MHCC WORKING WAY OUT OF DEFICIT

Mt. Hood’s operating budget for 2018-19 dominated discussion when the MHCC District board of education met on April 18.

The board quickly reconvened as the official budget committee, with Annette Matson as chairwoman.

College President Debbie Derr led off the meeting with a statement. She said new Learning Communities that have formed with the help of federal Title III funding have contributed to an 11 percent increase in students’ completion of programs and a 6 percent increase in student retention.

More work is needed to balance Mt. Hood’s finances, meantime.

“The college still faces an operational deficit,” said Derr. “However, we are also making progress toward continuing to balancing and realigning our expenditures and revenues supporting the strategic goal of financial stability.”

Derr said that on top of the $7 per-credit tuition increase effective starting Summer Term, the college raised student access fee and college service fee amounts by $4 per term “to expand public safety coverage on campus and to create a student employment coordinator.”

In the board-approved budget plan – pending public feedback – funding for a second mechatronics instructor is included. This would add a second cohort (peer group of new mechatronics students) and allow “full utilization of the new lab,” said Derr.

Additional staff for disabilities services would be added, and a new support position for international students would be added “to provide support service and stability as this program expands,” she said.

A current empty position would be redesigned to hire a student conduct officer “that will enhance an equity based approach for student complaints, conduct, and behavioral intervention,” said Derr.

The president also said that over half a million dollars’ worth of technology, equipment, and infrastructure needs were found during the development of the budget, which sets some funding aside for these needs.

Jennifer DeMent, Mt. Hood’s chief operations officer, presented a detailed budget overview. The total proposed budget for 2018-19 is $161.7 million, with $36.4 million going to student aid. According to the proposal, the student aid fund “was established to account for revenue and expenditures for various programs providing grants, loans, or wages for students from state or federal funds.”

The proposed budget lays out $79 million for employee salaries, which is 80 percent of the budget’s general fund. About 3 percent, or $2.3 million, will go towards paying off some of the college’s debt.

The proposed budget allocates $758,990 of the student aid fund to “personal services,” said DeMent. “The personal services is our Federal Work Study dollars. We have not done a great job of spending those,” she said. The hope is that the new student employment coordinator could focus on distributing more funds to departments that would entice students to come and earn Work Study income, she said.

A line-by-line overview of the budget is scheduled for another Wednesday, May 9 hearing open to all, here at Mt. Hood.

In non-budget business, the board presented new Outstanding Support Staff awards.

Awards went to Lynn Ferris, administrative assistant for Visual Arts; Oleg Sizmin, custodian; and Mike Hein, program assistant for AVID and the Learning Success Center.

Broadcasting instructor and adviser JD Kiggins and Al Sigala, MHCC Foundation & Alumni Relations executive director, provided an update on a grant from MetroEast Community Media that would make it possible to televise future Mt. Hood District board meetings.

The next board meeting is scheduled for May 16 at 7 p.m.