TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Taft College's board of trustees has appointed the recently retired superintendent-president of San Jacinto Community College District to lead Taft on an interim basis.

Starting July 1, Richard "Dick" Giese will lead the west-Kern community college that has about 4,000 students. President Willy Duncan in May announced he was leaving Taft College after 14 years to lead the Sierra Community College District near Sacramento.

Giese has been as administrator in higher education for 36 years, 26 of those in a community college setting. He recently retired after six years with San Jacinto.

He has also served as vice chancellor of external operations for State Center Community College District in Fresno; president of Reedley College; and dean of student personnel services for West Hills Community College District in Coalinga.

His employment at Taft is not to exceed one year, according to his contract. He will receive $800 per day, be reimbursed up to $1,500 per month for housing and utilities, and mileage reimbursement. He won't get health benefits, vacation days or allowances, according to his contract.

A search for a permanent replacement is under way.

The Tulare County District Attorney's office has sent back to the Arvin Police Department for more investigation the case involving an Arvin High School Junior ROTC teacher alleged to have struck a student there, officials said.

The Tulare office has reviewed the case but is asking for more investigation before it takes it on, said Shani Jenkins, assistant district attorney. Tulare, which sent the case back this week, is handling the case because the alleged suspect, Ian Gillies, once worked as a Kern County District Attorney's office investigator.

Arvin police recommended prosecutors file battery charges against Gillies after he allegedly hit a 17-year-old student in the face with his fist after the student walked out of gym class to spit outside. He started this year with KHSD as Arvin's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps instructor.

Bakersfield College will break ground Tuesday on a new Golden Empire Transit center outside of campus.

The center on the north side of campus on Panorama Drive will fit eight buses and have restrooms. That's noteworthy because the center is being built amid concerns about GET riders walking on campus to use restrooms in BC buildings. The station now is on campus next to the northwest parking lot.

Construction is expected to start right away, a BC spokeswoman said, and should be open for the fall semester.

Nearly two months after a mishap at Cal State Bakersfield's bookstore left some students and faculty without textbooks at the start of the quarter, officials named a new manager, according to a campus memo.

Kelly Swanson, who has been administrator of bookstore operations at Taft College for six years, will be the on-campus Runner Bookstore manager starting June 20.

Before Taft, Swanson was store manager and regional field trainer for Follett Higher Education Group and spent five years with the college bookstore division of Barnes & Noble, which included managing the Runner Bookstore.

Last month, CSUB selected Follett Publishing Company to manage its bookstore over previous management Barnes & Noble. That came a month after what faculty referred to as a "bookstore crisis," when Barnes & Noble failed to order enough books for courses, or in some cases none at all, at the start of the quarter. That mishap was caused by miscommunication when one manager went on medical leave, and another fell ill before the start of the quarter.

Follett will take over July 7, according to the memo.

Kern Community College District trustees on Thursday adopted its tentative budget for 2011-12, in which the district plans to use about $3.4 million from its reserves to balance it.

Bakersfield College alone will pull out about $1 million from its reserves. Trustees expressed concern over a $126,000 increase in unemployment costs, a $138,000 increase in employee retirement costs, and a nearly $1 million jump for step and column increases for employees. They asked district officials to get more creative to address future state budget cuts.

Threats down the line include a 10 percent proposed reduction to child development centers and rising health care costs.

In other business, Chancellor Sandra Serrano read a letter from South Kern Building Healthy Communities, which is asking for a district response to three recommendations it gave recently in regards to a proposed Arvin college center. It wants KCCD to continue supporting Arvin education by offering more courses, to accept Arvin’s donated land and conduct a study on the possibility of building a center in Arvin.

Serrano said the district will respond, but added that KCCD is offering more courses, is asking the board to not accept the Arvin land right now, and that the district will work on a study. 

Eight local students have been selected as Edison Scholar Program winners, which focuses on students studying science, technology, engineering and math.

Each will get a $2,500 college scholarship, renewable for a total of $10,000. They are considered “the best and brightest students in the country,” according to Edison. Following are the recipients, their high school, university and major.

• Katrina Balderas, Stockdale High School, Cal State San Marco, chemistry.

• Elizabeth Benitez, South High, UC Merced, applied mathematical science.

• Brandon Bonilla, Highland High, UC San Diego, chemical engineering.

• Joanna Navarro, Ridgeview High school, UCLA, engineering.

• Adegoke Oba, Stockdale High, Cal State Bakersfield, chemical engineering.

• Bryce Anglin, Desert High School in Edwards, UC Davis, mechanical engineering.

• Nikolaus Carcha, Delano High School, UC Davis, mechanical engineering.

• Eduardo Cerda, Delano High School, UC Santa Cruz, computer science.

• Joshua Core, Boron High School, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, civil engineering.

Edison International has invested more than $1.2 million in the scholarship program. More information: www.edison.com/edisonscholars.
 

-- Jorge Barrientos, staff writer

For more education news, go to The Californian's updated education blog, The Grade, at www.bakersfield.com/thegrade or follow The Grade's Twitter at twitter.com/TBCTheGrade.