The North Orange County Community College District Board of Trustees held a meeting this Tuesday evening in the boardroom on the Anaheim campus.

The meeting was held to honor NOCCCD Employees of the Year from Cypress, Fullerton and SEC for 2016, along with presentations on reports professors that were on sabbatical made and a presentation made by the NOCCCD Student Success Scorecard Committee for 2016.

After the Pledge of Allegiance and the Board of Trustee roll call, board president Barbara Dunsheath presented the NOCCCD Employees of the Year of 2016 with their awards and announced by board vice-president Molly McClanahan.

There were 10 employees that were awarded, four of which were staff from Fullerton College.

FC employees awarded were Savannah Jones, Vice President for Student Services; Vanessa Miller, Director of Health Services; Jo Wen Wu, biology professor and recipient of the 2016 Fullerton College Teacher of the Year award; Linda Millikan, Instructional Assistant and 2016 Classified Professional of the Year.

Wu was absent from the meeting.

The first staff member to give their sabbatical report that evening, was FC Professor of geology Richard P. Lozinsky.

Lozinsky spent his sabbatical studying the geological intricacies of Orange County, from the 15 million-year-old rock formations at Corona Beach to paleontological specimens found in Clark Park.

Lozinsky used a powerpoint presentation to emphasize that not many OC community colleges cover geology right now, and that much of what goes on in Southern California has to do with geology.

“California is slowly breaking away from the San Andreas Fault, toward Alaska, one inch a year,” Lozinsky said.

When Lozinsky finished his presentation he thanked the board for granting his sabbatical.

“You can just be on a talk show,” said VP McClanahan, delighted over Lozinsky’s presentation.

Cypress College Prof. Virgil Adams, presented his sabbatical study next.

Adam’s study was titled, “The Nexus of Stress, Caregiver Fatigue, and Burnout in the Workplace.”

Professor Adams’ study was about how burnout in the workplace produces stress and exhaustion among other difficulties.

Adams emphasized that the study will help students identify the early signs of burnout calling it, “An early killer in the workplace.”

“You can really help folks understand the complexity of the issue,” said board member Tony Ontiveros, who also works as a parole officer.

“60% of all educators, within four years, demonstrate signs of burnout,” said Adams, finalizing his presentation.

The 2016 NOCCCD Student Success Scorecard Committee presented their data to the board next.

The scorecard, which is based on a 6-year-cohort of data, showed a trend analysis comparing college education data from when the last score card was done in 2009-10 to now.

The score card tracked all first time students in NOCCCD in 2009-10 that had enrolled in an English or math course within the six-year time frame, and focused on eight college level indicators that include persistence, percent of students who earned least 30 units, completion of all degrees, certificates, or transfer, completion of basic English, completion of basic math, Career Technical Education degree, certificate or transfer.

Fullerton College increased its stats in all eight fields, while graphs showed that Cypress’s numbers fell or stagnated in some categories, but rose in some areas.

Committee members do agree that the number of students completing still lower than the top performing community colleges in the statewide and nationally.

The committee also agrees that more research is needed at local levels in order to supplement information that is contained in the Student Success Scorecard.

Fullerton College has already started a plan to implement changes to increase success in fields that still need work, like the math department.

FC’s math department is planning on starting the FC MILES program (Fullerton College Math Initiative for Leveled Enhancement and Success), which will use software and increase workshops in order to enhance success in math classes.

FC hopes that with the program, students will quickly move from 15 level courses to 100 level.

All-in-all, Fullerton and Cypress out performed the system in all eight tracked areas.