Long Beach City College Budget Updates

This webpage has been created to keep the Long Beach Community College District community informed about the college's response to the state budget crisis. We strongly recommend you bookmark this page and check it regularly for the most-up-to-date information.

President's Budget Message:

DATE:July 7, 2010
TO: Colleagues
FROM: Eloy O. Oakley, Superintendent-President
SUBJECT: Budget Update

I hope that everyone is enjoying a restful summer with friends and family. Last week, we began the new 2010-2011 fiscal year. Of course, the State Legislature does not yet have a budget, nor do they seem to have a coherent plan on how to deal with the States $19 billion deficit. Here at LBCC, the summer session began with many frustrated students being denied the opportunity to take the classes they need. I thank the faculty who stretched as much as they could to accommodate our students. Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to LBCC as statewide enrollment demand for classes has far outstripped the availability of classes. Several colleges completely canceled summer or significantly reduced sections as we did.

However, there is some good news to report. First, I want to thank all of the classified staff for working with the District to reach a negotiated agreement on salaries for 2010-2011. Both sides worked hard to craft a solution that minimized layoffs and served the best interests of our classified staff and students. The agreement includes 15 furlough days, which equates to a 5.77% reduction in classified fixed costs (AFT has distributed information on the entire agreement). The management team will also take 16 furlough days in 2010-2011 and will continue to rotate the duties of the evening dean assignment. The management team concessions equate to a 6.15% reduction in management team fixed costs. Late in the spring, our faculty agreed to a 2.3% reduction in salaries and to return to the negotiations table this coming September to begin working on solutions to achieve further faculty fixed cost reductions. All of these efforts will be essential for the District to prepare a final adopted budget that provides sufficient resources for LBCC to meet the student success demands of the 2010-2011 academic year.

At the June 22nd Board of Trustees meeting, the District adopted the Tentative Budget for 2010-2011. To mitigate further cuts to core student support and instructional programs, the Board agreed to lower its mandated reserve level from 5.5% to 5.0%. The 5.0% reserve level is the minimum prudent level as required by the California Community Colleges Chancellors office, so it is now incumbent upon us to do everything possible to stop deficit spending. The Tentative Budget includes an operating deficit of $3.8 million and designated reserves of $5.7 million. This is the lowest reserve level the college has budgeted since the 2004-2005 fiscal year when we had a $4.9 million reserve. As you can see, the college has little financial room left to withstand any more decreases in revenue or increases in expenses. Nonetheless, the college Budget Advisory Committee continues to work to ensure that the college remains in firm financial standing and I am confident that they will guide us through this turmoil.

The last piece of budget related news is the recent restructuring of the Community Relations and Marketing department. Beginning July 1st Mr. Mark Taylor, Director of Community & Governmental Relations, is assigned to the Superintendent-Presidents Office where he will help support and supervise the executive team support functions in addition to his current duties. Mr. Robert Garcia, Director of Public & Media Relations, will be assigned to the Economic & Resource Development office for 30% of his assignment to provide media and marketing support of the various economic development programs and grants.

Finally, I want to highlight some noteworthy news. LBCC announced a partnership with Goldman Sachs to launch its 10,000 Small Business Initiative in the Los Angeles metro region. This is only the second launch site for the initiative and recognition of our ERD team as one of the best in the country. Our Student Success Initiative will be highlighted this summer at the California Leadership Alliance for Student Success Institute by one of our fabulous instructional specialists, Ms. Ladera Barbee. I also want to again congratulate Dr. Bobbi Villalobos who was selected as the Dean of Student Success in June. The work that all of you are doing with regards to student success and the Long Beach College Promise is being recognized throughout the nation as a best practice.

There has also been encouraging progress in the development and implementation of SLOs, SUOs and our program Review/Program Planning processes. I want to thank all of our Department Chairs, the ASLO Coordinator and ASLO Committee for working with our entire faculty to facilitate this work. This work will lead to a more robust data driven dialogue about improving student learning.

Finally, as much as I hate thinking about the end of summer, I am looking forward to another College Day and out keynote speaker. This year, we have Dr. Kay McClenney who is the Director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement and Sid W. Richardson Endowed Fellow in the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas, Austin. She is also one of the founders of the Achieving the Dream Initiative.

Thank you all for your continued support and commitment to LBCC despite these difficult and turbulent economic times. The students that you are touching today are receiving the critical support they need to survive and thrive in these challenging times.

Have a great summer!