Cabrillo Administrators Cut Last of the Fat

At Wednesday’s Cabrillo College Planning Council meeting, $557,000 was slashed from the school’s 2011-12 preliminary budget, but layoffs were put off a week.

The cuts were for terminated positions that are already vacant at this time. As political science instructor Rory O'Brien said, “This is eliminating positions we don’t really need.” 

The next meeting will deal with more difficult cuts involving layoffs of existing staff and elimination of services for the fall semester, said Brian King, president of Cabrillo College. That meeting will be next Wednesday at the Aptos campus' Student Activities East building.

In the May 4 budget meeting, it seemed a certainty that $10 million would eventually be cut from the school's spending clip, but this week, that was no longer a foregone conclusion, according to Victoria Lewis, vice president of administrative services. She returned just minutes before the meeting from a conference in Sacramento with cautious hope, based on Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal and the state budget office’s expectation of a $6.6 billion revenue jump.

King said he is not taking anything for granted.

“We will get a more detailed budget update coming next week,” he said.

The Student Senate of California Community Colleges recently passed a resolution mandating that a $10 increase in unit fees, from $26-$36 for 2011-12, go directly to colleges, rather than to the state’s general fund, according to Theo Offei, president of the Cabrillo Student Senate.

Lewis said the $10 per unit is welcome help, but it is far from solving what is still a $400 million cut to community colleges statewide. To avoid that fate, Brown’s new budget and his tax proposals would have to pass in a Legislature that still appears gridlocked.

The time line for remaining Cabrillo budget cuts includes only two more meetings, if faculty and administration members hope to enjoy a summer vacation.

"We are all drinking water from the fire hose at this point," said King.

College officials say they hope more students attend future meetings, as they are open to the public.

Stay tuned to Capitola-Soquel Patch for further updates on Cabrillo's budget.