College district may cut $5 million

The Coast Community College District is looking to reduce its operating budget for the next school year by at least $5 million, as the state proposes to cut about $20 million in funding from the district.

The district’s Board of Trustees held a special meeting Wednesday to discuss how to handle Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed cost-cutting measures for the country’s ninth-largest community college district.

If the measures are implemented, over 60,000 students would be affected annually among the district’s three colleges — Coastline Community College in Fountain Valley, Golden West College in Huntington Beach and Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa — according to a release from the district.

The District Budget Advisory Committee, headed by Acting Chancellor Ding-Jo H. Currie, recommended the cost-saving ideas to the board. Clerk Jerry Patterson said students should come first in the crisis.

“If we all focus on putting students first, it becomes clear how important it is that everyone makes sacrifices in the name of mitigating the damage done to students,” he said in a statement. “It is a difficult yet necessary evil in this type of economy.”

Suggestions for changes range from freezing all hiring to closing campuses entirely on Fridays, said Martha Parham, the district’s director of public affairs.

The board also listened to presentations explaining arguments for and against the proposed cuts. The budget reduction would come at a time when student enrollment is expected to soar as students are turned away from California State Universities and University of California institutions and the newly unemployed return to school.

The board is expected to have a second meeting to discuss its options Wednesday, and is expected to make budget decisions at its regular meeting June 17. However, Board President Jim Moreno hinted that more budget predicaments are still to come, saying the board “will need to make similar, if not more drastic, cuts for the 2010-11 fiscal year.”