Gavilan College will save more than half a million dollars this
school year by not filling a number of open positions and by
freezing school improvement expenditures.
GILROY – Gavilan College will save more than half a million dollars this school year, staff announced Tuesday, by not filling a number of open teaching and administrative positions, and by freezing school improvement expenditures the remainder of the spring and summer sessions.
The savings measures, which staff presented to college trustees at their monthly meeting Tuesday night, are being done to offset the state’s mid-year budget cuts, which could amount to $800,000 this year and another $1 million in 2003-04.
The $520,462 Gavilan will save includes teachers’ salaries from 45 class sections cut from the spring semester course offerings.
Roughly $400,000 is being saved by not hiring 20 teachers, office workers and a dean of technology. The school will also save money by not using operating funds to pay for improvements to the football field, trampled by wild pigs over the summer.
“This is a temporary freeze of the funds the board allotted to improve the football field. But at this point in time we’re looking at other means of accomplishing that goal, like fundraising,” said Joe Keeler, Gavilan’s vice president of administrative services.
Gavilan’s purse-tightening comes despite the school’s “rainy day” fund, which exceeds state and board minimums by more than $783,000. College President Steve Kinsella defends the cuts, saying the excess will get eaten up quickly given the likelihood of another $1 million in state cuts for the 2003-04 school year.
“We’ve got an ongoing imbalance between revenue and expenditures,” Kinsella said. “If we can’t get it balanced, you can do the math and see that our reserves will be consumed very quickly.”
In addition to the state’s $800,000 cut, Gavilan will spend roughly $400,000 more than it will take in from the state and other funding this school year.
“There’s really a $1.2 million imbalance now. So cutting the 45 classes was part of a long-term approach to fixing a problem,” Kinsella said.
The $400,000 deficit is in large part a result of the school’s enrollment growth in recent years which is not fully funded by the state. Kinsella said the state, which pays schools on a per-student basis, refunds Gavilan only up to a certain capacity. Any enrolled student beyond that capacity amounts to a loss of revenue to the school.
