President's Update: December 14, 2023
I trust you are all doing well as we wrap up the fall semester. It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the term.
To the Shasta College Community:
I trust you are all doing well as we wrap up the fall semester. It is hard to believe that we are at the end of the term.
Success Story
I want to share about an award that some of our team was involved in receiving through Reach Higher Shasta. A couple of weeks back in San Francisco this group was recognized at the CSBA Golden Bell Award ceremony last Thursday evening in San Francisco. Congratulations to all involved!
A little business…
If you have not yet heard, you will be hearing about a huge three year projected budget gap that the State of California faces (for example, see https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/12/budget-deficit-california/). This is larger than expected just a few months back. One added difficulty is that some of the problem stems from the 2022-23 fiscal year because income tax deadlines were delayed from last April to November for much of the state, and the collections in November for the prior year fell far short of projections. However, the State has more options available to it than the last time there was this magnitude of a problem because of about $24 billion in one-time “rainy-day” funds it could dip into. I see a couple of challenging years ahead for all community colleges in California because of this problem, but we are better poised to handle these years as well with the strong fiscal management that has been in place. Our reserves are large enough to handle a likely option the State will end up doing again: deferrals. Deferrals are when they pay us the following year monies that we spend in the current year. Basically, the State “borrows” temporarily from local entities like us. This has happened during several periods in the past and is likely to happen again. The Governor’s initial budget proposal will be coming out in January, so stay tuned for more information from our leadership team as it becomes available.
OK – that is a somewhat depressing State budget update, but again, we are well prepared for what may come. My final thoughts for you are to echo some of what I wrote in my board report from earlier this week:
… working for the students, staff, and the communities we serve has been the highlight of my career. I will miss being a part of the work directly, but I look forward to watching from afar as a community member as the college continues to do its wonderful work. …
Thank you, everyone, for all you do for our students. Doing the right thing for students has been a mantra of mine over the years - and in my experience it really does work as a guiding star to help make the best decisions possible. I encourage you all to continue to use it as your guiding star as time passes. Thank you once more, my Shasta College family.
Again, I want to thank you once more for your positive, excellent work on behalf of our students and our communities.
Joe Wyse
Superintendent/President
Shasta College
11555 Old Oregon Trail
PO Box 496006
Redding, CA 96049-6006
Ph: 530-242-7510
