BILL REQ. #:  S-1262.1 

Read first time 02/11/11.   Referred to Committee on Higher Education & Workforce Development.

     AN ACT Relating to consolidation of Cascadia Community College and Lake Washington Technical College; amending RCW 28B.45.020, 28B.45.0201, and 28B.50.040; creating a new section; repealing RCW 28B.50.1406; and providing an effective date.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   Effective July 1, 2012:
     (1) Cascadia Community College shall be consolidated with Lake Washington Technical College, shall no longer be a separate institution of higher education located in Bothell, and shall no longer own or occupy, permanently or temporarily, any facilities in Bothell.
     (2) All Cascadia Community College real property located in Bothell shall be owned and occupied by the University of Washington.
     (3) All students enrolled in Cascadia Community College shall be considered enrolled in Lake Washington Technical College and all credits earned before July 1, 2012, shall be honored at Lake Washington Technical College.
     (4) All governance and administrative functions and offices of Cascadia Community College shall be consolidated, without duplication, with the governance and administrative functions and offices of Lake Washington Technical College.
     (5)(a) All reports, documents, surveys, books, records, files, papers, or written material connected with the powers, duties, and functions transferred in this act shall be delivered to the custody of Lake Washington Technical College. All cabinets, furniture, office equipment, motor vehicles, and other tangible property employed in connection with the powers, duties, and functions transferred shall be made available to Lake Washington Technical College. All funds, credits, or other assets held in connection with the powers, duties, and functions transferred shall be assigned to Lake Washington Technical College.
     (b) Any appropriations made in connection with the powers, duties, and functions transferred shall, on the effective date of this section, be transferred and credited to Lake Washington Technical College.
     (c) Whenever any question arises as to the transfer of any personnel, funds, books, documents, records, papers, files, equipment, or other tangible property used or held in the exercise of the powers and the performance of the duties and functions transferred, or as to the powers, duties, and functions transferred, the director of financial management shall make a determination as to the proper allocation and certify the same to the state agencies concerned.
     (6) All classified employees employed in connection with the powers, duties, and functions transferred are transferred to the jurisdiction of Lake Washington Technical College. All employees classified under chapter 41.06 RCW, the state civil service law, are assigned to Lake Washington Technical College to perform their usual duties upon the same terms as formerly, without any loss of rights, subject to any action that may be appropriate thereafter in accordance with the laws and rules governing state civil service.
     (7) All rules and all pending business before any agency of state government pertaining to the powers, duties, and functions transferred shall be continued and acted upon by Lake Washington Technical College. All existing contracts, obligations, and agreements shall remain in full force and shall be performed by Lake Washington Technical College.
     (8) The transfer of the powers, duties, functions, and personnel shall not affect the validity of any act performed by any employee before the effective date of this section.
     (9) If apportionments of budgeted funds are required because of the transfers directed by this section, the director of financial management shall certify the apportionments to the agencies affected, the state auditor, and the state treasurer. Each of these shall make the appropriate transfer and adjustments in funds and appropriation accounts and equipment records in accordance with the certification.
     (10) Nothing contained in this section may be construed to alter any existing collective bargaining unit or the provisions of any existing collective bargaining agreement until the agreement has expired or until the bargaining unit has been modified by action of the public employment relations commission as provided by law.

Sec. 2   RCW 28B.45.020 and 2005 c 258 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The University of Washington is responsible for ensuring the expansion of baccalaureate and graduate educational programs in the central Puget Sound area under rules or guidelines adopted by the higher education coordinating board and in accordance with proportionality agreements emphasizing access for transfer students developed with the state board for community and technical colleges. The University of Washington shall meet that responsibility through the operation of at least two branch campuses. One branch campus shall be located in the Tacoma area. Another branch campus shall be ((collocated with Cascadia Community College)) located in the Bothell-Woodinville area.
     (2) At the University of Washington Tacoma, a top priority is expansion of upper division capacity for transfer students and graduate capacity and programs. Beginning in the fall of 2006, the campus may offer lower division courses linked to specific majors in fields not addressed at local community colleges. The campus shall admit lower division students through coadmission or coenrollment agreements with a community college, or through direct transfer for students who have accumulated approximately one year of transferable college credits. In addition to offering lower division courses linked to specific majors as addressed above, the campus may also directly admit freshmen and sophomores gradually and deliberately in accordance with the campus plan submitted to the higher education coordinating board in 2004.
     (3) At the University of Washington Bothell, a top priority is expansion of upper division capacity for transfer students and graduate capacity and programs. ((The campus shall also seek additional opportunities to collaborate with and maximize its collocation [colocation] with Cascadia Community College.)) Beginning in the fall of 2006, the campus may offer lower division courses linked to specific majors in fields not addressed at local community colleges. The campus may admit lower division students through coadmission or coenrollment agreements with a community college, or through direct transfer for students who have accumulated approximately one year of transferable college credits. In addition to offering lower division courses linked to specific majors as addressed above, the campus may also directly admit freshmen and sophomores gradually and deliberately in accordance with the campus plan submitted to the higher education coordinating board in 2004.

