Board Appointment: Adrienne Burris. The City Commissioners approved the appointment of Adrienne Burris to the College's vacant Board seat. Adrienne went through her orientation this afternoon with the Exec Leadership team and Clerk of the Board.

Board Retreat July 14 from noon-3:30 p.m.: The annual Board retreat is scheduled the afternoon before the July Board meeting. The agenda topics at this time include these:

Lunch | Board governance and leadership -- Jeanine McKenna
Review 2025 Retreat division goals and status updates -- Caron Daugherty
Update on Vision Plan 2030 status -- Mike Crouch and Lisa Kirmer
Advancing Student Success: Strategic Plan 2025-2030 -- Denise Gilligan (2nd reading and action item at the Board meeting)
Conclude by 3:30-3:40 p.m.
Board meeting 4 p.m.

Strategic Area 1: Student Success

Commencement was one for extra celebrations. We graduated around 310 students, and a large number of those walked across the stage. Thanks to Leslie Seeley for representing the Board and distributing diplomas to students.
Bailey Johnson will compete on the national SkillsUSA stage in Atlanta June 23-28 after winning 1st place in Culinary Arts in Kansas City in April. Cheer her on!!

Strategic Area 2: Employee Development and Support

Denise Gilligan, Director of Institutional Assessment, presented at the Association of for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education in Alexandria, VA, two weeks ago. I appreciate that Denise shares the wealth when it comes to assessment strategies and practices, and not only did she present on the national stage, but she was joined for this conference by Juli Heitman, Director of Nursing, and Jessica Madinger, adjunct in English and speech (who also earned recognition as a 2025 Kansas Master Teacher earlier this spring).
Colton Wellnitz, Zach Arvieux, Elizabeth Thrailkill, Hudson Doudna and Brenda Carmichael attended the Jenzabar Annual Meeting in Florida. Jenzabar is the College's Enterprise Management System.

Strategic Area 3: Optimized Programs and Facilities

The College submitted an appropriations request to the City for the 2026 budget year to support the Licensed Practical Nursing program -- $78,000. The capital request of $113,000 was approved at an April commission meeting.
The College will present to the County Commission June 12 for the 2026 appropriation request. Leadership is identifying and reviewing that request June 10.
Additional facility updates are included with June 2025 Agenda 9.3.

Strategic Area 4: Dynamic Partnerships

Advancing Student Success: 2025-2030 Strategic Plan--Service Area discussions. I concluded a final meeting with the service-area county commissioners and the directors of economic development by meeting with the Osage County group last week. I also shared this information with folks at Rotary (thanks to Mike Crouch and Denise Gilligan for their contribution and support!). I present to RDA June 13. I have tried to get out and about to share our new strategic plan and help folks understand a bit more about our operations. This outreach started with meeting with the county commission and economic development leaders in our 7-county service area. I have met with Greenwood County, Morris County, Chase County, Wabaunsee County, Osage, and Coffey County commissioners. The themes of these discussions have explored the economic development opportunities for partnerships through workforce initiatives such as CDL training, mobile welding, and healthcare opportunities. With the Lyon County presentation this week, every county commission in our service area is aware of our operations, our budget, our programming, our services, and most importantly, our students' successes. This presentation was also delivered to the Board in April.
Per the reference to the programming support from the City and the County, the College values both the City and the County support in our programs and considers them as valued partners of the College.

FHTC Board of Trustees

Meeting Information