BCC continues cuts to faculty, classes in new budget

BARSTOW • As state funding continues to lag, Barstow Community College District will head into the next year with continued deficits and cuts to faculty and classes.

The BCC Board of Trustees passed the 2011-12 budget Wednesday night, which continues the five-year pattern of expenditures increasing annually by about $600,000 and revenues increasing only by $28,000 each year.

“The fiscal situation is tumultuous at best,” said Virgil Stanford, vice president of administrative services at Wednesday’s Board of Trustees meeting, where the budget passed with a 3-0 vote.

Although the college spent $1 million less than budgeted last year, it is projected to run a $1.76 million deficit in the 2011-12 school year and will continue to dip into the reserves, which is at 26 percent of the budget at the start of this year.

The increased costs creating the deficit continue to come from rising benefit rates without any cost of living allowance from the state. Health insurance rates increased by about 10 percent in 2008, 27 percent in 2009 and 10 percent in 2010, Stanford said, and he estimated that over the past four years the college has lost $1.7 million from the lack of cost-of-living allowances from the state.

Lewis Goldstein, president of the Barstow College Faculty Association, said the faculty’s contract expired June 30 and will be renegotiated in October. This could result in benefit cuts, he said, or  faculty may not receive expected annual salary increases anymore.

Goldstein said the faculty understands the college won’t replace some vacant positions or bring back adjunct instructors. But he said the main worry is that faculty will see future freezes or cuts once capital projects like the Wellness Center and Performing Arts Center — which found funding before the budget issues — are finished and the costs of maintenance falls on the college.

“The faculty is really pulling to help with the budget,” Goldstein said, “but we don’t think we should be the ones to suffer from poor management.”

BCC will also continue to cut class sections and enrollment, which will result in contracting fewer adjunct instructors. The college is budgeted to spend $250,000 less on certificated salaries than they ended up spending in the 2010-11 year. It has also only enrolled 3,560 students so far this semester compared to 5,371 at this time in fall 2010 and continued to cut costs in operating expenses and supplies, Stanford said.

The class cuts have made it scheduling tough for Toshia Paul, 19, who is studying cosmetology. She was planning on finishing within a year but that may be delayed if she continues to have trouble finding a spot in certain math classes.

“I can’t get into the classes I need,” she said Thursday in the campus student lounge.

Funding at the federal level is projected to increase for the coming year, however. According to the budget, federal work study money will increase by about $25,000 and the college will receive almost an extra $100,000 in federal support for technical education.

As one of the smallest community college districts in the state, BCC escaped an $800,000 cut from the state for the 2011-12 year, but Stanford said that safety net may not be there in the next budget cycle.

“All colleges are understaffed, underfunded,” Stanford said. “It’s just more severe the smaller you are.”

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(760) 256-4126 or smitchell@desertdispatch.com

Sept. 14 BCC Board of Trustees meeting recap

Trustees Tim Heiden and Marcia Zableckis were absent. The following items were discussed at Wednesday’s meeting:

• The board approved a transfer Associate of Arts in Sociology that will allow the students to transfer with junior year status to other state schools

• The board approved the contracts for David Grossman as interim dean of instruction and Bill Orr as interim vice president of academic affairs through Dec. 15, 2011 or until the positions are filled.

• The board awarded Sports Field Services the bid for baseball field improvements, totaling $60,310