One year into the job, Santa Barbara City College's chief executive says she is installing fiscal and facilities management systems to restore "stability," after a long stretch of volatility and near constant turnover of leadership at the school.
For Erika Endrijonas, SBCC's ninth President/Superintendent in 15 years, that is the policy and political context in which she views the increasingly spirited debate on Measure P. The Nov. 5 ballot measure is a proposed bond issue to finance $198 million worth of campus construction, capital improvements, and facilities repairs and upgrades.
"Basically I believe in 'president-proofing' a college," Endrijonas told Newsmakers. "And what I mean by that is looking at everything, putting systems in place, doing succession planning, and getting the college onto an even keel so that if...something happens to me overnight, the college could still go on. Or whoever came in after I left...would be able to walk through the door and know that the college was actually functioning the way it should be functioning."
In a one-on-one interview with Newsmakers last week, Endrijonas spoke in depth and detail about the challenges she inherited in taking over at SBCC, in August 2023, what she is doing to address them, and what the future of community-based college education looks like to her.
Included in our conversation:
As a policy matter, the superintendent went deep into the weeds in discussing the two most fundamental challenges faced by SBCC and publicly-funded colleges across the nation: budget uncertainty and declining student enrollment;
As a practical matter, she explained some of the complexities of planning and financing capital projects, big and small, tasks shaped in part by the interlocking funding mechanisms between California community colleges and state government.
As a political matter, she responded to mordant questions about the candor of the Yes-on-P campaign on two key issues: a) the assertion that the bond issue would come "without increasing taxes"; b) the outsize amount of Measure P spending embodied in the construction of a new, $100 million Physical Education building to replace the current one.
"I'm not a pollster, I'm not an advertising person, I rely on the (political) experts to do that," Endrijonas told us. "I understand what you're saying, and you're not the only person who said they think (some of the campaign) is misleading.
"But I will say - anytime I'm asked, I answer honestly," she added.
(Loyal readers and word fans can read much more about Dr. Endrijonas, City College and Measure P below. Viewers who want to jump straight to video can check out our full conversation with her on YouTube here, or by clicking through this link. The podcast is here).
A life in education. The 59-year old Endrijonas grew up as a self-described "military brat," whose family moved frequently before settling down in time for her to attend junior high and high school in Culver City. She got her BA at Cal State Northridge, then earned both master's and Phd degrees in American and Women's History (fun fact: she wrote her dissertation on how cookbooks reflected gender roles and socioeconomic values post-World War II, 1945-60).
After a spell of undergraduate teaching, she started work as a college administrator, a journey in which she served as SBCC's Career and Technical Dean, from 2000-09; those nine years were bookended between early stints at Georgia's Oglethorpe University and New Hampshire's Granite State College, and later advances up the career ladder at Oxnard College, the presidency of Los Angeles Valley College, and then the top position of Superintendent/President of Pasadena City College, from where City College hired her once again last year.
"Right after the (SBCC) board selected me, I said, 'I am really hoping and planning that the interview process that I just went through is the last one of my career," she said. "I have about six or seven years until I want to retire, and what I want to do is bring stability to the college."
Erika noted that if she achieves that goal, it will "match (former City College chief) John Romo, who was the last longest-standing president at the college," although she acknowledges there's zero chance that she -- or anyone else -- will ever attain the 21-year longevity of ex-President Peter MacDougall, an education record equivalent to Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.
"The people who are at community colleges 21 years in these times," Erika said with a smile, "are very rare."
Back in SB. Endrijonas is paid $356,523.60 a year (that's a base salary of $352,800 plus a $3,723.60 differential for having a doctorate, for those keeping score at home), plus health and retirement benefits, and it seems fair to say she earns every cent.
Upon her arrival, the college bade farewell to Kindred Murillo, who had been its eighth President/Superintendent since 2008, including three who served on an interim basis while SBCC searched for more, um. permanent replacements
She took over an institution that not only had been recently rocked by Covid and wracked by bitter campus debates over race and gender, but also been rejected by local voters over Measure S, a $288 million proposed bond issue for campus capital and construction projects.
The 2014 measure won 50.23 percent of the vote, falling significantly short of the 55 percent supermajority needed to pass a general obligation bond.
Alphabet soup. The last City College bond issue passed before the failure of Measure S was Measure V, a $77.2 million package voters approved in June, 2008.
Measure V authorized a property tax increase of $8.50 per $100,000 of assessed value on residential and commercial property to pay off the bonds sold to finance SBCC campus projects specified in the ballot measure, which included a new West Campus Center,
Because some Measure V projects since have been completed, that $8.50 cost to property owners currently amounts to $6.50 per $100,000 of assessed value.
Now comes Measure P, which essentially asks voters to restore the full $8.50 tax increase previously authorized by Measure V, up from its current level of $6.50.
"Measure P is a general obligation bond," Endrijonas said in our interview. "It is not a separate bond though. It is a bond that extends the tax rate that was originally approved in 2008 with Measure V.
"That is a separate bond," she said, in response to skeptical questions. "What it does is, it continues what you're paying for Measure V. Right now, Measure V has gone down to about $6.50 per hundred (thousand). So what it does is, it just takes it back to that $8.50 level."
The numbers cited by Endrijonas are correct as a purely arithmetic matter; as a political matter, however, Measure P opponents express great unhappiness with how they are being wielded in the current campaign, for one very simple reason: there's no such thing as free money.