Sec. 3   RCW 28B.45.0201 and 1994 c 217 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The legislature finds that population growth in north King and south Snohomish counties has created a need to expand higher education and workforce training programs for the people living and working in those areas. In keeping with the recommendations of the higher education coordinating board, the legislature intends to help address those education and training needs through ((the creation of Cascadia Community College,)) expansion of educational opportunities at Lake Washington Technical College((,)) and support of the University of Washington's branch campus at Bothell-Woodinville. ((It is further the intention of the legislature, in keeping with the higher education coordinating board recommendations, that the Cascadia Community College and the University of Washington branch campus be collocated, and that the new community college and the University of Washington's branch campus work in partnership to ensure that properly prepared students from community colleges and other institutions are able to transfer smoothly to the branch campus.
     The legislature further finds that a governing board for Cascadia Community College needs to be appointed and confirmed as expeditiously as possible. The legislature intends to work cooperatively with the governor to facilitate the appointment and confirmation of trustees for the college.))

Sec. 4   RCW 28B.50.040 and 1994 c 217 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
     The state of Washington is hereby divided into ((thirty)) twenty-nine college districts as follows:
     (1) The first district shall encompass the counties of Clallam and Jefferson;
     (2) The second district shall encompass the counties of Grays Harbor and Pacific;
     (3) The third district shall encompass the counties of Kitsap and Mason;
     (4) The fourth district shall encompass the counties of San Juan, Skagit and Island;
     (5) The fifth district shall encompass Snohomish county except for the Northshore common school district and that portion encompassed by the twenty-third district created in subsection (23) of this section: PROVIDED, That the fifth district shall encompass the Everett Community College;
     (6) The sixth district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Seattle and Vashon Island, King county;
     (7) The seventh district shall encompass the present boundary of the common school district of Shoreline in King county;
     (8) The eighth district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Bellevue, Issaquah, Mercer Island, Skykomish and Snoqualmie, King county;
     (9) The ninth district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Federal Way, Highline and South Central, King county;
     (10) The tenth district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Auburn, Black Diamond, Renton, Enumclaw, Kent, Lester and Tahoma, King county, and the King county portion of Puyallup common school district No. 3;
     (11) The eleventh district shall encompass all of Pierce county, except for the present boundaries of the common school districts of Tacoma and Peninsula;
     (12) The twelfth district shall encompass Lewis county, the Rochester common school district No. 401, the Tenino common school district No. 402 of Thurston county, and the Thurston county portion of the Centralia common school district No. 401;
     (13) The thirteenth district shall encompass the counties of Cowlitz, and Wahkiakum;
     (14) The fourteenth district shall encompass the counties of Clark, Skamania and that portion of Klickitat county not included in the sixteenth district;
     (15) The fifteenth district shall encompass the counties of Chelan, Douglas and Okanogan;
     (16) The sixteenth district shall encompass the counties of Kittitas, Yakima, and that portion of Klickitat county included in United States census divisions 1 through 4;
     (17) The seventeenth district shall encompass the counties of Ferry, Lincoln (except consolidated school district 105-157-166J and the Lincoln county portion of common school district 167-202), Pend Oreille, Spokane, Stevens and Whitman;
     (18) The eighteenth district shall encompass the counties of Adams and Grant, and that portion of Lincoln county comprising consolidated school district 105-157-166J and common school district 167-202;
     (19) The nineteenth district shall encompass the counties of Benton and Franklin;
     (20) The twentieth district shall encompass the counties of Asotin, Columbia, Garfield and Walla Walla;
     (21) The twenty-first district shall encompass Whatcom county;
     (22) The twenty-second district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Tacoma and Peninsula, Pierce county;
     (23) The twenty-third district shall encompass that portion of Snohomish county within such boundaries as the state board for community and technical colleges shall determine: PROVIDED, That the twenty-third district shall encompass the Edmonds Community College;
     (24) The twenty-fourth district shall encompass all of Thurston county except the Rochester common school district No. 401, the Tenino common school district No. 402, and the Thurston county portion of the Centralia common school district No. 401;
     (25) The twenty-fifth district shall encompass all of Whatcom county;
     (26) The twenty-sixth district shall encompass the Northshore, Lake Washington, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah, Riverview, Snoqualmie Valley and Skykomish school districts;
     (27) The twenty-seventh district shall encompass the Renton, Kent, Auburn, Tahoma, and Enumclaw school districts and a portion of the Seattle school district described as follows: Commencing at a point established by the intersection of the Duwamish river and the south boundary of the Seattle Community College District (number six) and thence north along the centerline of the Duwamish river to the west waterway; thence north along the centerline of the west waterway to Elliot Bay; thence along Elliot Bay to a line established by the intersection of the extension of Denny Way to Elliot Bay; thence east along the line established by the centerline of Denny Way to Lake Washington; thence south along the shoreline of Lake Washington to the south line of the Seattle Community College District; and thence west along the south line of the Seattle Community College District to the point of beginning;
     (28) The twenty-eighth district shall encompass all of Pierce county; and
     (29) The twenty-ninth district shall encompass all of Pierce county((; and
     (30) The thirtieth district shall encompass the present boundaries of the common school districts of Lake Washington and Riverview in King county and Northshore in King and Snohomish counties)).

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 5   By October 1, 2011, the boards of trustees for Cascadia Community College and for Lake Washington Technical College, and the state board for community and technical colleges shall devise a plan necessary to implement the changes provided for in this act that includes a plan to eliminate duplication of governance and administrative functions.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 6   By December 1, 2011, the boards of trustees for Cascadia Community College and for Lake Washington Technical College, and the state board for community and technical colleges shall submit to the legislature any corrective or clarifying legislation necessary to effect the changes provided for in this act.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 7   RCW 28B.50.1406 (Cascadia Community College board of trustees) and 1994 c 217 s 4 are each repealed.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 8   This act takes effect August 1, 2011.