Greetings,

As you know during the past six weeks, under the leadership of Dr. Jackie Askin, Vice President of Administrative Services, the College held four open forums to provide an update on the current state of external revenue sources impacting the MCCCD overall budget and the PVCC planning and budget process. Over 60 PVCC employees attended one of the open forums. In addition, at last Friday's College Leadership Council meeting, a productive structured conversation was held on the topic of PVCC budget strategies for uncertain times.

During the forums, several known PVCC budgetary factors were outlined including: 1) an FY09 budget reduction due to the 1.9% FTSE decline in FY08 (estimated at $175,000) and, 2) the loss in FY10 of state funded capital dollars to PVCC of approximately $270,000.

Today, I was informed by Vice Chancellor Thompson that each college will realize a 1% budget reduction for the current fiscal year and an additional 1% reduction in FY10. This amounts to approximately $300,000 each year. To this end, Dr. Askin will be convening the College Budget Development Steering Team (BDST) to develop recommendations for consideration.

During this process, the primary guiding principles will include: the core function of teaching and learning remains the highest college priority; the process will be transparent with open communications; operational efficiencies and cost reductions will be achieved; and short term reductions will not harm the long term strategic goals of the college. In addition, we will continue to focus on growth through increased student enrollment and student persistence in a cost efficient manner.

I've asked Sue Van Boven and Alison Livingston to join this working BDST group that includes: Marilyn Cristiano, Christopher Scinto, Jeanne Franco, Jackie Askin, Shirley Green, Mary Lou Mosley, Denise Digianfilippo, Paul Golisch, and David Matus. Their work will begin soon.

PVCC is in a good place to navigate these reductions in that we have been transparent with our budget status this year. We also have in place a budgeting process approved by the College and an experienced Budget Development Steering Team (BDST) that has worked closely with the College budget over the last two years.

Soon each of the College Vice Presidents will communicate with their divisions on how this news impacts the current APB planning and budgeting process. It is important that we continue to identify our mission critical needs though this process.

Our current 45th Day Report looks very promising with an increase of 270 FTSE - a 7% increase over last fall. Any future budget reductions will be offset through new growth funds achieved this academic year.

I will provide regular updates and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 7-6610.