FY2025 Budget: Related Messages Archive

Good afternoon, Seattle Colleges,

This is the third installment of weekly budget updates, and it is a good time to share the caveat that I strive to get these out on Thursdays. Sometimes I may miss the mark by a day, as in this particular message!

I bring you brief updates from the perspectives of Seattle Colleges Budget Development, Washington State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget developments, and Federal Impacts on our budgets or operations in each email.

Seattle Colleges Budget Development

Point-By-Point Updates

Sometimes I will share narrative context, sometimes I’ll provide bullet points. This is one of those times.

Status Update on our Seattle Colleges Budget

• Proposed reductions from North, Central, South and districtwide departments are being reconciled by Budget Offices with the Salary Control lists for each site
• Salary Control is a list of actual positions to “balance” to ctcLink data– like a checkbook ledger balances to your bank account status.
• Chancellor and Presidents are proposing a furlough strategy to labor partners next week.
• Chancellor and Presidents are reviewing and refining proposed reductions.
• HR is researching and mapping impacts of potential layoff lists shared by the presidents and chancellors. Formal notification will go to unions and individuals mid-May after reductions are finalized.
• The Acting CFO (Solemsaas) and I are preparing for preliminary BOT presentation May 8. Final consideration and BOT vote would take place in June.

Important Note: These times are very susceptible to the rapid spread of rumors. No layoff notices have been made at this time to individuals.

What’s Next

• Presidents and Chancellor to decide on updated District Funding Model, to eliminate unnecessary complexity and increase predictability tied to revenues.
• Awaiting state legislature budget finalization by April 27 with the end of the legislative session.
• This includes decisions around COLA rates and COLA funding levels (hopefully 100% funded), state mandated furlough decisions (which we oppose being mandated statewide), general allocation cuts (which we also strongly oppose).
• AFT & AFT-SPS Contract Negotiations (awaiting final fiscal impact)

State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget

Though tuition is an important component of funds that we use to operate the Seattle Colleges, the state budget allocation comprises approximately 70% of our funding. This makes us very sensitive to the conditions of our statewide budget that legislators are currently grappling with.

At this point, it looks highly likely that the legislature will reduce our community college budgets, and our advocacy with them is focused on reducing the amount as much as possible. While some of the items we were concerned about last week are no longer a likely concern, there is one that is expected: The “OFM Error” of $28M overpayment for the system would be removed, resulting in a $3.3M reduction for the Seattle Colleges.

We are accounting for this in our reduction plans at this point.

Federal Impacts

📌Reminder the next Community and Student Debriefings, or “Federal Friday” will be held on Friday, April 25th. Details will come to your email and Outlook.

At this point there are no federal fiscal impacts to the Seattle Colleges, but we are impacted by international student visa revocations. You are hearing about this happening at UW, and other universities nationally. And it has also hit us at home, unfortunately.

Our Seattle Colleges International Programs team has been working with five impacted students regarding visa revocations and status terminations for some F-1 international students.

We are in the final phase of creating a procedure for responding to F-1 Visa revocations and terminations. More will be shared with the community when this information is ready. This is a rapidly evolving situation, and we are working with SBCTC, the Attorney General’s Office and federal legislator offices, all of whom are seeking to support our Washington students at this time.

Thank you again for reading the entirety of this message. These are only a few of the things we are working on or tracking, but please know that there is so much more work being done across different areas of our organization in support of building a balanced budget and preparing for reductions to get us there.

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap
Chancellor
Seattle Colleges

Good afternoon, Seattle Colleges colleagues,  

This is the second installment of “Thursday Budget Updates.” For those that would like to see it, my first email in this series was sent to your inboxes the evening of April 3rd.  

As I shared before, because we are experiencing a multitude of realized or potential impacts, I will aspire to be brief in sharing items from the perspectives of Seattle Colleges Budget Development, Washington State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget developments, and Federal Impacts on our budgets or operations in each email.  

It is my goal that these Thursday emails will serve to affirm or complement what you are already hearing about at the college campuses, add further clarity to our communications and decision-making, and also keep you informed of impacts as they are happening. It’s a tall order for an email, but I am up for the challenge. These will be in addition to other engagement opportunities such as town halls, conversations and other updates.  
 

