For a few weeks, it seemed as if Alice Cooper was right: school was out for summer. It took a large outcry from students to reverse Chancellor Deborah Blue’s proposal to eliminate summer school and instate a six-week session for 2012.
The Board of Trustees adopted an amended plan in a 6-1 vote, which cut $58,000 instead of $537,000 from summer school, creating a six-week summer session for students. The lone ‘nay’ vote was Trustee Pat Patterson who said that he opposed all cuts.
The amended plan shifted $479,000 in cuts from summer school to the undesignated contingency funds of State Center Community College District’s colleges. The undesignated contingency funds are part of SCCCD’s $44 million reserve fund. The remaining $58,000 of the initial $537,000 cuts to summer school remained in place.
Of the $949,200 being taken from the undesignated contingency funds of each of the SCCCD campuses, about $821,000 is being taken from FCC, about $54,000 will be taken from Reedley and about $66,000 will be taken from the North Centers.
The initial proposal was meant to reduce spending in fiscal year 2011-2012 after a number of cuts were triggered by the State of California. Blue said that the district hoped to have summer school, and the costs associated with it, in fiscal year 2012-2013 starting on July 1.
But Fresno City College Interim President Tony Cantu contended that the college couldn’t host a six-week summer session starting in July because it would overlap with the week when teachers report back for the fall semester.
The reversal in the mid-year reduction plan marks the first roadblock to eliminating summer school. In the past two years, the district eliminated its four-week sessions, aside from special programs, and cut summer school at Reedley College and the North Centers last year.
During the Board meeting last week, 13 students and alumni, including Associated Student Government President Cindy Quiralte spoke in opposition to Blue’s original proposal. The tiny boardroom was standing room only with overflow in standing in the district office hallway.
“There are people who want to get out of here and we don’t want to be stuck here because of the cuts,” FCC graduate Rhyann McClanahan said during the meeting.
The opposition was fierce enough that ASG representatives were able to whip 4,000 student signatures for a petition opposing the plan.
“You have a responsibility to the student body,” Quiralte said holding the stack of signatures. “Know that it’s our futures that you’re deciding.”
Hours before the vote on the mid-year reduction plan, Blue admitted that the district had fumbled the proposal by not properly communicating with students.
“Initially when we started the conversation [about summer school], we were not in conversation with the students and that is what we have to address from this point forward,” Blue said days after the Board meeting.
Following the vote, Quiralte said that students walked away with a six-week victory, though noting that the best scenario was having a 10-week summer school session. Reflecting on ASG’s rallying effort, she also said that the end-result came to fruition because students voiced their concerns.
“This was a great opportunity for students to take advantage of using their voice at the board level” Quiralte said of the students. “And a good example of the board’s perceptiveness to students.”