Hired July 10, 2023 – Leaves seven months later with College offering no explanation; Follows resignations of Dr. Diane Ryan in July 2023 and Dr. Tina Red in July 2022
In a terse announcement to the press on Wednesday, January 31, 2024, Yavapai Community College President Dr. Lisa Rhine stated, “I am writing to inform you that Dr. Kimberly Moore is no longer employed at Yavapai College.” The only explanation offered by Dr. Rhine for the sudden departure was, “I understand that the past few months of operations in these areas have been challenging.” She did not further address the issue.
Moore was hired to head the newly created Division of Workforce and Innovation and act as its Chief Workforce Innovation Officer.
Moore becomes the third exceptionally talented administrator to leave the College’s administration in the last two years. Recall that the outstanding Dean of the Verde Campus, Dr. Tina Redd, resigned in June 2022, citing stress, excessive workload, false accusations, suspicion, and other factors as her reasons for resigning. Redd’s resignation was followed by the abrupt, surprise departure of another outstanding executive, Dr. Diane Ryan, in June 2023.
educational institution, which ideally should stand as a beacon of knowledge and enlightenment, starts to operate as an autocracy, it encourages similar practices in other public bodies. This erosion of openness and accountability can have a cascading effect, weakening the very foundations of democratic governance.
After decades of openness, the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board has made a sudden shift in its approach to transparency. The Board now requires anyone seeking draft minutes of a meeting to follow the formal process outlined by Arizona’s Public Records Act. This marks a significant departure from the Board’s decades-long policy of readily providing such information by promptly posting it on its website. Furthermore, the Board has discontinued the practice of making videotapes of meetings available within three business days, if ever. This change appears to stem from concerns that the videotapes were fostering excessive accountability and transparency, elements the Board now is eager to avoid.
It is now over a week (Thursday, January 25, 2024, noon) and the District Governing Board has yet to provide the public with a draft of the minutes of its January 16 workshop. Neither a written draft nor the video of the meeting has been posted.
Under Arizona’s open meeting law, the minutes or a recording of a meeting shall be available for public inspection three working days after the meeting. However, as of Thursday, January 25, 2024, there has not been a post of the draft minutes in writing or via the videotape of the District Governing Board meeting that occurred Tuesday, January 16.
Yavapai Community College is currently considering the addition of two more four-year degree programs to its academic offerings. Although these plans are in the very early stages, the college is seriously exploring the possibility of offering a Bachelor of Applied Science and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.
The report was later featured in a press release from the Community College dated January 10, 2024. According to Lightcast’s report, it found that Yavapai College added a total of $203.7 million in income to the County economy during that time. That figure includes the Community College’s multiple roles as major employer – with payroll and operational expenditures – and local investor ($1.3 million in construction investments), as well as the impact of Yavapai’s Community College students spending locally ($10.2 million) and Yavapai Community College’s-trained personnel in the workforce ($149.2 million). The combined value is equal to approximately 2.2% of Yavapai County’s gross regional product (GRP).
