks at the number of students doing one of the above between one year and the next. According to the report, 79% of TRC students fall into this category.

For the college’s retention rate, which is the number of students who continue taking or return to classes, was 77% for the next term and 52% for the next fall semester.

The report also looks at the percentage of students who pass their developmental math and writing classes. For math, this is 86% and for writing it is 87%. This is the highest rate among the colleges TRC was compared to.

Payne said part of the success in this category has been a shift in how these courses are graded to become more rigorous.

“You may look at that data and go ‘that’s just completion rate, they passed the class. Couldn’t you just make the class easier and do that?’ You could, but that’s not what we did,” Payne said. “These courses are now designed so you have to be competent in every knowledge domain to pass the class.”

Before, the students were graded based on an average for the entire class. Payne said teachers expressed concern that a student could come into one of the classes weak in a subject, such as fractions, but score well enough in the other categories to still pass the class. Now, the college looks at a student’s results in each topic covered in the class and they are expected to pass each topic in order to pass the class.

Along with the report, the college also received an identification of strengths where it scored above the 90th percentile compared to other schools. These include student passing distance learning classes — 98th percentile — and students who passed English Comp I class ­— 92nd percentile, along with four other categories.

Elections

Three seats on the board will be open for election in April of 2020. The filing date to run for these positions will be from Dec. 17 to Jan. 21.

Two seats from sub-district one will be open for six year terms. They are currently filled by trustee Eric Schalk and current treasurer Chris Williams. There will also be a seat open in sub-district two for four years to complete the current term.

Those interested in filing for one of the seats will be able to do so during normal business hours with Janine Heath, who will serve as election authority. The school will be closed from noon Friday. Dec. 20, through Monday, Jan 7, for the winter break.

The election will be held on April 7.