Long Beach City College Cancels Non-Credit Community Classes : Education: Low enrollment in the 156 courses caused a budget shortfall, trustees say.

Citing two years of financial losses, Long Beach City College trustees have canceled all non-credit community classes for the upcoming school year.

Thousands of people have taken these courses over the years, paying fees to learn more about gardening, repairing cars and reducing stress, or to brush up on such job skills as bookkeeping, computer training and appraising real estate.

But declining enrollment and rising administrative costs created a $263,000 deficit in the program the past two years, officials said. They estimated the program would lose an additional $86,000 if the classes were offered in the new school year.

“Unless those classes support themselves you just can’t offer them,” said William Millington, college board of trustees president. “I just don’t think there was the interest in the community. I guess there are just too many things for people to do.”

The 156 non-credit classes offered last year had an average enrollment of about 12 students. At least 25 students are needed per class to break even, officials said.

Carol Roemer, an art instructor at the college, criticized the decision.

The classes were “a way we could interact with the community, and this is a forced withdrawal from the community,” Roemer said. “The bean counters are taking over, and the role of the community colleges is changing. They’re going back to being junior colleges that concentrate on (preparing students for) four-year institutions.”

Stanley Francus, vice president of planning and governmental relations, said the school has not received complaints about the canceled classes. He noted that similar classes are available through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and at Cal State Long Beach.

Officials said, however, that they hope to restore the non-credit classes next year after studying how other community colleges administer similar programs.

Some colleges, as a rule, cancel community classes that don’t have enough enrollment to be self-supporting. Administrators at Rio Hondo College in Whittier make sure the fees paid for a class are sufficient to cover the instructor’s salary and other costs, said Timothy M. Wood, interim college president.

At Long Beach City College, however, the decision whether to cancel a non-credit class generally is left to instructors. “That’s not a good way to do it,” said Kamiran Badrkhan, vice president for academic affairs.

Community course offerings vary widely at the three other community colleges in the Southeast area.

Rio Hondo College offers about 100 non-credit courses a year, a spokeswoman said.

Compton Community College offers just 10 courses on such topics as managing finances, losing weight and stopping smoking, said Associate Dean Ulis Williams. “Interest in community service classes has dwindled in the lesser-income communities,” Williams said.

Cerritos College operates one of the largest community service programs in the California Community College system, offering about 500 courses a year in 1,395 sections. Total enrollment is about 28,000.

The college mails out seven brochures a year listing the various offerings. A 22-member committee of area residents meets twice a year to discuss the types of courses residents want.