BMCC budget will lay off five
By Terry Murry on Monday, June 6th, 2022 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
PENDLETON – The Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education has adopted a budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year. Originally, the proposed budget called for 10 retrenchments or layoffs as the college faces declining enrollment. That number has been trimmed to five.
The layoffs are for one position each in the music, criminal justice, English, science, and business administration departments. The board has directed the BMCC administration to work with the Blue Mountain Community College Faculty Association to implement those layoffs.
“The budget includes a 10 percent variance in any of those five areas,” President Mark Browning said. “If we can generate funding to save positions, we want to do that.”
Browning said the board hopes to generate that funding before the start of the fall semester.
“I’m relieved we were able to reduce them from 10 to five,” Browning said.
The Umatilla County Board of Commissioners has begun a discussion to consider using at least a portion of its second installment of American Recovery Act Plan funds to BMCC, since one of the stipulations for the funding of more than $7 million is workforce development. That discussion began before the funds had been received. One county official reported today that the money came recently.
