Clarendon College Regents approved an $8.9 million budget for Fiscal Year 2012 during their regular meeting Thursday, August 18.
The overall budget includes a previously approved increase in tuition and deals with about $400,000 of lost funding from state budget cuts, college officials say.
CC Dean of Administrative Services Annette Ferguson said the college will lose more than $100,000 in revenue from the state cutting funds to classes in prisons in Childress and Pampa but said CC hopes to make up that loss with a new nursing program in Childress.
The college is also bearing a greater share of the cost for employee health benefits and is paying a new one percent surcharge fee to participate in the state’s retirement program.
CC President Phil Shirley said the budget reflects the fact that state funding for higher education continues to wane, shifting the cost of education more to the student.
College employees won’t be getting a raise in the new budget, but Shirley said the college will pay a $400 stipend to employees on December 15.
“We wanted to do something to show we appreciate them by some monetary means,” the president said. “We wish it could be more.”
To support the new budget, the Clarendon College District is proposing adopting the effective tax rate of $0.2221 per $100 valuation, which would bring in the same local tax revenue as last year of approximately $400,000. The current tax rate is $0.2219. Regents will consider and adopt a tax rate next month.
No one attended a public budget hearing held immediately prior to the board meeting.
In other college business, Regents acknowledged the resignations of baseball coach Mike Silva and library director Reagan Silva; approved the hiring of cashier Sharon Jones; and acknowledged the assignment of new duties to faculty members Melissa McCoy as division director and Dr. Robert Taylor as administrative assistant to the Dean of Institutional Research. The board also voted to extend the bank depository contract with Herring Bank by two years.
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