GCCCD News Release

			News Release
	CONTACT: Della Elliott, Public Information, (619) 644-7690, della.elliott@gcccd.edu FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 25, 2006

	Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Board OKs final budget $102.7 million operating budget includes funds for added programs, staffing EL CAJON – – The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District Governing Board has approved a $350 million budget, 60 percent of which is for major construction taking place at both colleges. The approved operating budget of $102.7 million – a 6.5 percent increase from the $93 million spending plan for 2005-2006 -- includes funds for hiring more faculty and other employees, as well as increased programs and services. At Grossmont College, the spending plan approved by the governing board at its Sept. 19 meeting includes the hiring of six full-time instructors in the areas of English, English as a Second Language, exercise science, math, psychology and foreign language. New hires are also on tap for two buildings soon to be completed: a microbiology technician for the science building and a sculpture tech for the digital arts and sculpture complex. Additionally, four custodians will be joining the staff. At Cuyamaca College, the budget allows the hiring of two full-time instructors, a counselor, a business/computer information systems lab assistant, and a custodian, all positions previously frozen. The budget also includes three new positions: a biology technician, a computer lab technician and an administrative secretary. Chancellor Omero Suarez labeled the budget “well balanced and adequate,” but noted the double-digit increases in employee and retiree benefit costs, as well as the need to increase enrollment to avoid losses in base funding from the state. “Restoring the district’s enrollment to avoid that reduction is the single major fiscal challenge in the 2006-2007 budget year,” he wrote in his annual budget letter, referring to enrollment dips attributed to prior state budget cuts and state-mandated fee increases. Suarez also noted a “larger than normal” beginning balance carried over from the previous budget to fund a contract settlement between the district and United Faculty, the labor union for instructors, librarians and counselors. About 84 percent of the operating budget is for faculty and staff salaries and benefits. The increased budget also reflects a nearly 6 percent cost-of-living adjustment and equalization dollars from Sacramento. The $159 million included in the state budget for equalization should net the district about $2.7 million – funding that has gone to restoring classes, staff and services that were reduced in recent, cash-strapped years. This is the third year the state has approved equalization dollars to reduce longstanding funding disparities between individual college districts. The Grossmont-Cuyamaca district, which has been on the forefront of the equalization campaign, has garnered about $5.6 million since the 2004-‘05 allocation of $80 million – the initial installment of the governor’s three-year strategy to address widely divergent state funding for community colleges. The largest allocation in the approved budget is the capital outlay projects fund which includes dollars for facilities financed in part with monies from Prop. R, the bond measure approved by East County voters in 2002 to repair and build new facilities at both colleges. With funds for capital improvement totaling in excess of $207 million, the chancellor noted that although the district still faces a major challenge meeting Prop. R commitments because of the “extremely challenging cost environment, the capital construction program will be able to provide an adequate budget to complete the largest and most innovative facilities ever built by the district.” At Grossmont College, construction is under way for buildings targeted for opening in January 2007. They are: A $19.7 million science building with laboratories for biology, chemistry, and geology/oceanography programs, a 40-station computer learning center and a greenhouse. A digital arts building, part of a $17.5 million two-building complex that will house the photography program and also include a digital multimedia lab geared to merging music and video. A sculpture building -- the other half of the two-building complex -- will house labs dedicated to casting, welding and metal fabrication, and will also feature a partially enclosed pit foundry and display space at the entrance for student artists. At Cuyamaca College: A $25 million science and technology mall is due for completion in January, and will provide laboratory space for life sciences, physical science and computer information sciences in a mall-like environment anchored by a ground-floor, open-access computer center. Construction continues on the communication arts building, a $44 million, 88,000-square-foot complex targeted for completion in fall 2007 that will provide laboratory and independent learning facilities for the English, communication, American Sign Language, fine arts and music programs. Construction continues on the long-awaited $15.2 million student center, which will accommodate a bookstore, food services, student affairs administration, student government, club offices, and more. Completion of this project is expected in fall 2007. The Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District serves the East County region of San Diego County and beyond to the Imperial County and Mexican borders. Grossmont College at 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon and Cuyamaca College at 900 Rancho San Diego Parkway in Rancho San Diego, serve a total 26,000 students per semester. For more information about the colleges, go to www.grossmont.edu and www.cuyamaca.edu. # # # Intergovernmental Relations, Economic Development, and Public Information 8800 Grossmont College Drive El Cajon, CA 92020-1799 Phone 619-644-7573 Fax 619-644-7924