Seattle Colleges Budget Development

The Board’s authority in ensuring our budget is balanced

Today is a Board of Trustees meeting at Seattle Central. Trustees play a critical role in ensuring the Seattle Colleges district performs effectively and responsibly for our community and our students. While they do not directly oversee day-to-day operations, two of their primary responsibilities are in ensuring fiduciary responsibility for maintaining a balanced budget (and handling taxpayer funds and other revenues), and in ensuring the policies that govern our colleges are effective.  

The budget-related items that will be presented in today’s BOT meeting are:

• 2nd read and recommended adoption of the 2025-2026 fee schedule (action item)
• Winter quarter Budget vs. Actual report on FY2025 budget (information item)
• An update on Seattle Colleges salary increases—a requested revisit to a 2023 presentation (report item)  
   

“Layoffs Last” Approach to Reductions

Though the work to identify reductions has been happening locally thus far at North, Central, South and on districtwide budgets, we have been consistently focused on reductions that consider layoffs as a last resort. These are the priorities we are utilizing:  

1st: Eliminate or reduce spending on goods and activities (e.g. travel, non-essential materials and contracts, etc.)  
2nd: Eliminate vacant positions to avoid layoff of permanent employees  
3rd: Save on salaries, but retain people through furloughs  
4th: Layoffs as a last resort  
 

What’s next

As I shared last week as well, we continue to work on FY2026 budget development and reductions in preparation for a May BOT “first read” of the budget. There are a number of engagement sessions planned for April as we narrow our work toward that deadline:

• Thursday, 4/10 North Budget Townhall
• Tuesday, 4/15 Siegal/Districtwide Budget Townhall
• Wednesday, 4/23 Central Townhall
• Tuesday, 4/29 Chancellor’s Seattle Colleges Budget Townhall
• Tuesday, 5/6 South Townhall  
   

State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget

Though tuition is an important component of funds that we use to operate the Seattle Colleges, the state budget allocation comprises approximately 70% of our funding. This makes us very sensitive to the conditions of our statewide budget that legislators are currently grappling with.

As I shared last week, the Senate and the House have proposed their own budgets, and now they must work together to develop a unified budget that they will each vote to adopt by April 27, the proposed end of the session.

Proposed Cuts to the SBCTC system:

Note, these are statewide figures for the biennium (2 years) and are not specific to Seattle Colleges.

* The chart is simplified and only shows reductions.  
** Senate and House approve mandating a COLA, but the House does not propose to fund it completely  
***Senate would cut our operating budget further, but allow us to raise tuition further to make up the difference  
 

So, what is our message to legislators?

• Do not take back the OFM error, it has been used to fund underfunded operations
• Do not mandate statewide furloughs (and cut our budgets by that amount)
• Fully fund compensation, don’t underfund the COLAs
• Do not extend operational budget cuts to community and technical colleges

Fun fact: For anyone affiliated with the 36th Legislative District, Reps. Berry and Reed are hosting a Coffee Chat this Sunday, 4/13! Rep. Reed has been a strong advocate for the colleges, including our Maritime program at Central.  

You can also keep up on legislative developments and impact on the CTC system here: SBCTC Legislative News

Federal Impacts

Come to “Federal Fridays” to learn and connect around understanding any potential or real impacts of federal actions on the Seattle Colleges and our students. The next one is tomorrow, 4/11. Look for an email and a calendar invite to join virtually.

What if federal funds are cut?

A major question we face as an organization with $25 million in federal grants is: What happens if federal funds are eliminated? While there is a lot that we don’t know for sure, I did want to clarify who would be a part of decision-making. While D’Andre Fisher and Dr. Cedric Howard are the ones who are tasked with convening the Federal Issues team and sessions, any budgetary or personnel decisions are squarely the purview of the Presidents or me as the Chancellor (in the case of districtwide federal grants).

The Federal Friday gatherings and the Federal Issues team are our organizational response to the plethora of mandates and uncertainties occurring nationally at this time.

