Skip to main content

Regents award easement and OK tax abatement

Regents award easement and OK tax abatement

Published or Revised May 01, 2013

An easement necessary to bring fiber optic cable and high speed Internet to campus was approved at the Monday meeting of the Paris Junior College Board of Regents. Peoples Telephone Cooperative received a stimulus grant to provide fiber optic cable throughout rural Northeast Texas, including the Northeast Texas Consortium (NETnet), PJC's Internet service provider. The grant will link together all three of PJC's facilities with high-speed Internet. "They've come up to the Loop and the road by Paris High School, and now they need to get to our campus," said PJC President Dr. Pam Anglin. "The easiest, quickest way for them is to get an easement from us to come up Collegiate Drive beside Dragon Park and the driving range and up to the Applied Sciences Building." The regents also approved a tax abatement of $19.4 million for 10 years for improvements to be made by James Skinner Baking Company, which has promised to bring 100 new jobs by the end of 2013 and 200 jobs by the end of 2014. In other business, the Regents:
  • Heard from Vice President of Business Services John Eastman that though revenue is coming in a little slower than projected, expenses are lower as well, and despite summer projects, the college is in good financial shape.
  • Modified the travel policy to add that if state or federal grant funds are used, expenditures must follow government guidelines and dollar limits.
  • Approved an increase to room and board charges for 2013-2014 incorporating last month's increase of the 3 percent of the Aramark food contract.
  • Adopted a proposal from the curriculum committee to add two courses to the core curriculum: MATH 1342, statistics, and MATH 2312, pre-calculus math.
  • Approved Update 28 to the Policy Manual received from the Texas Association of School Boards.
  • Accepted the Wilson furniture bid of $133,561.92 for the Social Sciences Renovation Project.
  • Tabled the Math and Sciences Building irrigation project, as no bids were received.
  • Approved lab fees for new courses in 2013-2014, such as electrician, plumbing and pipefitting, and new physical education courses offered at the Recreation Center.
  • Heard a report on student success data covering retention, success and withdrawal trends.
  • Received a report on PJC revenue sources and historical tax information. PJC has three main sources of income – state appropriations, tuition and fees, and property taxes. In 2000, 57 percent of the income came from state appropriations. In 2012, 36 percent came from state appropriations. Taxes as a percentage of total income have remained consistent at approximately 12 percent. The state expects community colleges to rely more and more on local support. PJC has the fifth smallest tax base out of all the 50 community colleges, at $1.5 billion.
  • Received a report on the Board of Trustees Institute for Achieving the Dream held last month. Regent President Curtis Fendley said that he views it as continuing education to ensure that PJC regents are meeting the needs of the students. Regent Louise Taylor said the institute confirmed for her how well PJC is doing, relative to other colleges.
  • As part of the President's report, regents learned that since the official kickoff on April 15, the PJC Annual Fund campaign has brought in $48,000. Regents Louise Taylor and Ginna Bowman were selected to attend the Association of Community College Trustees' annual leadership conference in October.
  • Accepted the retirement of PJC Computer Science/Computer Information Systems instructor Jenny Herron, effective May 11, and the resignation of Athletic Director and Women's Basketball Coach Sean LeBeauf, effective May 9.