Deficit looming

Funding model and other issues leave district in the red

VAUGHAN Managing Editor @JVaughanRoundup

At Monday’s academic senate meeting, Instructor of Psychology and Academic Senate Treasurer Angela Belden said that the budget committee is projecting a $4.8 million deficit.

Belden said that the district takes all of the money that it’s colleges earn and redistributes a portion of it mostly to cover salaries.

However, Belden said that the real problem lies with the funding model and Rolf Schleicher should be working at the district level to improve the funding model.

Instructor of Psychology and Chair of the College Outcomes

Committee Jennifer Moses said that Pierce’s spending model was good until the district decided to lower the budget, ultimately leading Pierce to a deficit. Moses said that Pierce is not spending money frivolously

“My labor alone cost more than the money im being allocated to the college by almost $800,000,” said Schleicher, Vice President of Administrative Services. “We need to get our expenditures under control, because the budget committee has done a very good job of having a threshold where we said we also want to keep some kind of reserve. We blew through that reserve in the last 2 years because we haven't been mindful of our budget.”

According to Schleicher, Pierce will have to make adjustments quickly to keep some of the freedom the school has to make decisions.

“I’m looking at a 4 to 5 million dollar reduction we have to make this year so we can just balance our budget because as soon as we are a deficit college, which is what we are projecting, certain district measures take hold and that means the district is going to dictate a lot more of our direction of how we handle our finances,” what that means to me, but whoever is going to be the permanent president of this college is a very very lucky man or woman, because this is a great place.”

Schleicher said.

A new funding form will be put into use.

In Buckley’s opinion, it is not what a school has that makes it, but who it has.

“College is a collection of people. A really great facility can have really bad people,” Buckley said. “And a median facility can have great people. That facility can have great people and turn a experience for students into the greatest thing imaginable.”

Buckley looks at a historic teaching example as proof that a minimalist approach can certainly work.

“I believe it was Socrates who spent most of his time teaching students, he sat on one end of the log and the students sat on the other end of the log. And it was the greatest teaching environment in the history of the world,” Buckley said. “That's what I've seen here. I've seen students and faculty who were engaged in teaching and learning at the highest levels and that's been very very impressive to me. The faculty are having conversations about teaching.” the tax information versus their FAFSA,” said Anafe Robinson, director of financial aid.

One’s eligibility for the Pell Grant varies from year to year based on a variety of components. Some of these factors are the income and assets of the student, number of people in one’s household and the number of people attending college in the household. For students who are filed as a dependent on FAFSA, they will need to provide their parents information as well.

In addition to completing FAFSA, some students may be required to complete a verification process from the Department of Education.

While that is all that is needed to be eligible for the Pell Grant, there are still some students who do not claim their financial aid because of some common misconceptions surrounding eligibility and how disbursement work.

Robinson said the reason she hears the most for students not completing FAFSA is that they believe they need to be enrolled as a full time student to apply for any type of financial aid.

“We recommend students to be full time so they can achieve their educational goal faster,” Robinson said. “The student could be less than full time and still apply. Their eligibility will then depend on the enrollment status, so the Pell Grant amount will be prorated based on enrollment.”

Although there are students who are potentially eligible for the Pell Grant, they are discouraged to apply based on the misinformation they hear about the guidelines to receive financial aid.

Students also do not use their Pell Grant because they believe they can collect the sum of their grant later in their college career.

Financial aid assistant Susan Navaro said students believe they can save their Pell Grant for when they transfer to a separate university. However, the grant becomes inaccessible when students receive a bachelor’s degree or reach the allotted 600 percent of funding.

Every student is encouraged to apply on FAFSA for all types of financial aid that will cover their school expenses depending on their eligibility.

FAFSA for the 2019-2020 school year will open on Oct. 1.

[see BUCKLEY on pg. 3] dpadilla.roundupnews@gmail.com

“Students will be required, if selected, to submit tax information and that’s when we then need to verify the income information on