The board’s busy summer

Austin Community College's board of trustees set policy and plans to direct the operation of the college. What they do at their monthly board meetings affect students, employees and all who live within the ACC taxing district. Here are just a few of the important issues the board dealt with this summer.

ANNEXATIONS ON THE HORIZON

Registered voters will head to the polls On Nov. 2 to determine the outcome of the annexation election that could allow five central Texas school districts—Bastrop ISD, Hays CISD, Elgin ISD, McDade ISD and San Marcos CISD—to become part of the ACC district. The annexation initiative, if passed, would dramatically lower the cost of tuition for students from those areas from $150 per credit hour to $42 per credit hour, and raise the tax rate for homeowners in the district to a total of $0.0951 per $100 assessed property value, according to the ACC District Tax Guide.

Early voting is Oct. 18-29.

The annexation process begins when a steering committee circulates a petition among the community. After North Hays County Steering Committee (NHCSC) proposed a request for annexation to ACC's Board of Trustees in December, the group began collecting signatures from registered voters. When the required amount of signatures was reached (5% of registered voters in the territory, according to the Texas Education Code), NHCSC submitted them to an ACC election administrator for verification and review. A Service Plan was then presented to each community in order to summarize the potential programs and services accessible to them as part of the taxing district. Throughout the year, the Board has held public hearings to provide further information about the initiative.

The board called for an annexation election on Friday, August 20.

If enough voters support the annexation, ACC will begin amending its boundaries and changing tuition rates for residents who are now included in the district. 

With the exception of McDade ISD, each county will receive a new ACC campus. 

TUITION INCREASE

Tuition went up for all ACC students when the board of trustees approved the increase at a May 3 board meeting. Both in-district and out-of state students saw a $3 raise per semester credit hour (SCH) bringing the cost to $42 per semester credit hour for in-state and $288 for out-of-state. Students who live out of district (but in state) saw tuition increase by $13 to bring the cost to $150 per semester credit hour.

There are many factors that influenced the tuition increase; the most prominent of which being that both local property tax revenue and state appropriations are expected to decrease in the upcoming years as specified in the proposal submitted by Ben Ferrell, executive vice president of finance and administration and Stephen Kinslow, president/CEO of ACC.

With the approved tuition increase, student tuition will cover 31.8% of ACC's needed income, Ferell told the board at the May 3 meeting.

ACC has not issued an in-district tuition raise for the last five years even though the college has continuously offered a wide variety of classes, labs, student activities and competitive, health-benefit-including salaries for all the full time professors, Kinslow said in a memo to the Student Government Association (SGA).

In Kinslow's memo, he also mentioned that there are many resources available to help students manage the cost of higher education; Financial Aid received by students has risen from 52 to 80 million in just the last two years, and the number of students receiving such aid has jumped 7% to 40%. The government-awarded Pell Grant has increased and now tax payers can claim as much as $2,500 from the American Opportunity Credit (formerly known as the HOPE Tuition Credit) on their tax returns. ACC has also enabled students to make payment installations on their tuition. They pay a 25% down payment with follow-up payments due throughout the semester.

LAND PURCHASES

$35 million is what ACC spent to buy five properties over the summer.   

ACC is under contract to purchase a 96 acre section of property in Kyle. The buy, which carries with it a $9.84 million price tag, is the most recent in a series of acquisitions made by ACC which began in May. Others include a $12.4 million, 100 acre parcel in Leander, 98 acres in Elgin and 87 in Bastrop, each costing over $3 million, and a $4 million procurance near ACC's Highland Business Center, which includes a 194,000 square foot building formerly owned by Dillard's at Highland Mall.

The purchases were based on recommendations made by ACC's board of directors as part of the College's 2007-2009 "Master Plan."

By laying claim now to properties in strategic areas, and in counties where annexation is still pending, the taxpayers have "more choice and a better deal," said Bill Mullane, executive director, Austin Community College facilities and construction.

The strategy is to accommodate a projected 2025 Austin population. The metro population is projected to climb to an estimated 2.7 million according to a Bizjounals.com report, and is likely to surpass San Antonio, becoming Texas' third most populous metropolitan area.