Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team Issues Compton Comprehensive Review Report

April 18, 2007

The comprehensive review of the overall operations of Compton Community College (now functioning as the Compton Community Educational Center of El Camino College) has been released, Chancellor Marshall (Mark) Drummond announced today.

The Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) -- the independent/external agency charged with helping rescue and assisting schools and colleges in California -- completed and issued the comprehensive review in accordance with Assembly Bill 318. This urgency statute, signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on June 30, 2006 after the bill received timely bipartisan concurrence by the Legislature, granted authority to the State Chancellor for various aspects of college district operation. Another key provision of Assembly Bill 318 also provided for a $30 million dollar recovery loan for use in corrective actions and rebuilding effort.

The 500-page comprehensive review provides a framework for the path ahead that will eventually lead to the fiscal and academic recovery of the Compton District. The report breaks performance measures down into 186 separate components, each of which relate to one of the four overall standards required by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) removed accreditation from Compton College in 2006, and the comprehensive review and the efforts put forth by El Camino College as the recovery partner mark the beginning of the pathway to full recovery for Compton Community College.

“As the comprehensive review indicates, the college is starting from a difficult place in that years of neglect and mismanagement have seriously eroded the fundamental integrity of the institution,” Chancellor Drummond said. “The comprehensive review does however ignite hope and provide direction for the steps necessary for recovery. It took many years for Compton College to get into the condition it is now in, and it will take many years to fully recover. The comprehensive review provides a solid start, and a roadmap for future actions that will eventually lead to recovery.”

The comprehensive review is available on the FCMAT website at http://wwwstatic.kern.org/gems/fcmat/ComptoncompreviewApril200760.pdf