TOLBERT RE-ELECTED TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES

by Carol Gatlin

In the recent local elections, MCC Trustee Richard Tolbert was re-elected to the Board’s Sub-district 3.

“I take my reelection as a vote of confidence from the average citizen. I thank the people of Kansas City for giving me another opportunity to do the work on a Board that I very much enjoy,” Tolbert said. “Although Trustees do not receive salaries, this position is the most rewarding work I’ve enjoyed. The role of Trustee is so important to the well-being of our community.”

The Board of Trustees has many duties. “The main role of the Trustee is to supervise the Administration. We, the Trustee, supervise the Chancellor,” Tolbert said. “For instance, we had to balance the budget, and one of the views I advocated relating to budget cuts was instead of cutting personnel, I advocated we’d reduce their salaries. You know, we are at Penn Valley to teach people. If we fire our teachers and instructors at a time when most people are coming back to college, you create a huge problem. Therefore, if we can cut things to balance the budget, we decide to cut the salaries. We pay our people well and offer good benefits, which makes cutting salaries affordable,” Tolbert said.

One of the issues the Board of Trustees addresses is the raising tuition on the community college level. Tolbert stood his ground, opposing an increase.

“On the issue of raising tuition, I’ve consistently been the only ‘no’ vote on the Board,” Tolbert said “My position in this opposition being the recession. Working people need to go back to school to further their education. Now is not the time to raise tuition,” Tolbert said, adding that training and retraining people for jobs is one of the missions of the college that make him most proud.