Clark College leaders on Tuesday took a moment, however brief, to pat themselves on the back for a job only partially done: They’ve identified $2 million of campus spending reductions for 2011-13.
Trouble is, they may need to prune another $2 million or more, once state legislators settle on a final, deficit-busting budget plan — and if employee collective bargaining falls short of expectations.
“Great. Great work — we’re halfway there,” said a humorless Clark Trustee, Jack Burkman, after he and fellow board members were briefed on cost-savings decided after weeks of campus introspection and wrangling.
Proposed cuts that earned tacit board approval would lop roughly 5 percent from the next two-year budget cycle.
They mostly don’t cut into class offerings or classroom instruction. They spare several programs earlier feared to be in jeopardy. And, aside from scaling back or leaving vacant 19 staff positions, they avoid layoffs of any permanent employees.
Some highlights:
• Evening welding and machining class sections: gone. The same for several Mature Learning classes (as yet unidentified).
• About 75 full-time equivalent student slots for Adult Basic Education classes would be shifted instead to high-demand academic courses. Similar FTE shifts would affect lower-enrolled academic courses, too.
• Two communications and marketing staff positions would be trimmed to half-time, and the department’s annual budget slashed by $300,000, or about 25 percent. Several glossy color brochures and mailers would vanish.
• Faculty-staff parking permit fees would increase by $10. The number of campus parking meters would double to 50. Fitness Center fees would rise to boost annual revenue by $10,000.
• Student counseling and health services consolidation and staff reductions, matched with higher fees, would add $98,000 to the bottom line. The school would lose one nurse practitioner for student and employee needs.
• Several administrative vacancies would remain unfilled. A handful of managers would be shifted off-budget — to become “self-support” positions through generation of new fees, or other revenues. Among them, the Archer Gallery director position, which Clark’s Art Department hopes to keep afloat with some innovative cost-juggling.
• A campus events manager would be eliminated, and graduation ceremonies could be downsized.
Additional proposed changes would incur more modest impacts:
• Normally lush lawns would receive less water, fertilizer and mowing. Pathway lighting would dim each night after 10:30 p.m. Yard debris would be composted rather than hauled away.
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• Funding would be suspended for Healthy Penguin Programs, and employees no longer would be checked for compliance with ambitious recycling practices. Custodians would curb chemical use.
• With H1N1 virus fears receding, hand sanitizers would be removed and supplies cut off.
“It all adds up, and it all counts,” Bob Williamson, vice president of administrative services, told trustees.
But two big caveats remain.
First, faculty members and nonteaching union members must agree to 3 percent pay cuts spelled out in the budget plan of Gov. Chris Gregoire back in December, the only blueprint floated in Olympia so far.
Bargaining can’t even start until after House and Senate legislators settle on a final budget agreement sometime in April, at the soonest, Williamson noted. Without that 3 percent cut, Clark would need to find another$1 million in savings just to hit Gregoire’s budget-saving goal.
What’s more, the estimated state budget deficit could grow from about $5 billion to $6 billion when a revenue forecast update comes on March 17, many observers predict.
That could push another $1 million or so in additional cuts onto Clark’s plate, depending on lawmakers’ whims.
If so, the school may need to look again at significant, popular programs that were eyed, but eluded the budget knife this time. Culinary arts, paralegal and horticultural programs; dance and theater courses; even possible tuition charges for Running Start students who now earn free credits all could be on the table in coming months.
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Trustees also were told they’ll have the chance to impose additional fines, should they wish. A starting point might be a new fee for student transcripts. The first four transcripts are currently provided for free.
Trustees won’t need to settle on a final 2011-13 budget plan before June, but major department and employee changes should be openly digested as early as possible, Williamson said.
He said the push-and-pull of campus feedback and dialogue has worked, so far.
“I think that we kept our commitment to minimize the impact on students. We made our reductions in other places,” he said.
That pledge will be challenged, as the unknowns continue to stack up in the Legislature, Williamson said.
“There’s so much in play and so much changing. It’s like changing a tire on a moving bus,” he said.
