Coast cuts hours back for summer

Marisa O’Neil

Schools and offices in the Coast Community College District will shut

down on Fridays this summer in an effort to cut utility costs.

Orange Coast College saved nearly $130,000 last summer by closing

on Fridays and not offering classes during peak hours for utilities

consumption. That savings allowed OCC to restore, for this spring

semester, some of the 500 classes that were cut from the fall

schedule.

“We’ve gone through two years’ worth of budget cuts and had no

funds restored,” district spokeswoman Erin Cohn said. “We’re still in

a fiscal constraint situation and we’re looking for every opportunity

to save money and put back as many classes as we’ve had to cut.”

The district’s schools and offices will switch to a four 10-hour

day per work week starting on June 1, and will return to its regular

schedule Aug. 20. Some programs, like criminal justice and

cosmetology, will still have Friday classes because of instructional

hour requirements.

OCC will operate the same as last summer, spokesman Jim Carnett

said. Classes will be offered Mondays through Thursdays in the

mornings and evenings.

No classes will meet between 12:30 and 6 p.m., when utility costs

are highest, on any day, he said. Mornings and evenings tend to be

the most popular time for students, particularly those who work and

those who like to enjoy the summer sun.

“If they do have the chance, students like to take a morning class

and go to the beach in the afternoon,” Carnett said.

Golden West College in Huntington Beach will also have only

limited classes available on Fridays, spokeswoman Marie McHerrin

said. The campus will offer classes throughout the day the rest of

the week, unlike OCC.

Over the past couple years, OCC has dropped about 1,500 classes

due to budget constraints. The state chancellor’s office placed Coast

Community College District on a financial watch list earlier this

year because its budget reserves slipped below the recommended 5%.

The district now has its reserves back up to 5%, Cohn said, which

should take it off the list when the next one comes out. But it will

still have more problems to face in the fall.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has asked state colleges to reduce

freshman enrollment by 10% and is expecting community colleges to

pick up the slack. Through a proposed dual admissions program,

qualified students will be guaranteed admission to University of

California campuses if they complete their general studies course

work at community colleges.

Without more money from the state, that plan could place

additional strain on campuses that are already offering fewer classes

to more students.

“Our existing students can’t [graduate] in time,” Cohn said.

“We’re happy to serve as many students as we can, but we still need

funding to do that.”

Coast Community College District’s impending sale of KOCE-TV to

the KOCE-TV Foundation is expected to ease its financial burden. It

may not, however, come in time to add more fall classes.

The Federal Communications Commission is expected to approve the

sale in July. At that time, the district would receive the remaining

$7.9 million down payment.

That money will go to a variety of uses, Cohn said, which may or

may not include creating more classes or beefing up employee

retirement account reserves, in line with state law.

“It will provide some relief to the budget in the short term,”

Cohn said.

OCC is in the process of putting together its fall schedule,

Carnett said. He expects that they will not have to cut the number of

course offerings from the spring.