How are we tracking impacts?

Your local grant directors are in constant contact with the Finance office on federal funding drawdowns (the withdrawal from the feds of our funding), and both are in constant contact with leadership around potential impacts. Everything from staffing changes in federal department offices to actual funding impacts (which haven’t yet occurred) are shared quickly, and I am communicating them to our state Attorney General office at their request as well.  

In today’s BOT meeting, the trustees have also asked for a Study Session on our Federal Grants, and several of the subject matter experts from the colleges will be part of the presentation and discussion today.  


And finally…

THANK YOU once again for reading to the end of this long email. I continue to struggle with brevity, but I also know there is so much to share and make available to you all. I continue to prioritize communication in these rapidly changing times.  
 

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap  
Chancellor  
Seattle Colleges

Good evening, Seattle Colleges colleagues,

With this email, I am launching a regular budget update to our Seattle Colleges employee community to provide ongoing and developing content and context for the budgetary changes we are facing.

Because we are experiencing a multitude of impacts, I will share (usually) brief items from the perspectives of Seattle Colleges Budget Development, Washington State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget developments, and Federal Impacts on our budgets or operations.

Major change in any one of these three areas would be enough to complicate our work in any given year but unfortunately challenges in all three of these areas are converging on us in this moment. I acknowledge that it is difficult to stay on top of the cascade of information from the federal and state level developments, as well as on top of the most current information about our own budget challenges across the Seattle Colleges district.  

It is my goal that these Thursday emails will serve to affirm or complement what you are already hearing about at the college campuses, add further clarity to our communications and decision-making, and also keep you informed of impacts as they are happening. It’s a tall order for an email, but I am up for the challenge. These will be in addition to other engagement opportunities such as town halls, conversations and other updates.

Seattle Colleges Budget Development

Status Update

At this moment, each of the colleges and the districtwide unit is developing budget reductions for Fiscal Year 20206 (FY26) to meet reduction targets specified for each area. Each of the college presidents is leading engagement work with their North, Central and South communities, and I will be doing the same with the Siegal/districtwide departments employee group. Each of us has identified preliminary reduction plans that are being continually evolved before final decisions are made.

Did you know that the Seattle Colleges website has a budget section? You can find background information posted here, as well as information and materials that are specific to the current fiscal year, which is Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25). The website will continue to be updated moving forward, so check back often for more information. A Fiscal Year 2026 page will soon be available.
 

President & Chancellor Furloughs

A “furlough” is a planned suspension of work for employees to reduce salary costs for a temporary period. In order to create further savings on the FY25 budget (our current fiscal year), the college presidents and I have begun taking one furlough day each month. We will not be instituting any furloughs with any other employees in this fiscal year which ends June 30,2025.  

This of course begs the question: will furloughs be included for the FY26 budget? The answer: the presidents and I are monitoring whether the State Legislature will implement furloughs. We will not know this until they conclude their session on April 27. At the same time, we are evaluating financial models that inform what cost savings we would achieve if we opted to institute our own furloughs. A decision has not been made yet on FY26 furloughs, and if we choose to proceed, we will fulfill our obligations to our labor partners prior to implementation.

An important distinction on furloughs:

• State legislature mandated furlough = a cut to our allocation from the state
• Seattle Colleges-implemented furlough = operating budget savings
   

Approval process for the Seattle Colleges FY26 budget development are as follows:

• mid-April: budget plans are considered and prepared for presentation to the BOT
• April 29: All-district Forum on the FY2026 Seattle Colleges Proposed Budget
• May 8: Board of Trustees “first read” of proposed budget at board meeting
• June 12: Board of Trustees “second read” of budget for adoption

In addition to these dates, there are several other engagements and checkpoints in between these key dates that will take place at the colleges and district office.
 

State Legislature 25-27 Biennial Budget

Presidents Brown, Recasner and Solemsaas and I have been active in Olympia since January meeting with our Seattle delegation of state legislators advocating for adequate funding for our statewide college system. Our colleges have also been supported and represented by our colleagues in AFT, WFSE, and our student leaders as well. We share two common goals: 

1. to prevent any reductions to our state allocation in light of the statewide revenue shortfall, and 
2. to strengthen compensation of all employees in the face of rapid inflation and cost of living.

