Barton Community College may be able to save close to $1.2 million by refinancing its long-term debt and paying some of it off early, Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman said.
Heilman presented information from Vice President Mark Dean during the BCC Board of Trustees study session on Tuesday. When the board meets on Sept. 28, it will be asked to approve refinancing.
Barton’s long-term debt is financed via certificates of participation (COPs). An alternative to bonds, COPs are a lease-financing agreement.
The current rate of the certificates is 3.64%, Heilman said. The estimated average interest rate after refinancing could be 1.55%. The college will also use $1 million of its cash reserves to reduce the outstanding amount of the debt. Board Chairman Mike Johnson said the reserves are in good shape and can allow this expenditure.
Barton’s long-term debt as of June 30 was $9.1 million. The estimated total savings will be $1.17 million.
Performance agreements
In other business, Todd Mobray, director of Institutional Research, reported on Barton’s Performance Report to the Kansas Association of School Boards (KBOR) of Academic Year 2020.
The college was given six goals for improvement, or indicators, over three years:
• Increase the number of Barton degrees and certificates awarded.
• Increase the percentage of successful responses on competency-based reasoning questions pooled from multiple sections of five courses.
• Increase the yearly percentage rate of students receiving third-party health-care technical program certification and licensure credentials.
• Increase overall first-year academic achievement (GPA) for students in developmental courses.
• Increase three-year graduation rate of the first-time, full-time, degree-seeking students.
• Increase the percentage of students performing at the “Proficiency” level on mandatory competencies within written communication assessments of general education.
Recently, Mobray made a presentation to KBOR’s Academic Affairs Standing Committee, which concluded Barton met all baseline goals for four of the indicators, thanks to innovations such as opportunities for professional development and expanded student services. The first and last indicators on the list fell short but showed improvement.
The number of degrees and certificates awarded for 2020 was 922, while the baseline (based on a three-year history from 2013 through 2015) was 946. Barton has progressed each year since 2017, the report to the committee notes. Preliminary numbers have the college surpassing the baseline in 2021, which Heilman said was cause for administrators to do a “Happy Dance.”
The final indicator “shows the most room for improvement,” the report continues. The baseline was 42.0% of students performing at the “proficiency” level on mandatory competencies but the college’s performance was at 35.7% (222 of 621 students). “We have already seen 10% to 15% improvements from Fall 19 to Spring 20 with students performing at ‘proficiency’ levels on mandatory competencies and consider this an area of positive movement for future reports.”
By meeting most of the goals, the college is eligible to receive 100% of any new funding provided by the state. Colleges that meet fewer of their goals may see such funding reduced to 90%, 75% or even zero, Heilman said.
Many years, there is no new state funding and meeting the goal of the performance agreement doesn’t affect colleges one way or another.
“I’m not sure when was the last time there was new funding,” Mobray said.
Heilman said there was new funding in 2016 and that year the college only met three of its six goals. “We missed out on $250,000,” and that continued for subsequent years, he said. “So (performance agreement goals) are a priority.”
Touring the Cougar Supply Den
To finish the study session, trustees toured the Shafer Art Gallery and the Cougar Supply Den.
The Supply Den opened as a food pantry for students in 2017 and moved to the Learning Resource Center in August. It contains food and other supplies that are available at no charge. All of the items are donated.
