Colleges to Use Funds for Spring Classes

Administrators at Pierce and Mission colleges said Wednesday they plan to use an expected influx of more than $1 million in unexpected community college district funds to pay for classes next spring. The two colleges say they will not restore classes that have already been cut from the fall semester.

Pierce, which cut more than 100 classes from its fall curriculum, will use its portion of the windfall--$793,910--to stave off anticipated cuts from the spring semester, said Bill Norlund, vice president of academic affairs at Pierce College. The college will also use some of the $1 million promised by the developer of the Warner Ridge business and housing complex to pay for spring classes, Norlund said.

Originally, Norlund said, Pierce planned to drop as many as 300 classes from the spring curriculum. Now, that number should be trimmed to about 30, even though Pierce is still more than $1 million under last year’s budget, he said.

At Mission College in Sylmar, administrators plan to boost the spring curriculum above last year’s level, using $269,302 released by the community college district earlier this month, said Vice President of Academic Affairs Victoria Richart.

The school offers between 600 and 650 classes per semester, Richart said. This year’s fall curriculum is about 20% smaller than last year’s, due to budget cuts, she said.

By contrast, Valley College in Van Nuys will add 32 classes to its fall semester, using some of its share of $5 million in district reserves and administrative cuts allocated to the nine community college campuses.