Declining enrollment, lack of state dollars key to college cuts
Published 1:30 am Thursday, May 21, 2026
PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College trustees received additional information about the college’s financial position following the administration’s decision to finalize program cuts, staff reductions and administrative restructuring to close a $1.8 million budget gap.
Administrators said the changes are intended to balance the 2026-27 academic year budget by shifting roughly $2.7 million from the college’s current operational budget while redirecting about $1 million into high-priority programs, such as dental hygiene and K-8 teacher education. They said the actions are driven by declining enrollment and major reductions in state funding support.
Peninsula College President Suzy Ames told trustees on Tuesday that the drop in revenue has forced the college to draw from reserve funds to balance the current year’s budget. In the process, it will reduce reserves from the college’s 25 percent target to an estimated 18 to 21 percent.
“We have been living on reserves for the last few years, and we just can’t do it anymore,” Ames said. “Those reserve funds go so fast. We had to make significant cuts starting July 1 so that we are no longer getting even further below the threshold.”
Carie Edmiston, the college’s vice president of finance and administration, explained that total operating revenues over expenditures fell by $1.7 million through the third quarter compared with last year. While a 6 percent overall decline in individual student enrollment for the academic year originally prompted the restructuring plan, year-to-date enrollment dropped more sharply by roughly 14 percent, triggering a $458,000 shortfall in tuition revenue.
Edmiston noted that the college’s fixed instructional costs — such as tenured faculty contracts and departmental overhead — remained completely unchanged even as the number of students taking classes dropped.
The tightening finances have created some friction between administration and staff over how some decisions have been made.
“This year’s budget decisions revealed a lot of important tensions between shared governance and executive purview,” Peninsula College Faculty Association President Tim Williams said.
A primary example is that, while faculty voices were consulted regarding academic program cuts, decisions regarding executive appointments and transitions that will follow the retirement of Vice President of Instruction Bruce Hattendorf on June 30 occurred without comparable transparency or input, Williams said.
Specifically, he said, the college bypassed a nationwide search to replace Hattendorf, instead combining his role with that of Vice President of Student Services Krista Francis — a single, merged position expected to save the college about $100,000 every year.
Ames later defended the decision, explaining that a campus-wide survey earlier this year showed that employees overwhelmingly wanted the college to shrink its management team.
“This was also an attempt to appease that feedback,” Ames said.
Employees also had voiced concerns over a decision to reduce two housekeeping contracts from 12 months down to 11 months. Ames noted that several staff members subsequently asked the college to reconsider, offering to voluntarily contribute parts of their own salaries to offset the reduction.
The administration is scheduled to meet and review that feedback, she said.
Along with the cutbacks, the college shared updates on several new projects:
• Dental hygiene launch: Peninsula College Foundation Executive Director Cheryl Crane said it is 95 percent of the way toward raising the local money needed for the new dental hygiene program. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Sept. 3.
• Mobile classrooms: Ames said the college will take delivery of two mobile training units in mid-June, funded by a federal Economic Development Administration RECOMPETE grant. The trailers will travel across the North Olympic Peninsula to provide training in trade skills like welding and marine electronics.
• New AI policies: AI Committee representatives Aimee Gordon and Alysia LaTourette introduced the first reading of a proposed campus artificial intelligence policy. Gordon noted that the committee already has developed an online resource page for staff to find training materials and guidelines on how to use the technology ethically.
• Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed Port Townsend resident Leah Speser, J.D., Ph.D., to the Peninsula College Board of Trustees on Jan. 30 for a term that runs through September 2030. Speser, a World Intellectual Property Organization consultant who founded a global technology commercialization firm, previously helped draft landmark federal science and technology legislation.
Speser’s arrival comes as the board loses trustee Celeste Schoenthaler, who announced that Tuesday was her last meeting as a board member. She also said she is resigning as executive director of Olympic Community of Health and leaving the area.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