As in past years, the budget development process is as follows in brief:

• December 2024: Governor releases their budget plan, Inslee announced his and Ferguson largely followed his lead
• March 25th: The Senate and the House released each of their proposed budgets
• April: the budget writers work to create the combined “conference budget” that both houses will vote to adopt by the end of the session, scheduled for April 27th

Right now, we are advocating our legislators STRONGLY for the following:

• Do not “take back” the “OFM Error” in the current fiscal year, which amounts to $3.3M for Seattle Colleges
• Do not cut the CTC system $28M of the “OFM error” in the 25-27 Biennium
• Do not mandate furloughs statewide (this is a budget cut to us)
• Fully fund the general wage increase and do not force the college to cut budgets to afford it (note: general wage increase is often referred to as a COLA)

You can also keep up on legislative developments and impact on the CTC system here: SBCTC Legislative News.
 

Federal Impacts

There continues to be a barrage of news stories, announcements and alerts from various outlets about the many federal changes being enacted by the current presidential administration. Any federal cuts, reorganizations or eliminations called for by Executive Order will likely have impacts on our colleges, since we deploy $18M in federal student aid $25M in federal grants such as TRiO, AANAPISI, NSF, etc.

On a weekly basis, we are discussing federal impacts in a weekly meeting with statewide presidents and SBCTC staff and are consulting with or hearing from the Attorney General’s office weekly around federal actions as well. Because of the constant flow of decisions and announcements, it has not been feasible to communicate potential impacts to our college and districtwide communities in response to each new development.

Thanks to Dr. Cedric Howard and D’Andre Fisher, so many of you have engaged in important weekly resources to keep up to date on what is happening. “Federal Friday” gatherings have been occurring regularly. Look for them on your Outlook calendars as invites. The Federal Changes Task Force gathers our colleagues from the colleges and districtwide departments who work directly in areas that must navigate these changes and make any necessary recommendations for action. And Federal Friday Debriefs have been attracting hundreds of students, faculty and staff to hear updates and address questions as they relate to our communities.

These debriefs are open to all of us, so please join them if you are interested and able.

Should federal changes start to have direct impacts on our Seattle Colleges communities, I will continue to share them here.

And finally...

THANK YOU for reading to the end of this long email. Future updates will be shorter, since the first one always needs more exposition and context.  There is a lot happening these days, and I am committed to prioritizing communication in these rapidly changing times.

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap
Chancellor
Seattle Colleges

Dear Seattle Colleges colleagues,

This email is an important update on the current (Fiscal Year 2025) budget challenges that have been unfolding since September 2024. Effective Thursday, January 16, 2025, Seattle Colleges, following the direction given by the Governor Jay Inslee, is implementing a spending freeze on:

• Travel
• Hiring and other personnel expenses
• Non-essential purchases and contracts

The freeze on spending is focused on generating monetary savings in state allocated budgets. The budget prefixes (and related numbers) for these funds include:

• 001 and 101 (State Allocation)
• 149 (State Tuition)
• 146 for Running Start and International revenues

The freeze does not apply to (100%) self-support or revenue-backed budgets. These fund types are independent from, and are not impacted by, reductions in the state allocation. This includes but is not limited to the following budgets (and prefixes):

• Private or federal grants (146 or 148)
• Auxiliary services (520)
• Student activity fees (522)
• Lab fees (148)
• Allocated capital funding (147)

Mid-year budget constraints are unusual. However, they do occur when fiscal realities make them necessary. Our strategy is to focus on state allocation savings and remain conscious of minimizing impact on program and operational effectiveness.

This message serves as an announcement of the spending restrictions. For complete guidelines (and any applicable exceptions), please review the attached “Seattle Colleges Spending Freeze Guidelines.” Contacts for questions are also included in this document.

We are currently building the FY2025 Budget Website, and more details and updates will be available there on an ongoing basis, including this attached guideline document.

