Greetings all,

It has been over two months since my last budget update -- the interval length dictated by the fact that, at the state level we really do not know much more now than we did in February. Below is an update on: state level budget news, BDST's recommendations, staffing news, and transitions in our Child Development Center.

State Budget News -- the news for FY10 continues to change almost on a weekly basis with the current worst case scenario being a statewide cut to all community colleges between $9 million and $4 million. If realized, the cuts to MCCD would be approximately $4.5 million to $2 million. The best case scenario is no additional cuts for FY10. It should also be noted that most everyone expects that FY11 will be a more difficult year than FY10. Finally, there continues to be discussions regarding the State of Arizona accepting the Federal stimulus funding and the requirement that State agency budgets be "made whole" to the FY07 levels that may result in some of the budget cuts being restored. So you can see that the State budget picture is still very much up in the air.

Budget Development Steering Team (BDST) -- I've accepted all of the initial FY10 recommendations from BDST including: technology capital, non-technology capital, occupational technology and base budget allocations for positions in the Life Sciences building and at the new Black Mountain campus -- two of which will be reallocated out of the existing base budget. I will be asking BDST to look again at several non-technology capital needs that were not recommended for funding. Official notifications will be out shortly from Sandy McDill's office. I would like to extend my thanks to BDST for this first round of recommendations. BDST will meet in early May to finalize recommendations on Fund 1 allocations for FY10.

Staff hiring -- PVCC will move forward on the hiring of two permanent positions -- Dean of Academic Affairs and the Director of Financial Aid. Both of these positions are in the base budget and are critical leadership roles. The President's Leadership Team will continue to evaluate other base budget, open positions as the FY10 budget is finalized.

Child Development Center Transition -- I have accepted BDST's recommendation to transition the college run Child Development Center to a Head Start run program. The recommendation was based on the program reduction criteria determined by BDST. During this transition year, all eligible children will be transitioned to the Head Start run program. Head Start will occupy our current Child Development facility and the remaining PVCC Child Development employees will be reassigned to other departments. Our own Early Childhood Education program already has a working relationship with the Head Start program and we will continue to expand this successful partnership right here on our own campus. Budget savings of approximately $150,000 realized from this move will be reallocated to meet other College needs. More information on the new Head Start program will be available soon.

As always, please feel free to call me directly at 7-6610 if you have further questions.

Paul