The Kaskaskia College Board of Trustees received positive news Monday evening regarding the recent visit to the college by the Higher Learning Commission. KC President George Evans reported that the commission visited on April 8 and 9 for a review that takes place midway through the 10-year accreditation cycle. In its report, the commission found that the school continues to meet all criteria for accreditation.
Evans says the results of the review reflect the hard work put in by college staff and the board of trustees.
“You can’t get a better midterm report than what we had, and it’s a testimony not only to the college itself, but the staff, the faculty and just the hard work that we do every day to ensure that we are following through with what we say we’re going to do. We put it on paper, and we were noted for our hospitality. We were noted for our teamwork environment. We were noted for having a very knowledgeable board who understands the processes, but most importantly is they recognized all the hard work that we have done the last five years toward data-driven assessment of the institution.”
The board also heard good news during the annual audit report presented by Chris Sula and Tim Richter of CliftonLarsenAllen. Sula and Richter reported that, while there were three minor findings during the audit, there were no major issues and the overall audit was clean. Evans credits the college’s business office and vice presidents with the strong audit result.
“I’d be remiss without recognizing Judy Hemker, the retiring vice president who retired on April 30, but Sara Hanks, who is wearing both hats as the controller and also as the interim Vice President, has really grabbed the bull by the horns here and just has been a breath of fresh air. On the flip side, we do have an amazing staff of professionals down in our business office, on the administrative services side. They take a large amount of pride in what they do, and it was obviously reflected in this opinion tonight.”
In other action, the board approved a notification to KC employees at the Centralia Correctional Center. The notification states that the college will suspend education programs at the correctional center effective August 1 unless a new contract for the programs is approved by the board of trustees and the Illinois Department of Corrections. However, Evans says negotiations with IDOC are ongoing and he is highly confident that a new contract will be established in time.
