In anticipation of $1.5 million in state funding cuts over the next 15 months, the Jefferson College Board of Trustees is considering massive slashes to the current year’s and next year’s operating budgets, as well as dipping deeply into reserve funds.
Board members are talking about possibly closing the pool at the college’s Hillsboro campus, freezing salaries, shuttering the satellite library at the Arnold campus and increasing student tuition, among an array of options.
Budget-bolstering measures are under immediate consideration for the end of the fiscal year 2017 budget and for a proposed fiscal year 2018 budget that got a first reading from the board on March 9. Board members emphasized, however, that changes could be made before they take a final reading and vote at their April 13 meeting.
The new budget will take effect July 1.
Daryl Gehbauer, college vice president of finance and administration, said Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens has announced cuts to higher education for 2017 and 2018, and that reductions are included in the budget Greitens has submitted to the state Legislature.
“The amount of the cuts (to Jefferson College) are proportional to the amounts each college receives,” Gehbauer said.
For Jefferson College, the cuts tallied to $640,000 for FY17 and $814,000 for FY18. Jefferson College had been slated to receive $8.1 million in state funding for FY17, Gehbauer said.
The college’s FY17 operating budget was originally set at $30.6 million and its proposed FY18 budget is $29.8 million, with $6.6 million coming from state funding.
College President Ray Cummiskey said it was difficult to target areas for cost-cutting.
“We’re not coming to you happily with this,” he told the board.
He said the college plans to tighten its belt for the last few months of FY17, which ends June 30, by delaying some purchases and leaving some vacant positions open.
In addition, officials are dipping into the college’s reserves, although the amount that will be needed before the end of June has not yet been determined.
Cummiskey said actions taken to deal with FY17 shortfalls will have an impact on the budget for the next fiscal year.
“Some of these decisions we put off to next year will still need to be done in the next budget, such as some of purchases we put off,” Cummiskey said.
He said that state funding comes in the form of monthly payments and he expects the state to withhold one of the monthly payments for FY17 that would have come had the governor not announced his funding cuts to higher education.
Specific cuts on the table for the FY18 budget include:
■ Using $300,000 from institutional reserves.
■ Forgoing pay raises for all employees.
■ Closing the poo1 and eliminating the pool manager position, effective July 30. The annual cost of running the pool, including the pool manager salary, is listed as $85,000. A large group of people who object to closing the pool attended the March 9 meeting. (See related story on Page 19.)
■ Discontinuing the Continuing Education program’s personal enrichment component covering such items as swim, dance, arts and crafts, and martial arts, as well as eliminating the program’s registration technician position and part-time assistant position.
■ Closing the Jefferson College Arnold campus at noon on Fridays and all day Saturdays and eliminating the part-time enrollment services assistant position.
■ Closing the satellite Jefferson College Library at Arnold and reducing part-time regular staff.
■ Discontinuing other positons funded by grants in which the grants are soon to expire.
■ Discontinuing the college’s Electronics Technology Program and its Biomedical Electronics Program due to the expiration of grants and other factors.
■ Increasing student credit hour costs by $8 per credit hour. Students who live within Jefferson County currently pay $97 per credit hour. Tuition increases are more typically $2-$3 per credit hour.
Board member Ron Scaggs asked Cummiskey how Jefferson College’s tuition will compare to other community colleges in the region if the $8 increase is enacted.
“We’ll be very comparable,” Cummiskey said.
Board member Krystal Hargis did not attend the March 9 meeting.
The April 13 meeting is set for 6:30 p.m. The board typically meets in the Administrative Building board room on the Hillsboro campus, but the March 9 meeting was moved to the Student Center because of the larger-than-usual crowd.