By Linh Nguyen and Olivia Payne / Times Staff
Larry Harris / Contributor

Summer classes are at risk of 40 percent cuts. The decision of summer school reduction was discussed at the Board of Trustees meeting on Tuesday, March 13 at Evergreen Valley College.

The most recent projection estimates show the district budget shortfall at approximately $4.3 million. This requires the district to propose rebalancing measures that may include cutting down summer classes. 

Chancellor Rita Cepeda said she could have cut the summer classes down to 80 percent in order to meet her goal.

“Summer is the most expensive term to teach. We provide a full array of support services for a reduced amount of students,” Cepeda said. “It costs $2.2 million to offer summer courses.” 

Cepeda recommended reducing classes by 40 percent because the students need summer classes, and this 40 percent will save the district $879,000.

“These decisions are the budget-driven decision, not the student-driven decision,” said David Yancey, instructor and member of the academic senate, who spoke up against the reduction at the meeting.

“I tried to encourage the trustees to look at that aspect to give students broader chances,” Yancey said. “We can always scale down the summer school if the money we get turns out to be worse than we think it is.”

Yancey said 77 percent of students who attend the summer school are SJCC’s continuing students. Once the students know the college does not offer the courses, they will want to go to other colleges. 

There are some schools offering full summer school, such as Foothill, De Anza, West Valley and Mission College.

“We are the only one in our region that has taken a drastic step that quickly,” Yancey said.

English instructor Jessica Breheny shared her concern with the board about the way decisions are being made about the summer schedule without any faculty input.

“I was very concerned about the short notice for a number of reasons,” Breheny said. “My email and comments to the Board of Trustees outline some of the ways this violates the policies and practices of the college, state law and the accrediting agency’s recommendations.”

Other members of the faculty are concerned about whether the cuts are worth the financial gains in the long term.

“We seem to be so shortsighted of the impact, so if you cancel the summer classes, what’s the effect of that? We save a lot of money, but what about the bigger picture?” said Ronald Levesque, English as a Second Language instructor. 

Students will be affected by the shortage of classes, if they want to follow their graduation plan or make up any class that they did not pass during the spring semester. 

“Class reductions would be really bad for students who plan to transfer out fast,” said Christopher Ducusin, 21, computer engineering major.

Ducusin took Chemistry and Oral Communication in the summers of 2010 and 2011. He said taking these classes during the summer definitely helped him move ahead with his education plan. 

“Students really need those classes. They need them to develop their literacy skills like reading and writing,” said Umu Smythe, 21, nursing major. “Instead of canceling them, they should bring them back for students who need it.”