Meeting & Agendas

Chef Stephanie Herrington opened the meeting at 2:02pm with greetings and introductions.

Chef Stephanie Herrington discussed the details of the articulation agreement and passed around the 2013 Articulation booklet that contains the culinary college courses that students will receive credit for in their high school culinary program. Discussed high school site visits made over the summer and elaborated on the conditions and practices of the facilities and showed photos of the schools kitchens/equipment. General information: ACC Culinary Art will hold a one-day professional development workshop for the HS culinary instructors in Summer 2015. No agenda planned as of the meeting.

Chef Stephanie Herrington briefly reviewed previous updates, but no comments made.

New Chef Instructor, Holli Hatcher, joined the department in August 2014 and she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts Management. Chef Stephanie Herrington mentioned the increased number of students joining the baking and pastry programs. She also suggested to the board members if they knew of any available, qualified pastry chefs looking to teach, to send them to our way as our pasty program rapidly increasing.

Chef Stephanie Herrington commented on the previous (2014) study abroad trip to Florence, Italy and that we, as a college, will not work with a for-profit institution as the institution we partnered with tried to add local students to the ACC culinary classes. Study Abroad Summer 2015: Pastry Arts – France; 3 weeks; approx. $9,700; attend one of the best pasty schools in France for Laminated Dough and Pies, Tarts courses. Culinary Arts – England; 2 weeks; approx. $3,400 to Hackney Community College for Basic Foods and Beverage Management (Beer and Tea). Chef Stephanie Herrington comments that if high school students took their basic courses in high school, they could eligible to attend these trips when they start the program.

Highland Campus Bonds (Attached Bond Propositions) Chef Stephanie Herrington discussed briefly the bond election coming up in November. Culinary Arts is one of the first departments to move to the new campus. The college is not sure where to put our department. She informed the members of the items and space requested; restaurant, five kitchens and retails space for all items made in the kitchens. Talk of pairing us up with an area (convention area) because they are talking about having a multipurpose space that culinary could support, but that would take additional staff. If bond passes, we will be in HLC in two years. Monica Hammond inquired if culinary was going to be moving into any of the newer campuses (Hayes campus). Chef Stephanie Herrington states that the college wants to keep culinary on one campus, but they would like for culinary to sustain food service for the campuses, like a commissary, but that is another topic.

