THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: The DACC Board of Trustees and acting DACC President Carl Bridges at Thursday’s regular board meeting
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DANVILLE — The Danville Area Community College Board of Trustees met Thursday with the college’s provost/vice president serving as acting president sitting in as a hearing has yet to be scheduled for President Stephen Nacco, who is on paid administrative leave.
Board Vice Chairman Greg Wolfe said a hearing date with a hearing officer hasn’t been set yet regarding the investigation that has led to possible disciplinary action against Nacco for his actions in which Danville Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. filed a complaint with the board about a dispute between the two men over undocumented immigrants.
Wolfe said they are still working on dates and logistics, with attorneys talking it over. He doesn’t know details of the hearing or if it will be open or closed to the public. However, it likely will be conducted on DACC’s campus, he said.
For the moment, they’re in a holding pattern, he said.
There were no public or trustee comments at the meeting.
In his report, Bridges said a last visit by the state to the proposed barbering school space in the Village Mall has taken place.
He said there are a couple items still to summit, but they are waiting for the final letter to start the program hopefully in spring 2025. They are finalizing all the logistics with student kits and other items.
“Finally,” Bridges said about the stalled two-year process to get the program started.
“We still have a waiting list,” Bridges too said of anticipated students. He said the top 15 students who’ve been on the list are still interested.
He said the new mall owners are honoring the lease that’s been in place.
“Hopefully we’ll be a part of bringing more folks to the mall,” Bridges said.
He also reported that recently hired Melissa Rome, formerly with the Vermilion County Health Department, is working on the college’s strategic planning.
In board action Thursday night, it had several policy updates that had already been in the works for the college for information technology and security.
The board also heard an athletics report, including about the new volleyball program and athletes’ scholastic achievements, and conducted a public hearing on the college’s proposed fiscal year 2025 budget. There were no public comments at the budget hearing.
The board approved a $33.78 million total budget of expenditures for all district funds. The operational budget of $20.75 million is an approximately 5.2 percent increase from last year. According to DACC officials in a budget memo, “with the adoption of a FY25 budget at the state level, which resulted in a 17.1% decrease or $486,874 in DACC’s operating and equalization grants, as well as continued increases in local property taxes as a result of an increasing equalized assessed valuation, the college will be able to move forward by investing in human resources to maintain quality instruction and student service, provide training needed to meet the employment demands of the community, cover software increases, improve network infrastructure, maintain our Colleague SIS/ERP system in the Cloud, and cover estimated increases in health insurance premiums and utilities.”
Depending on the fluctuation in the EAV, the tax levy rate is anticipated to be approximately 56.20 cents. However, upon the future approval of the issuance of $5 million in working cash fund bonds, the estimated rate would be approximately 61.12, according to DACC officials.
The current tax rate is 57.5 cents and typically fluctuates between 60 and 63 cents.
The total property taxes to be levied for 2024 are $8.75 million. This represents a 7.7 percent increase from the previous year.
College officials say because the proposed tax levy is more than 105 percent of last year’s extension, a truth in taxation hearing will be at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 24 on the 2024 proposed tax levy.
The board also approved renovating and expanding the radiology lab at an estimated cost of $170,000 and approved Reifsteck Wakefield Fanning Architects as the architect for the project at an amount not to exceed $31,000.
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