It looks like next year will be a good year for De Anza College, said Mike Brandy, vice chancellor of Business Services, at Tuesday’s Town Hall Meeting in the Campus Center.
For 2006-2007, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed a $130,000,000 budget for public school equalization purposes, a $100,000,000 increase over last year’s proposal.
Brandy said it appears that the district will have enough funds to keep the budget balanced and avoid bringing a large deficit into the next fiscal year. Next year is a "hopeful" one for the district for other reasons, he said. De Anza and Foothill Colleges are on pace to hit their enrollment targets. Although De Anza’s enrollment has not been increasing, it is one of the largest community colleges in the state, larger than West Valley and Mission Colleges combined. Growth at other California community colleges is either remaining constant or decreasing.
The Foothill-De Anza Community College District has about 33 thousand full-time equivalent students, 20 thousand at De Anza and 13 thousand at Foothill. An FTES corresponds to one student taking 15 units per quarter for three quarters. With Board of Trustee and voter approval, a district-proposed bond measure may be put into action in June 2006.
The bond would be implemented over a 15-year period and would allow the two colleges to "achieve long-term funding stability for capital projects, major maintenance and equipment."
The bond measure could also contribute to paying off district debts and the unfunded retiree medical obligation.
The board is planning to make its decision on the bond by February 21.
Although Brandy said his presentation featured more positives than negatives, unsolved problems for the district include increases in expenses including gas, electricity, software maintenance contracts and license fees.
"This is the strongest governor’s budget we’ve had in five or six years," said De Anza President Brian Murphy. He said that the May budget revision will be the next time to take a comprehensive look at the budget numbers.
This article appears in the Feb. 13, 2006 print edition of La Voz.
