July 2012 Board Report

The Illinois Valley Community College board Tuesday approved a tentative $47.2 million budget for fiscal 2013 – including $12.5 million in state funding for the new Peter Miller Community Technology Center.

Those capital dollars, representing a quarter of the total budget, help account for a 16 percent hike in revenues and a 17 percent increase in expenditures over fiscal 2012.

“Without the CTC project, the budget would contain $34.7 million in revenues – a 2.7 percent decrease – and $36.3 million in expenditures – a .8 percent decrease from 2012,” said IVCC President Jerry Corcoran.

“The deficit budget is the result of not levying for tort expenditures but using existing fund balances and using auxiliary enterprise fund balances to cover a one-time expenditure for converting our current administrative software system to a Microsoft operating environment,” said Corcoran.

 “What’s important to me is during challenging economic times we are able to present an operating budget that is balanced except for the one-time IT expenditure. And this is despite the fact we are projecting only 12.2 percent – versus the standard one-third – of our operating fund revenues coming from the state,” he said.

Operating revenues total $20.5 million compared to last year’s $22 million, a decrease of more than $1.4 million or 6.7 percent. Operating expenditures are $20.9 million compared to $22 million in 2012, a decrease of over $1 million or 5 percent.

For the time being, eleven full-time positions will not be filled.

“Our focus from this point forward will be on providing only mission-critical services until the state economy turns around,” Corcoran said.

The board will vote on final approval of the budget Aug. 21 following a public hearing.

In other action, trustees approved purchase of a key training piece for the Community Technology Center’s HVAC certificate programs that will be paid for by the CTC capital campaign.

The $147,500 Hampden Home Efficiency Auditor Training Facility will be used to train HVAC technicians in new techniques in weatherization and prepare them for certification as residential energy auditors. The facility consists of a self-contained, small-scale building that will be placed in the CTC before the walls are constructed.

“This is a phenomenal piece of equipment and is one of the first enhancements to the Peter Miller Community Technology Center due to the extraordinary ($1 million) donation from the Miller Group Charitable Trust,” said Corcoran.

The board also approved:

  • Renewal of the student athletic and catastrophic student athletic insurance coverage at a cost of $35,237.  
  • The resignation of sociology/anthropology instructor Christine Dove. Dove was the advisor for the Swingin’ Eagles and co-advisor of IV Sustainability, as well as being involved with the Diversity Team. She presented numerous professional development workshops and co-led the successful Green Expo. Dove will begin a full-time position at Durham Technical Community College in North Carolina Aug. 8.
  • The appointment of Carmen Hartford as anatomy and physiology instructor to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Greg Oseland. Hartford, who has a master’s in biology from Saint Joseph College in Hartford, Conn., and bachelor’s in biology and finance from Illinois State University, has worked part-time as IVCC’s biology lab instructor.
  • The appointment of Shane Lange as automotive technology instructor and program coordinator to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Dan O’Connor. Lange earned his teaching license from the University of Tennessee-Martin, his bachelor’s in automotive technology from Southern Illinois University and his A.A.S. in automotive technology from IVCC.
  • The hiring of American Digital Corporation to update microcode, firmware and AIX operating system on the Colleague system hardware for a cost not to exceed $10,000. The updates are required for compatibility with the U.S. Department of Education Federal Student Aid EDconnect system and will allow IVCC to securely exchange batch data with the Federal Student Aid Application System.
  • The approval of two AAS degrees in welding production and welding construction technology that resulted from input received from local industry representatives on the program’s advisory committee.
  • Placing the medical coding and medical transcription certificate programs on inactive status effective Dec. 20 due to unsustainable enrollments and a lack of employment opportunities.
  • Inactivation of school technology coordinator, basic teacher technology and advanced teacher technology certificates effective Aug. 31 based on low enrollments and lack of employment opportunities.

The board learned Julie Milota of Tonica, a former player at IVCC and Southern Illinois University, has been hired as the volunteer women’s tennis coach.