October 17, 2016 Board Meeting…

Well It’s been a minute since I have posted on the Cosmetology Board and today I going to do a little catch up..  First, the Board had to cancel it’s September 19, 2016 meeting… Yes, I said cancel.. First meeting that I actually arrived to and it was canceled due to the lack of Board Members…  Glenda Honeycutt, Dorothy Ennis, and Bertha Johnson were absent.. Ms. Dot was out on a planned vacation cruise, drinking margaritas I hope, LOL…  Ms. Honeycutt and Ms. Johnson-Robinson were out sick…  So, that just left Waylon and Darlene.. no quorum… no meeting!!!

So on to the Monday October 17, 2016 meeting..  All Board members were present… We had Mr. Donald Vaughn as a visitor today.  The New School Coordinator, Ms. Vergie Gibbs, was also present.

It was noted that MCA voted to endorse the 1000 hour Instructor program with 1 year of work of experience…   For those who might be scratching their heads over this let me give you an update..  We, the schools, thank you Karoline Finch, have been pitching the ideal around of having 1 uniformed instructor program for Cosmetology, Manicuring, and Esthetics..  It appears we are getting SUPER close to making this happen.

Mr. Derrick reported to the Board that the final inspection seal of approval was issued for the change of ownership to Vaughn’s Beauty College in Aberdeen… 

Mr. Derrick also reported that the final inspection was completed for the change of ownership for Delta Beauty College.  It was noted that there was some sanitation issues that needed to be addressed before their next inspection.  It was also noted that they are in process of some updating of equipment and re-painting of the building.  Approval was granted by the Board.

Mr. Derrick also informed the Board the he had received an official letter of school closure from Harris School of Cosmetology in Columbus.  He also informed the Board that his office had an official complaint that needed to be assigned  for investigation.  Complaint was assigned to Waylon and Burt to investigate.

A complaint was filed against Delta Tech, a former student states that they attended the school in 2013 for 3 month but for some reason the school had lost the student’s hours.  Complaint states that Delta Tech offered to refund their money back.  Complaint was assigned to the School Coordinator to investigate.

A complaint was filed through the Attorney Generals office against Mississippi Institute stating that the school was falsely charging students for overtime hours.  This complaint was passed down from the Attorney Generals office to the Board office to investigate..  Complaint was assigned to Burt and Vergie

Board attorney Jeff Jernigan, reminded the Board members that no one followed through in providing him with the contact information that he needed in order to send out the “cease and desist” letters..   These letters are intended for those mobile salons that you see driving around along with those non-licensed places that let you throw your little princess a mani-pedi party..   I know we have talked about doing one for my grand baby too!!!   Never know whether or not they were licensed.. Come to find out MOST of them are NOT…

The Board then got into a HEATED discussion on whether or not they had the authority to make a salon owner LOCK their doors..  Example:  Inspector walks in and finds there are no salon licenses posted or available for them to see…  A lot of words went flying through the air and the final conclusion was that an agent of the Board might tell a salon owner to close and lock the doors, but without a direct court order there is not much the Board can do if the salon owner does not comply.

Data-Lynx is in the final stages of installing the new software for the Agency. They plan on bringing stages of it live in the coming weeks. Hopefully the on-line renewal will be available early summer.

In the most recent letter from the Department of Finance, the second round of budget cuts excluded the Board of Cosmetology.. That’s great news..

The Board of Cosmetology also received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education in reference to the recent closing of  ITT Tech. ITT Tech had 130 campuses, located in 38 states with around 40,000 students enrolled. The letter basically stated that due to some recent financial audits the U.S. Department of Education was requiring ITT Tech to provided them with a 250 million dollar letter of credit. ITT Tech was unable to secure this letter of credit so the U.S. Department of Education withdrew their funding. This is no different from any of the rest of the title IV schools here in Mississippi.. We are audited annually and if we do not pass the financially stability tests, then we must go to the bank and secure a letter of credit for a percentage of the Title IV that we disbursed in the prior year. This is SCARY folks

Finally RFP… I know everyone MUST be on pin and needles trying to figure out what we are going to do about testing.. We all are aware that the contract with PCS is suppose to end 12/31/2016. Come to find out in the second round of budget cuts ITS, which is the agency that handles the RFP’s got hit and the person that was assigned to our RFP was moved to another department and her work was divided to other staff which just put us at the bottom of their stack. Between Board Member Darlene Smith with every other breath asking “What’s going on with the RPF or RFP or what ever the “F” we are calling it” and Mr. Derricks constant phone calls and emails, the Board finally got moved to the top of the pile. I don’t have any answers for this blog but hopefully I will have some news in the coming weeks…