GILROY
– Gavilan College is searching for ways to continue offering its
expensive Community Education courses, after the program once again
created a drain on the school’s coffers.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gavilan College is searching for ways to continue offering its expensive Community Education courses, after the program once again created a drain on the school’s coffers.
The program, started more than 16 years ago, offers educational and enrichment courses to the community at large, not for credit, but has cost Gavilan College money throughout its existence.
Gavilan lost about $113,662 last school year offering classes outside its core academic curriculum, digging a hole $11,000 deeper than in 2002-03. That figure includes 11 months of data and could improve, said Rachel Perez, the program’s administrator.
“At community ed, we’re constantly trying to figure out what we can change in order to offer what is valuable to this community,” said Perez in her annual report to the Gavilan board. “The bottom line is, it’s a business and it’s a business in a college setting, which is really conflicting.”
Classes offered through Community Education range from personal enrichment, such as conversational sign language, to computer classes, like Web design. Gavilan also offers two children’s programs through Community Education, which traditionally break even.
The program’s best year in recent history was 2000-01, although it still cost the college nearly $60,000. Last year, Community Education generated $458,839 – $1,877 more than 2002 – but cost $572,501.
“I guess what keeps my staff and I going is we have increased revenue there, although it is small in some places, and unfortunately sometimes the expenses also increase,” Perez said.
Some of those expenses were related to the college’s most profitable Community Education course, motorcycle training. Gavilan offered 136 motorcycle class sessions, up from 108 last year, and enrolled 1,166 students. In 1999, enrollment was at 252 students.
“We’re looking at more expansion, of course, in that area,” Perez said.
Bringing in $160,000, it is one of the program’s most sustainable facets. Still, costs are rising as the college replaces aging bikes, pays higher prices for gas, maintains equipment and struggles to attract instructors, who are at a premium.
Traffic school, computer skills courses and childcare classes are some other areas that traditionally experience a high demand and produced healthy revenue.
One way Perez hopes to increase revenue next year is by contracting out certain job training or re-training to local businesses.
Gavilan lost a $130,000 contract with a business last year because it went under, Perez said.
Gavilan is still trying to feel its way through on-line offerings, Perez said. A total 199 class sections were offered on-line for each of the past three years, although enrollment steadily declined, from 296 in 2001 to 181 last school year.
“That’s just hard for us to get a handle on, it’s up and down and we’re dealing with a real special group of people,” Perez said, “so that one we’re struggling with, also.”
Offering more class sections doesn’t always work to increase enrollment, she said.
“We know at this point what are the money-making classes for the program so we pretty much expanded those sections and we did very little in terms of new course development,” Perez said.
Perez said she is considering several options for increasing revenue to Community Education, including increasing class fees, expanding the motorcycle program, applying for grants and offering only revenue-generating classes.
“I know that we have to try something different,” Perez said.
