Local Colleges May Slash Classes, Jobs in Face of Shortfall

Layoffs of part-time teachers and cuts in class schedules are a threat this fall at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges because of a cash shortage that has more than doubled in recent months, district officials said Monday.

Ventura County Community College District officials said a $1.4-million deficit announced earlier this year has now mushroomed to $3 million, prompting trustees to consider sweeping curriculum cuts and staff layoffs.

“We are in tough straits to figure out how to find money at the end of the fiscal year of this magnitude,” said Vice Chancellor Jeff Marsee.

Administrators blame the ballooning $3-million budget gap on lower-than-expected property tax revenues, a decline they said is due to sinking real estate values and miscalculations by state analysts.

“The anticipated revenue from local property taxes was higher than the revenue that actually occurred,” said Marsee, who is in line for a three-year contract.

“What we’re having to do now is recognize that 5% funding reduction with very little time to take any corrective action,” he said.

Faced with a similar fiscal crisis this time last year, the district pared 300 courses from its class schedules.

By late 1993, when the state came up with extra money for the district, most of those classes were reinstated.

But fewer classes and higher student fees resulted in an 8% dip in enrollment, further lowering state allocations to the district.

In February, trustee Timothy Hirschberg and other board members called for a districtwide restructuring of the curriculum to refocus on only the most popular courses: vocational programs and core classes widely transferable to universities.

Nothing to date has come from that proposal, Hirschberg said.

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Trustees will probably adopt a tentative budget for the coming fiscal year later this month. But adjustments to that spending plan will need to be made following the adoption of a state budget, officials said.

Partly because of the district’s budget problems, some trustees are criticizing a proposal by Chancellor Thomas G. Lakin to offer dozens of his top-level managers multiyear contracts that would protect them from salary cuts or even layoffs.

At a board meeting tonight, Lakin is scheduled to ask trustees to approve three-year contracts for his two vice chancellors and two-year contracts for dozens of academic directors, deans and college vice presidents.

Lakin could not be reached for comment Monday.

Offering multiyear contracts to dozens of top managers within the district is necessary to continue attracting the best candidates from across the country, Marsee said.

“The intention is to establish a positive environment for future hires,” he said. “Philosophically, I’m sure there’s a concern, but practicality-wise there’s really no difference.”

Last month the district imposed a hiring freeze due to its reduced revenues.

The long-term pacts would obligate the district to pay millions of dollars in administrative salaries over three years at a time when a majority of seats on the governing board are up for grabs. Three of five board members face reelection this November.

Governing board members contacted Monday were reluctant to support the multiyear contract proposal, which has been tabled from each of the two previous board meetings.

“I’m going to vote against it,” said trustee Gregory P. Cole. “I’m not going to support the proposal in light of the new fiscal evaluations.”

When the three-year deals for the vice chancellors were proposed last month, however, Cole indicated he may support them.

Hirschberg said: “It’s ludicrous to be extending management contracts. It completely ties the board’s hands.”

Instead of considering teacher layoffs or cutting class schedules, the district should target the very managers Lakin wants protected by long-term contracts, he said.

“My first priorities for cuts would be to begin a process that I thought we should have begun last year, consolidating middle management,” Hirschberg said. “They’re first on my list.”

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Union activists charged Monday that the lengthy deals would undermine the community college district’s prime objective: offering affordable vocational courses and classes transferable to four-year universities.

“It’s infuriating and insulting, but more than that it’s destructive to the community college system,” said Barbara Hoffman, president of the local teachers union. “There’s anticipation that the board is going to change dramatically.”

Leanne Colvin, president of the classified employees union that is in the midst of heated bargaining negotiations, said the multiyear deals were hypocritical.

“They pulled a 1% pay raise off the table for classified employees last month, saying they couldn’t afford it,” Colvin said. “We haven’t been able to get a straight answer from them on anything.”

A teacher at one of the three campuses said Lakin and his colleagues traditionally seek back-room deals like multiyear contracts during the slow summer months.

“The history of management in this district has always been that the big changes and the big perks that go to management are made when school’s out and everybody’s on vacation,” the instructor said.

“That’s the time when they hit with big commitments like this,” said the teacher, who asked to be unnamed. “It’s easier for them to sneak something through.”