Kaskaskia College holds December Board of Trustees Meeting

The Kaskaskia College Board of Trustees held its monthly meeting on Monday, December 18, 2023. Board members included Bill Hawley (Odin), Linda Stover (Centralia), Louis Kalert (Centralia), Jim Beasley (Centralia), Craig Finke (Nashville), Bryan Holthaus (Carlyle) and Madison Johnson (Student Trustee). Laura Wedekemper (Shattuc) was absent.

The board approved several program purchases including:

• A mini-split heat pump trainer from Hampden Engineering Corporation of Longmeadow, MA for $31,888 for the HVAC program at the Centralia Correctional Center for instructional purposes. The purchase was made available by the Career & Technical Education Improvement Grant.
• A replacement purchase for a refurbished ultrasound system from Midwest Imaging Corporation of St. Charles, MO in the amount of $39,400 for the KC Diagnostic Medical Sonography program.
• A new purchase of a 3D virtual dissection table from Anatomage, Inc. of Santa Clara, CA, for $103,085. The integration of the 3D virtual dissection table into the nursing curriculum will help bring the Colleges nursing education to a new level as it will enable faculty to create and execute a wide array of clinical simulation scenarios that are simply not attainable in conventional clinical settings. Funding is provided by a Nursing School Grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
• New network switches from ITSaavy of Chicago, IL, for $99,945 for the continuation of modernizing and improving the campuss technology for reliability, security, and stability across campus.

In personnel items, the board approved the promotion of Jody Roper from Financial Aid Specialist to Financial Aid Advisor and retirement of Frances Diane Tucker, effective January 1, 2024, from the Childrens Learning Center. New hires included Reece Rutland as the Workforce Equity Initiative (WEI) Partnership Coordinator and Zachary Miller as HVAC Instructor at the Centralia Correctional Center.

Additionally, the following faculty were approved for reappointment:

First-Year Probationary Faculty to Second-Year: Sarah Foley (Arts & Sciences) and Shelby Guthrie (Health Sciences)

Second-Year Probationary Faculty to Third-Year Status: Aryashree Kharel (Arts & Sciences), Whitney Wadkins (Health Sciences), and Connor Pollmann (Career and Technical Education)

Third-Year Probationary Faculty to Tenured Status: Suzanne Arndt (Career and Technical Education)

Continued Tenured Employment Status: Arts and Sciences

• Brian Cambron
• Scott Crothers
• Bruce Fink
• Erin Landers
• Clint Stevens
• Jeff Sulcer
• Josh Woods

Health Sciences

• Cynthia Hoffmann
• Eric Jones
• Kim Storm
• Beth Urban

Career and Technical Education

• Ken Ingersoll
• Robert Rhymes
• Nathan Wilkins

Industrial Trades

• Mark Kohnen
• Cory Wellen