Increased aid a boost for Howard College, SWCID
Saturday, 25 July 2009
By STEVE REAGAN
Staff Writer
Howard College trustees will start crafting a new budget for the district when they hold a workshop and their regular monthly meeting Monday at SouthWest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf’s Maddux Student Center.
The workshop will begin at 10 a.m. and the regular meeting will be held at 12:30 p.m.
The district will receive increased aid from the state this year “almost $900,000 for Howard College alone” but that increase will be at least partially offset by an expected drop in property valuations, College President Dr. Cheryl Sparks said.
“We’ll be working with new appropriation dollars that will include new money for SWCID as well as increased contact hour (compensation) and money from the state’s Small College Supplement,” Sparks said.
Unlike public K-12 school districts, which receive state aid based largely on attendance figures, contact hours “the number of hours students are physically in class or labs” determines how much state revenue upper-level institutions like Howard College receive.
And this marks the first year that Howard qualifies for state aid through the Small College Supplement, which funnels additional revenue to smaller Texas community colleges.
Together, state revenue from those two sources will equal more than $850,000, Sparks said.
In an additional bit of good financial news, SWCID, which receives almost all of its operating revenue from the state, will receive an additional $366,000 this year, she noted.
And college officials definitely have plans for the extra money.
“We’ve tried to consider the instructional needs of our students throughout the district when figuring in the extra revenue,” Sparks said. “In particular, we are looking at targeting our dual-credit instruction (which allows high school students to take HC courses), our nursing program, developmental studies and tutorial services, which assist students having trouble with their college courses and our fine arts department, in particular the music program.”
Because the small college allotment “just more than $537,000 in Howard’s case” is subject to approval every two years, college officials are treating it as a one-time bonanza and not a permanent budget fixture. Therefore, they are hoping to aim that money toward technological purchases.
That good news, however, could be at least slightly offset by decreased property valuations in the district. Sparks said college officials will have a firmer idea on just how severe the decreased valuations will be by the time they meet with trustees Monday.
“All we know for sure right now is that those numbers will be less year’s appraised values,” Sparks said.
As things stand, Sparks does not contemplate major changes the district’s budget.
“We have prepared the proposed budget for the board’s consideration based on the same tax levy as last year,” she said.
The district’s budget and tax rate will be formally approved in August.
In other business, trustees will consider:
* Updates on renovation projects on the Big Spring campus.
* Approval of the Howard County Tax Appraisal District budget.
* Bids and personnel matters.
* Catalog and handbook changes.
Contact Staff Writer Steve Reagan at 263-7331 ext. 234 or by e-mail at [email protected]
Source: http://www.bigspringherald.com/content/view/180361/60/