Pirate Cove Academy closed by ICC trustees in budget-cutting move
BY ANDY TAYLOR
INDEPENDENCE — The director of the Inge Center for the Arts at Independence Community College cried foul Tuesday concerning a proposed 53 percent cut in the center’s budget for 2009-10.
Peter Ellenstein, center director, said the proposed 53 percent cut in the center’s budget ($321,683 in the 2008-09 budget to $150,000 in the college’s proposed 2009-10 budget) was far different than what he was anticipating. In telling the trustees about a budget preparation meeting with ICC finance director Jan Fischer in May, Ellenstein said he was led to believe that the center’s budget would be reduced to about $310,000, which would only be about a 3 or 4 percent cut.
That anticipated budget cut could be absorbed, Ellenstein said. But, he said he was unaware that the proposed budget was reduced to 53 percent until Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the trustees were set to discuss the college’s proposed budget plan for 2009-10.
“This is wildly different than what I was told,” Ellenstein said of the proposed cut to the center’s budget.
Trustee chairman Norman Chambers said the trustees assumed Ellenstein was part of the preparation of the center’s budget when the trustees were presented with their first set of budget plans at a workshop on Monday night.
“I assume you were in it,” Chambers said to Ellenstein.
Ellenstein then shook his head no.
“Then that, in my view, is not a good way to view it,” Chambers said about the budget-preparation process. “You have to bring the players into the picture to make it work. If these folks are not involved in the process, then something is wrong.”
Ellenstein said the Inge center has seen a remarkable reduction in budgetary spending since the 2005-06 budget year, when the center operated with a $391,000 budget. The center has consistently been required to reduce expenses each year since then, which has translated into a loss of quality to the programs it offers to the college and public.
With the proposed budget set at $150,000, Ellenstein said the center’s discretionary spending would be limited to about $13,000, which, he said, “would make it impossible for the center to offer the vast number of programs that have made it so successful.”
He said the Inge center, which sponsors the annual William Inge Theatre Festival, was the “single, flagship program that makes ICC uniquely different from any other program on the campus.”
“It’s the only program that generates national press for this college,” he said, adding that the festival bolsters the local economy with money spent in local hotels, restaurants, convenience store, attractions and retail stores.
Ellenstein expanded his concerns to include proposed reductions in other fine arts and humanities programs at ICC. He said budgetary figures show a disproportionate volume of spending between athletic programs and fine arts/humanities programs.
In presenting budget figures from the 2003-04 budget year to the present, Ellenstein said the athletic department administration costs have increased by 25 percent over the past seven years (football program costs alone have increased by 41 percent over seven years, he said). Meanwhile, fine arts programs have taken a 6 percent hit during that same period.
He said it was unfair for fine arts programs to take the “disproportionate” volume of budget cuts in an effort to bolster the college’s athletic program.
The discussion of the college’s current budget situation also was highlighted with the trustees’ unanimous decision to close the Pirate Cove Academy, which is a daycare center centered at the academy. The closure will be effective July 15.
Dr. Daniel Bain, ICC president, also told the board about unanticipated costs in the college’s current 2008-09 budget year, which will end on June 30. He said the college can expect to see between $180,000 and $190,000 in unanticipated expenses or lost revenue, including $66,000 in architectural renderings for the ICC West Campus facility and $98,000 in money that the college is required to pay back to the State of Kansas. State lawmakers earlier this year required all community colleges to pay back a portion of their general operating grant that the state uses to finance programs and service at the community college level.
In other business transacted at Tuesday’s trustee meeting, trustees:
• agreed to offer the children of full-time ICC employees, their spouses and dependent children free tuition and fees, except for special fees required in various classes where additional supplies are necessary. Providing the free tuition to ICC employee children and spouses is used as an additional benefit to the ICC faculty, said Dr. Bain.
• delayed a decision until July for the contract renewal of Dr. Daniel Bain, ICC president.
• unanimously approved the hiring of Max VanLaningham as dean of student services for the 2009-10 school year. The trustees also voted 5-1 to renew the contract of Peggy Forsberg as ICC’s dean of instruction. Trustee Jay Jones cast the lone dissenting vote.
• voted 5-1 to charge a $10 per credit hour rental fee for certain required textbooks. The textbook rental fee will be used in lieu of students paying for the purchase of some required textbooks. Trustee Jay Jones cast the lone dissenting vote.
• approved a contract with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks to allow for public fishing access to the pond on the ICC campus. KDWP will stock the pond and providing $1,030 annually for maintenance around the pond for public fishing access for five years.
• approved payment of $10,773 to Crossroads Travel for bus transportation to 2009-10 athletic events.
• awarded a bid of $43,500 to Wren Asphalt Paving of Copan, Okla., for demolition of 20,000 square feet of parking lot area on the ICC campus and replacement with new asphalt.
