Candidates vying for four seats on the Johnson County Community College Board of Trustees shared their views on a number of topics at a forum Wednesday night hosted by the Johnson County Post.

Discussion centered around candidates’ views on tuition, the college’s property tax rate, boosting enrollment and working with part-time and adjunct staff.

The forum on Wednesday was one of 12 scheduled nights of local candidate forums that the Post is hosting across Johnson County ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

Seven of the eight candidates who have filed to run attended. The top four vote-getters in November will win seats on the board.

Who is running?

• Carlton Abner
• Chad Carroll
• Jerry Charlton
• Lee Cross (incumbent)
• Mark Hamill (incumbent)
• Geoff Holton
• Dawn Rattan (incumbent)
• Kenny Stokes *Did not participate*

How to watch the Post’s forum

The Post livestreamed Wednesday’s event on our Facebook page. A recording of the forum can be viewed there, though it is now Facebook’s policy to erase live videos 30 days after they are produced.

You can also watch the full JCCC forum on the Post’s new YouTube channel, where it should be preserved into the future.

The full forum video is also embedded below:

Questions

The candidates gave opening statements and answered a series of questions based on reader feedback and suggestions received by the Post before the event.

Timestamps are included at the end of each question to help you navigate through the forum video if you’d like to jump around to issues that matter most to you.

1. Opening statements [4:30]
2. Priorities: What is your biggest priority, issue or challenge you feel needs to be tackled in the next four years at JCCC, and how would you approach it if elected? [13:15]

   

   

3. Tuition: Johnson County resident students this year are set to pay roughly $100 per credit hour in tuition and fees. That’s lower than the average rate at colleges across the KC metro and it’s one of the lowest tuition rates among community and technical colleges in Kansas. Some readers say this shows tuition should be increased in order to shift the burden of who pays for JCCC more from taxpayers to students. But several of you noted that that affordable tuition is what makes JCCC attractive to students. This questioner from the audience asks, “What have you done or what will you do to keep tuition low?” [24:11]
4. Enrollment/College Now program: After a major dip during the pandemic, total student enrollment at JCCC has steadily been bouncing back in recent years but has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels. Enrollment remains a primary concern. We did get a question from the audience that addresses one particular aspect of that: the College Now program, which aims to give high school students the chance to earn JCCC credits through concurrent enrollment, potentially setting up a pipeline for high schoolers to more easily transition to JCCC. Do you support this program? How would you show that support if elected? [39:52]

   

   

5. Part-time and adjunct staff: We had someone email us today about this issue. They said, “Each year JCCC posts ‘fast fact’ including how many full-time staff there are versus part-time staff, and part-time faculty typically far outnumber full-time faculty.” Meanwhile, someone in the audience tonight says, “Part-time and adjunct staff are invisible oftentimes and incumbents don’t often even mention them.” The broader question here is: what is the board’s role in interacting with part-time staff and making sure they are taken care of? [48:30]
6. Workforce development: What do you see as JCCC’s role both in Johnson County and statewide in developing the future workforce? Can you point to specific programs at JCCC that are achieving this aim, and also areas where the college may be coming up short? [56:18]

   

   

7. Campus safety and gun violence: We have had a number of questions from the audience tonight wanting me to ask about campus safety and the perennial issue of, unfortunately, gun violence. One audience member says here, “Given that gun violence and school shootings are in the news, what steps have you taken or will you take to make sure JCCC students, faculty and staff feel safe from gun violence on campus?” [1:04:53]

   

8. Advocating for JCCC in Topeka: One questioner from the audience points out that there will be a new governor in Kansas at the start of 2027, in your next term if you are elected. How do you see that impacting JCCC? And more broadly, how will you advocate for JCCC at the state capitol? [1:13:24]
9. Qualifications and closing message: A closing statement, if you will, but tell the people what distinguishes you from these other candidates, what qualifies you for this job. In essence, why should people vote for you? [1:21:04]