Peninsula College may cut programs

Published 4:00 pm Friday, April 24, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College is weighing program cuts, staff reductions and other cost-saving measures as it works to close a shortfall in its 2025-26 budget and prepare for the fiscal year beginning July 1 with fewer than expected students and eroding state support.

College President Suzy Ames said her team identified an unanticipated 6 percent decline in enrollment during budget planning meetings in early January. In February, the Board of Trustees declared a financial emergency, the second time it had done so in nine months.

In the first occasion in June 2025, the college trimmed its budget by 7 percent, or about $2.1 million, closed the Port Townsend campus and eliminated 16 staff positions.

To balance this year’s $1.8 million budget gap, the college is using about $800,000 in reserves and $240,000 from the Peninsula College Foundation. Three staff positions already have been eliminated.

For the 2026-27 fiscal year, the college plans to implement 12 furlough days for employees earning more than $90,000 annually, along with retirement incentives, as steps to reduce expenses.

Program changes are being evaluated in coordination with the Peninsula College Faculty Association. College leadership developed a list of potential cuts and shared it with the union, which tasked a reduction-in-force (RIF) committee to review it.

Under consideration for elimination next year are administrative office systems, automotive, construction and multimedia communications.

Ames stressed that no decisions have been made yet.

Her team will weigh the union’s recommendations next week, with a final determination within the next two weeks.

The automotive and construction job training programs were included because they have seen the steepest drops in enrollment, a situation Ames said reflects broader economic pressures on students.

“When grocery prices go through the roof, when gas prices are astronomical, you can’t afford the opportunity cost of going to college,” Ames said. “You have to quit school and get a second job to put food on your table to support yourself and your family.”

Ames said she especially doesn’t want to eliminate the construction trades program and is working to find ways to keep it going, believing there is strong demand for those jobs locally and that the program could recover with time and targeted support.

“I’m still looking for creative ways to save it so we can reinvigorate the enrollment back to where it needs to be,” she said.

Peninsula College is not alone.

State funding for community colleges has declined while costs — from utilities to insurance to paper — have continued to rise. Compounding the strain, the state capped tuition in 2015, which limits colleges’ ability to raise revenue to keep pace with inflation.

Colleges are required to absorb mandated employee cost-of-living increases that aren’t fully funded. Ames said the state did not cover about 21 percent of those increases set to take effect July 1.

With personnel costs accounting for more than 80 percent of the college’s budget, those pressures leave little flexibility to make cuts without affecting programs or staffing.

The reality is that Washington’s 34 community and technical colleges have been forced to reconsider how they operate as the funding model no longer reflects the true cost of educating students, Ames said.

And assess their future.

“The old ways of operating a college don’t work anymore,” Ames said.

Lawmakers have directed a state-mandated study to examine efficiencies across the system and assess whether the state has the “right number” of colleges.

The Walla Walla Community College board of trustees on April 9 voted to shutter its Clarkston campus in June 2028.

Ames said it may not be the last.

“I do really see more closing,” Ames said.

However, Peninsula College’s geographic isolation gives it an advantage in maintaining its viability over other community colleges around the state, Ames said.

“We’re in a much different situation than on the I-5 corridor, where there are many community and technical colleges in close proximity to each other,” she said.

Financial pressures

State funding pressures on Washington’s community and technical colleges have built over several years. The state allocates funding to the system as a whole, rather than directly to individual colleges.

In 2024, lawmakers reduced funding by about $28.6 million to correct a budgeting error that had over-allocated money in the prior biennium. College leaders said the funds already had been committed, meaning the adjustment effectively functioned as a midyear cut.

According to the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges’ 2025 legislative report, the 2025-27 state budget included a $12.3 million reduction in general fund support.

The 2026 supplemental state budget reduced funding by about 1.5 percent as part of a broader effort to address a state budget shortfall. It also adjusted the system’s overall appropriation by roughly $19.4 million and did not fully fund employee cost-of-living increases, adding to financial pressure on colleges.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.