Last Night’s Meeting
I’m out the door quite early this morning on a business trip. I’ll try and update you with a more detailed post soon.
For now, here’s a quick update: the meeting went from 4 to 11:30. The board voted 6-1 to issue the layoff notices required to balance the budget, but instructed staff to prepare options for saving the automotive, construction and agriculture job training programs.
All in all, we had 85 public comment speakers and I cast four of the toughest votes I’ve ever had to cast. It was a long night, but we laid the foundation for a sustainable Sierra College budget.
More soon.
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Aaron:
I know those were tough votes (and I didn't make them any easier on you by appearing and encouraging your Board to find alternative cuts to at least keep these CTE departments “on life support”). I hope you are able to keep these shops open, since I have learned by sad experience that once the capital equipment is sold (for pennies on the dollar), it is rare that such CTE shops ever come back to a campus. This is definitely “the year of priorities.”
Fred, greatly appreciated your comments at the meeting. CTE is critical to the economic recovery of this state, and I really appreciate your advocacy for it. We're not out of the woods yet on those three programs, but I hope that a combination of private sector support, scaled down budgets and finding other cuts we can backfill will allow us to save those three. Thanks again!