Barton Community College fell short of meeting goals set with the Kansas Board of Regents last year, which means the college will only receive 80 percent of new funding, instead of 100 percent.
Since no new funding is anticipated, the amount received will be $0 either way, according to Dr. Penny Quinn, Barton’s vice president of instruction student services. However, college administrators plan to plead their case to KBOR, explaining why they have earned 100 percent funding.
It’s the principle of the matter, Barton President Dr. Carl Heilman told college trustees during last week’s board study session.
"We’ll either get 80 percent, or 100 percent, of nothing," he said, "but we will fight for 100 percent."
In 2002, the Kansas Legislature tied the awarding of new state funds to a process called the Kansas Board of Regents Performance Report. Colleges enter performance agreements with goals based on KBOR initiatives and the individual mission of each college.
Barton is two years through a three year-performance plan that includes four goals; their failure or success is based on 16 key performance indicators (KPI).
The goals are:
1. Increase online efficiency
2. Improve student success in gatekeeper classes
3. Responsive to emerging workforce needs
4. Providing training access to Kansas Department of Corrections employees
The college met or exceeded its KPI, for the most part, in the first three goals. It fell short on goals related to the retention of online students in Goal No. 1, and was 3 percent below the target set for increasing enrollment and pass rates in Goal No. 2. However, no KPI were met in goal No. 4. BCC Dean of Workforce Training and Community Education Elaine Simmons said that’s because the Technical Education Authority and KBOR took longer than necessary to approve Barton’s curriculum for KDOC corrections officers. The program has since been approved.
Quinn’s executive summary of the 2010 KBOR Performance Report agrees with Simmons' conclusion. The decision to only award 80 percent of new funding "is based upon the fact that Barton ‘made a good faith effort’ to meet our identified goals, but failed to make ‘directional improvement’ in the majority of key performance indicators (we achieved directional improvement in 50 percent of the KPI targets)." The summary goes on to state, "Barton will challenge the KBOR funding level decision, as we believe that failure to meet the four KPI for Goal No. 4 were a direct result of the TEA Alignment process which took almost a year and a half."
