Northwest Arkansas Community College approves 2018 budget

File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette/JASON IVESTER Students walk across campus to the Becky Paneitz Student Center on Jan. 30 at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. The college's board approved Thursday a balanced budget with a 3.1 percent increase over the 2017.
File Photo/NWA Democrat-Gazette/JASON IVESTER Students walk across campus to the Becky Paneitz Student Center on Jan. 30 at Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville. The college's board approved Thursday a balanced budget with a 3.1 percent increase over the 2017.

BENTONVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas Community College has set a budget of $41.9 million for fiscal 2018.

The Board of Trustees approved the balanced budget with a 3.1 percent increase over the 2017 budget. The new fiscal year starts July 1.

Budget breakdown

A breakdown of Northwest Arkansas Community College’s expected revenue and expenditures for fiscal 2018, which starts July 1:

Revenue

• Tuition and fees: $21.5 million (51 percent)

• State funding: $11.7 million (28 percent)

• Millage: $6.9 million (16 percent)

• Other: $1.8 million (5 percent)

• Total: $41.9 million

Expenditures

• Wages: $24.2 million (58 percent)

• Benefits: $8 million (19 percent)

• Maintenance and operations: $9.6 million (23 percent)

• Total: $41.9 million

Source: Northwest Arkansas Community College

More optimistic enrollment projections, along with a nearly 10 percent rise in collection from the local millage tax, allowed officials to increase expenditures.

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"We always strive to promote fiscal stability and this budget is no exception," Debi Buckley, vice president of finance and administration, told the board Monday.

The college will not increase tuition, which has remained the same since 2013, Buckley said. State money to the college will remain flat at $11.7 million.

After several years of declines in the number of credit hours taken, the college saw a 2.1 percent increase this year. The budget is based on the assumption credit hours will remain flat, Buckley said.

The budget includes a 3 percent average salary increase for full-time faculty, managers and classified staff members. Part-time faculty members will get an increase of $15 per credit hour for a total of $715 per credit hour they teach, Buckley said.

Full-time faculty have received "step" pay raises for four of the past five years. Step increases are 1 percent raises plus $300 or $400. Other staff members, however, have received only one raise -- a 1 percent increase in 2014 -- to their base salaries over that time, according to college officials.

Nine new positions, including English and science faculty members and a librarian, are part of the budget. An accountant and a maintenance worker also are needed at Brightwater: A Center for the Study of Food, the college's new culinary facility.

Ron Branscum, a board member, praised Buckley and her staff for the job they've done managing expenses over the past several years.

"When I look at the prior years, I'm amazed when I look at that cash flow graph," Branscum said. "We were at a time of revenue dropping, but we have seen our cash flow improve during that time."

The board, following an executive session Monday, approved adopting the use of Act 1404 of 2001, allowing the college to pay Evelyn Jorgenson more than the $161,444 the state Legislature appropriated to the college to pay its president.

Lisa Anderson, a college spokeswoman, said Jorgenson will receive a 2 percent raise for fiscal 2018, bringing her annual salary to $191,346.

In other business, the board approved hiring SCM Architects to do the design work on the college's next building.

The "integrated design" building will provide space for and encourage collaboration among those in the arts, entrepreneurial and workforce development departments. It will be built in the middle of campus, just west of the Becky Paneitz Student Center.

The college received interest from 12 firms and narrowed the list to four before doing interviews, according to Jim Lay, the college's executive director of facilities and construction management.

SCM Architects, which has offices in Fayetteville and Little Rock, also did plans for the college's main campus in 2014 and more recently for the Springdale site where the college plans to build its Washington County Center.

Before Monday's meeting, Lucas Pointer of Bentonville was sworn in as the board's newest member. Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed Pointer to the Zone 1 seat previously held by Scott Grigsby, a retired Arvest Bank executive who resigned from the board in January.

Pointer is a vice president with First Western Bank and a member of the Bentonville Noon Rotary Club. He earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural, food & life sciences from the University of Arkansas, according to a news release from the college. He and his wife, Ashley, have five children.

Board members are elected by zones within the college's taxing district, which consists of the Rogers and Bentonville school districts. Zone 1 includes parts of Bella Vista, Bentonville and Centerton.

NW News on 05/12/2017

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