College Chief Says Finances in Order

The chancellor of the long-troubled South Orange County Community College District says that a controversial reorganization that began two years ago has saved $2.5 million, pulling the district out of financial peril.

The district’s two campuses, Irvine Valley College and Saddleback College, have been plagued by low morale, fiscal problems and threats to their accreditation. Three years ago, the school system’s financial reserves dropped to just 1.25% of its unrestricted budget, landing it in hot water with the state.

Drastic changes in the way the colleges are governed, and the elimination of a great deal of overtime pay for teachers, drew fire from the college’s faculty. But Chancellor Cedric Sampson on Thursday released financial figures that he says demonstrate the reorganization was a success.

“We want to get beyond all these arguments,” Sampson said. “What I’m trying to do is bring closure. The decisions have been made, [and] we want to move forward.”

Sampson said that by next year, the reserve will exceed 5% of the budget, the minimum required by the state. By shifting a number of administrative jobs to lower-paying positions, Sampson said the district saved about $900,000. The rest of the savings came primarily from a $1.6-million reduction in what is known at the schools as “release time” pay, by which many teachers were paid significantly more than their average $69,000 salaries to compensate them for the time spent in leadership positions.

The restructuring drew angry protest from teachers. Opponents of the changes say the numbers released yesterday are window dressing.

“It’s not a serious piece of work, and it’s just a considerable misrepresentation of the facts,” says professor Peter Morrison, president of the Irvine Valley College faculty senate and a member of the district’s budget committee. “Based on the information that this report contains, an actual analysis cannot be done.”

A review board renewed the schools’ accreditations early this year but required the schools to produce follow-up reports on their progress. The accreditation team of the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges will vote on the schools’ accreditation status once again in the first week of June.