While Measure P supporters proclaim that it would not increase the "tax rate," it obviously would increase the "tax bill," as Measure P foes have explained, here and here.
"It's not additional," Endrijonas declared. "It just resets Measure V back up to $8.50. So it's the $2 per $100,000 in assessed value that is there, not a separate $8.50."
Gym class. The full text of Measure P is 3,878 words. (You could look it up).
In campaign mailers, on house signs, and online "Fact Sheets" and "FAQ" pages, sponsors often make generic claims about what actual problems it would address as to campus facilities.
Typical language, from a campaign mailer, asserts that bond money would "remove hazardous materials like asbestos and lead," and "repair leaky roofs, deteriorating plumbing, gas lines and faulty electrical systems" and "improve earthquake safety," among other assertions.
The bond issue's centerpiece project is rarely mentioned in Yes-on-P campaign materials, however: a new Physical Education building, estimated to cost at least $100 million, for which the state would grant $35 million in matching funds if SBCC provides $65 million.
The political reason it gets short shrift: in May, trustees commissioned a "Bond Feasibility Study," conducted by True North Research, that tested a list of 15 "Projects and Improvements" to include in campaign messaging.
"Replace Physical Education Building" came in dead last; conversely, polling of "Negative Arguments" found that the most "convincing" message in opposition was, "The college plans to spend about $75 million of the bond on a gym, sports facilities."
Amid anti-P charges about bait-and-switch arguments, however, Endrijonas in our interview forthrightly defended the plan to spend a large portion of the $198 million bond on replacing the current Physical Education building. To understand the full argument, she said, it is useful to decipher the tortuous process by which the state provides funds to community colleges for physical improvements:
"The number one case is that the state does not fund capital improvements outright," the president said. "When colleges either need new buildings, or they need a building replaced, the state says, 'go pass a local bond.' What they do is offer matching dollars...
"They do not give us a line item to replace buildings," she told us. "What they do is give us money that comes combined, that is equipment, instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance money. And we have to divide it. And over the last nine years, the total amount we had for scheduled maintenance was $11 million.They don't come close to giving us the amount of money to maintain our campus...,
"So we don't get enough money. We will never get enough money to save up to replace a building, or to adequately maintain the campus, especially because so many of our buildings were built decades ago," Endrijonas said.
Under these circumstances, the president added, it would be short-sighted for the college not to take advantage of state bond money currently available to help pay for replacement of the aging gym on campus, for at least five reasons:
State funding. "We have $34, 35 million in (state) matching funds. So if we don't pass the bond, we have to give the money back and it will go to another college...If we don't pass the bond, we don't get the $34 million and we still have a building that is not in good shape. So that's a huge problem."
Deterioration of current building. "That building was built in the 1960s. It has asbestos, it has lead pipes...the building also has seismic issues...If we don't pass the bond, tearing down a building oftentimes costs a lot of money. We can't tear it down. So do you want a building that we might have to vacate just sitting there?
Community resource. "The sports pavilion, as well as the PE building, is part of the resiliency hub here in Santa Barbara. It's where we housed emergency workers, debris flow victims. We are a location, if there's a fire, if there's whatever - can we set up shop? Absolutely, we have space."
Athletics. "We have anywhere from 350 to 400 full-time students (who are) athletes. Those students have a higher likelihood of graduating than non-athletic students because they have to be full-time...we also have community members who come, and Bishop Diego (High School) plays their football games at our stadium. We have people who walk around the track, go up and down the stadium stairs. All of these things become endangered if we don't replace the building, and if we don't have money for maintenance, and we'll never have enough from the state."
A second large project. "Another piece of it is, part of the bond is about building a Physical Sciences building, because that building also needs to be replaced. And that's where we do a lot of STEM education...We also would be qualified to get state matching funds for a Physical Sciences building: In neither case are we expanding the footprint of the college. What we are doing is a replacement, because those buildings are old."
Bottom line. For Endrijonas, the Measure P bond money represents one part of the solution to the complicated problem of adapting City College to a future shaped by large and accelerating educational, social, economic and technological change.
"What we're trying to do, in working on our new Facilities Vision Plan, in working on our strategic enrollment plan, is to say, let's see, where are we? Where do we have classes? Are we maximizing the large classrooms where we should? Are we maximizing them throughout the day? Are there partnerships that we should be doing? Are there folks out there who want to be part of the Santa Barbara City College community? And maybe they could use space for business incubation or all kinds of things....
"The last bond that passed, between 1973 and now, was in 2008. And the taxpayers at that time said, "yes, I'm good with (an) $8.50 (tax rate). So we were trying to get there...
"Measure V was for $77 million and those funds were spent on projects that needed to happen, either scheduled maintenance or buildings. Those funds were spent...
"Bond funds only go so far," she added.
JR
SANTA BARBARA CITY COLLEGE PRESIDENT/SUPERINTENDENTS 2008-PRESENT
2008 – 2011 Andreea Serban, President/Superintendent
2011 – 2012 Jack Friedlander, Acting President /Superintendent
2012 – 2016 Lori Gaskin, President/Superintendent
2016 – 2019 Anthony E. Beebe, President/Superintendent
2019 – 2020 Helen Benjamin, Interim President/Superintendent
2020 – 2021 Utpal K. Goswami, President/Superintendent
2021 Helen Benjamin, Interim President/Superintendent
2021 – 2023 Kindred Murillo, President/Superintendent
2023 – Erika Endrijonas, President/Superintendent
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