Wednesday, Jul. 16, 2008

WC board welcomes new member; discusses budget, bond issues

By Mark Fadden

For Weatherford Telegram

Bob Lee knows a lot about education.

And on July 9, Lee was issued the oath of office by Lin Bearden, Chairman of the Weatherford College Board of Trustees, for Place 5 on the board.

Lee is no stranger to education administration. He is the former superintendent of Millsap ISD, a former principal of Weatherford High School and worked for Weatherford ISD for 17 years.

"We welcome Bob to the board," Bearden said. "His experience in education, his management and leadership skills and financial expertise will be extremely beneficial to us as a board and to the community as a whole as we seek to continually improve Weatherford College and move forward."

Lee replaces Dot Guess, who retired from the board in February, and will fulfill the Place 5 unexpired term.

Discussions then turned to the 2008-09 budget. Andra Cantrell, Vice President of Financial and Administrative Affairs, reported that the cash balance as of May 31 was $19,890,608.69, an increase of $3.5 million from May 2007.

Total revenues collected were $29.7 million, or 92 percent of the budget. Total expenditures are $23.3 million, or 72 percent of the total budget.

It was during Cantrell’s explanations of expenditures that concerns quickly focused on the skyrocketing costs of utilities.

"Our utility costs went up 17 percent this year," Cantrell said. "We are also projecting that they rise another 15 percent next year."

But while the board was concerned about rising utility increases, they also questioned a 32 percent decrease in a staff benefits line item. The decrease was explained by Cantrell as a result from a change in workers’ compensation policy.

"Currently, we pay into a workers’ comp program that features a stop-loss of $180,000," she said. "Since we haven’t had to use that program for several years, we are going to instead set-up a reserve fund for workers’ comp that won’t be part of the annual budget any longer."

Secretary Tom Novak pressed the issue by making sure staff members weren’t seeing a reduction in benefits.

"The take home message is that there’s no decrease in benefits, correct?," Dr. Novak asked.

Cantrell assured Novak and the board that staff would not see any decreases in the benefits they receive. Staff will in fact receive raises, at an average of 3 percent, which will cost the college $400,000.

WC staff also provided the board with examples of a bond election brochure, which will be mailed out to all 42,000 households in Parker County on July 15.

If passed, the bond will pay for various renovations and new construction projects including the construction of three new buildings and two additions.

The total cost of the bond is $130 million. Voters will decide in November if they want to pay for their share of that cost, which stands at $96.3 million.

Besides the mailer, a Web site ( www.wc.edu/bond) has been set up for anyone who wants more information on the bond proposal.

Brent Baker, vice president of institutional advancement, is also fielding calls at 817-598-6275.