Culinary Arts Chef Stephanie Herrington referred to the attached documents, the new degree plans will go into effect as of Fall 2015. We had to reduce hours to 60 hours and we compared our program to others in Texas. Carol Huntsberger asked why we had to reduce the hours. Chef Stephanie Herrington explained that it would become quicker to complete the program and have more graduates for the college. She explained that the department had to take into consideration of the course requirement set by American Culinary Federation to keep our accreditation. She walked the group through the edited degree plan and explained the reasoning for course removal. Open for comment and questions: Vance Ely asked if students would have to move over to Hospitality to take a beverage management course since it was removed from the AAS program. Chef Stephanie Herrington commented that Beverage Management would now be considered a restricted elective. Monica Hammond asked about the Behaviors Science course. Chef Stephanie Herrington commented that this course and all other general education class are required by the college. Vance Ely asks if Beverage Management can be included in the menu planning (Nutrition and Menu Planning). Chef Stephanie Herrington comments that it could possibly be included in Dining Room Service, which is under the AAS and not the Certificate. Chef Stephanie Herrington adds that we have converted from our 16 year old POS system to an iPad order entry system. Amanda Covington discusses the new ShopKeep system on the iPad for order entry and ease of use and the potential of additional tablets for order entry as we progress with the semester. Vance Ely asked if the program can archive the daily entries for the end of the semester for production output. Chef Stephanie Herrington comments that it archives daily. The cashier at another campus will have access to the software. Amanda Covington comments that you can log on to the program from anywhere and run reports or updated the menu. Group discussion about old POS equipment and different uses of certain POS programs. Vance/Monica agreed that Beverage Management could be pushed into Dining room. Thoughts on the Intermediate cooking course (combination of Basic Foods and Meat Prep) for more plate design experience. Vance Ely will they end up with some kind of production timing? Carol Huntsberger this would be a good place to include beverage Management. Monica Vance Ely comments that if Beverage Management is mentioned in several different classes, then they students will start to learn that this is an important subject. (Monica Hammond agrees) Discussion moved to the general education classes and if they are necessary to the degree. Amanda Covington comments that these are to prep the student to a Bachelor’s degree and that her Bachlor’s degree program required 125 hours, but it actually to her 135 hours to graduate and this is the reason that the hours were reduced, to curve the loss of classwork. Stephanie Herrington comments that our enrollment is down and that three courses were cancelled for the Fall 2014 semester. We have an articulation agreement with the University of Houston and we’re starting to articulate with other colleges (Steven F. Austin). Carol Huntsberger asks if there are any other schools/university we are articulated with that do not have a culinary programs, but a hospitality program. Comments that she’s on the Development foundation at Texas State and could help with this. Stephanie Herrington comments on when students join this program, they think this is the end of their education and they don’t know they can go on to a university. Gave example of a pastry student who had received her AAS from ACC and had a full scholarship to Johnson and Wales. Recap: Beverage Management needs to be added to the Dining Room Service course and some other courses. Stephanie Herrington comments on Garde Manger and Charcuterie being combined: this is more cold foods and learning about banquets, composition of a layout/flow. Not catering a catering class as we do have a catering class as an elective and Hospitality has a catering class as well. Vance Ely this would open up opportunities for labs for the more pursued classes. Stephanie Herrington comments that Introduction to foods is 55min shorter than Basic Food Preparation. This will extend the class time and this shouldn’t cause a traffic jam with the lab space. Stephanie Herrington talks about possibly holding lecture only classes at other campuses, especially at Highland campus, but we couldn’t be at multiple campus. Baking and Pastry Stephanie Herrington discusses the changes made to degree plan. Removed Introduction to Foods and add Basic Foods. We want student to immediately enroll into Fundamentals of Baking or Basic foods so they can go on the course; Breads and Rolls, Advanced Pastry, etc. Plated Desserts ran for the first time last semester. Removed Bakery Operations due to feedback from students and this doesn’t set them up for starting a business. Suggested that they take a business course. Vance Ely comments that we ae not doing a disservice for not having laminated dough. Could this course material be added to another class? Stephanie Herrington reviews the spreadsheet (culinary) Programs at Texas Colleges to show how other Texas college program compare to ours and to justify the reason for removing certain course. Laminated dough could be covered in another course in addition to other removed course. Comments on the number of cake decorating course other colleges offer and stated that these are not necessary for our degree programs. Reviewed the program updates. Goes on to review the changes to the Certificate program and reviews the Restricted Electives course; we’ve added more Culinary Classes. Vance Ely is there a way to even out the credit hours per semester as Semester III has only 6 credit hours. Stephanie Herrington comments that this semester is considered “Summer” semester and requires few number of credit hours. Monica Hammond asked if Basic food preparation could be combined with Sanitation. Stephanie Herrington Sanitation is just a lecture class. Basic has a lab and are learning to use tools and equipment. Monica Hammond trying to find a way to eliminate a class to be able to add a class back to the program. Stephanie Herrington Sanitation is 1.5 hours, covers HACCP, equipment training and ServSafe exam. HS level requires the ServSafe and we’re trying to make it a required exam for the program. It’s only fair if the HS students are required, then our students should be required to take the exam. Monica Hammond asks if get into specialty menus (gluten free or vegan). Vance Ely asks if it’s included in nutrition. Stephanie Herrington yes, we touch on it in nutrition and some other classes. Comments on the Baking and Pastry adjustment: Vance Ely comments that some of the omitted class material could be embraced in other existing course, especially the dietary. It would be unfortunate that someone could graduate without ever touching a wedding cake. Stephanie Herrington comments that the removed pastry classes will be offered as electives and it basically comes down to lab space. Final comments: Vance Ely asks if the students are locked in to the degree plan when they enroll. Can the current students be allowed to fall back to the new lowed practicum hours? Stephanie Herrington answers that this is a fuzzy area; the student cannot fall back to the new practicum hours due when they file for graduation. Let say, student starts program in 2012 and they realize the program has changed to 60 hours, they can have more than 60 hours, but they only need 60 hours. As long as the students fill all those check boxes for graduation. Since Charcuterie will be combined with Garde Manger, we would submit paperwork to waive Charcuterie to meet their degree plan requirements. Vance Ely comments on our advising process, being instructors and advisory, we have the pulse on the student by the time of graduation and classes needed. General agreement that the AAS a two year program is a good time frame. Stephanie Herrington comments on the other faculty members feel that the credit hour reduction is dumbing the program down.

Comments from Troy Knapp – Agrees with all the changes. Has concerns with pulling Beverage Management out the program, but feels adding the material to Dining Room Service is a great idea. He is also concerned with removing Laminated Dough from the pastry program. Next Meeting – TBA 2015