PORT ANGELES — The Peninsula College plans to shave $1.5 million — or 10 percent of this year’s state operating funds — from the next two years’ budget to accommodate expected Legislative cuts, said Tom Keegan, the college’s president.
The cuts will mean reductions in part-time faculty and in services at the Port-Angeles-based college’s three campuses, although neither of the extension sites in Forks and Port Townsend will be closed, Keegan said this week.
Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed in her budget, released Dec. 12, that the community and technological college system allocation be cut by 6.5 percent from the present budget.
More severe cuts than the governor proposed are expected, because the state shortfall has continued to grow since then, Keegan said.
‘Worst-case senario’
“The governor’s budget assumes a $5.6 billion-or-so shortfall, but now that the House and the Senate are working on the budget, it is worse than that — anywhere in the $7 [billion] to $8 billion range,” he said.
“We’re expecting that, in the worse-case scenario, the governor’s budget is a best-case scenario.”
In order to accommodate more potential cuts in the biennium budget, the college is aiming to cut about 10 percent of the state operating budget.
Other programs could face more severe cuts, or might get funding from other places, but that is unclear at this point, Keegan said.
Although the college budget for the current year is $16.9 million, the complicated formula of funding means that cutting 10 percent of the state operating funds works out to about $1.5 million.
“Ultimately we are estimating a $1.5 million budget cut,” Keegan said. “It works out to about 10 percent of our state operating funds.”
Specifics by end of month
Keegan said that he hoped to have a game plan by the end of the month that would lay out more specifically staff reassignments, reductions and where and how cuts would be made.
“We want to have a very early draft budget ready as early as we can,” Keegan said.
“But I want to make clear our mission, vision, guiding principles and strategic plan are first and foremost in our minds and on the table as we are making our decisions.”
He said that the planned cuts would mean that “the whole college will look a little different,” but that no sites will be closed.
“We are not going to shut down any of the off-campus sites,” Keegan said.
Cuts likely will result in some staff and operations reductions.
“We will continue to maintain our state [enrollment] target level, but I do expect some reductions in the part-time faculty ranks,” Keegan said.
“We, at this time, have no intention of laying off tenured or tenured track faculty.”
Keegan said that all branches of the colleges will face some service changes — possibly hours of operation or months of operation.
Keegan said that while classes might be reduced, the administrative team has determined that no specific area would take the full hit.
“We have agreed that we will maintain the same mix of instructional programs,” Keegan said.
“What that means is that we have transfer students, professional, technical, basic skills and continuing ed, and we would continue with the same sort of mix as we have right now.”
The budget will continue to change throughout the legislative session, which began Jan. 12 and will end in April, Keegan said.
“We just want to have a game plan early on, so we can be working on this as things change in the Legislature,” he said.
Could have been worse
Although the cuts are tough, Keegan said it could have been worse.
“It was one of the lowest percentages of cuts to any agency in the governor’s budget,” he said.
“It is good to know that the governor views community and technical education as part of the solution to the economic downturn and a way of preparing for a vibrant economy.”
The silver lining in it all is two building projects look like they will still be funded.
“At this point the capital budgets are seen as part of the economic stimulus strategy,” Keegan said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