Thank you for your engagement in our fiscal health, and I look forward to your continuing engagement moving forward.

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap
Chancellor
Seattle Colleges

Good afternoon, Seattle Colleges colleagues,

I hope to see as many of you as possible in this afternoon’s districtwide Chancellor’s Town Hall (Outlook invite has been sent separately to your calendars). The Zoom link is repeated below.

There is A LOT happening right now, so I want to share the topics I will be covering today:

• Leadership Updates
• Our developing budget environment (what is happening around us)
• Districtwide budget implications (what impact we are preparing for)
• Upcoming Events

Hope to see you there on Zoom:

• Topic: Fall Chancellor Townhall (All District)
• Time: Dec. 5, 2024 03:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
  Join Zoom Meeting
  https://zoom.us/j/95787833780 
  Meeting ID: 957 8783 3780

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap
Chancellor
Seattle Colleges
 

Good afternoon, Seattle Colleges community:

Many of you may have seen this Seattle Times article detailing the forecasted major revenue shortfall for the state. This $10 billion estimate--and the governor's call for state agency cuts--is new information since our Board of Trustees meeting last Thursday November 9th.  Together with the presidents and finance leaders we are actively discussing how we may need to respond in this evolving statewide financial environment.

It is important to note that while the Seattle Colleges—and all community and technical colleges across the state—are state agencies; we are individually board-governed and not subject to the governor's mandate detailed in the article. It is also important to note that approximately 70% of our operating funding is allocated by the state legislature from the revenues described in the article. The statewide group of presidents is also now discussing and preparing for these impacts.

We remain committed to prioritizing student success and student needs as our mission clearly states, while also attending to the college operations including the need for a supported community of professionals who serve our students. At the same time, we will be working assertively with our legislative representatives to protect the funding of the colleges at the source.

You can expect more updates and communications from me and the college presidents as we continue to navigate these state-level issues as they continue to develop.

Thank you,

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap 
Chancellor 
Seattle Colleges 
 

Note: this message is included here because it contains the announcement of Dr. Rachel Solemsaas being named Acting Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations.

Good afternoon, Seattle Colleges,

For the past several years, college presidents have been asked to serve as vice chancellors. As such, they’ve either led district-wide efforts or helped accomplish a unique or specific goal. (For example, as president of South, I also served as the vice chancellor of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI) prior to EDI becoming a districtwide and standalone division. Presidents have also been assigned VC roles based on major functional areas, or on specific focus assignments such as external relations.)

As the needs and the focus of the district have evolved over the years, so has the approach in assigning VC duties to presidents.

Today, I’m writing to share how I have assigned VC responsibilities with our new cadre of presidents.

My goal in the current assignments is twofold:

1. To empower our team of presidents as executive leads/sponsors for districtwide initiatives and improvement work that have impact districtwide, and
2. To leverage the expertise and particular sets of skills that each of our presidents bring from their career backgrounds.   
    

Following are the new VC assignments:

Dr. Rachel Solemsaas: President at North and Vice Chancellor of Finance (acting)

Considering the recent departure of Julienne DeGeyter as Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations (VCFO), I am pleased to have an experienced CFO among the president group. Until we rehire the VCFO position, Dr. Rachel Solemsaas will provide leadership to the districtwide Finance and Operations teams. She has many years of experience as a community college CFO/VP of Finance/Administrative Services.  I will reassess her Vice Chancellor assignment as we move toward finalizing leadership in the VCFO position. Learn more about Dr. Rachel's background.

Dr. Bradley Lane, Vice Chancellor for Institutional Effectiveness and Instruction

Dr. Lane has already been leading as VC of IE through our current strategic planning process. As the intensity of that development process shifts over to implementation and monitoring (following the anticipated BOT approval of the plan in December), he is taking on the executive sponsorship of district-wide Instructional efforts and regular VPI convening. Learn more about Dr. Bradley's background.

Dr. Monica Brown: President at South and Vice Chancellor of Student Services

Dr. Brown comes to us with 20+ years of experience in Student Affairs both in community college and at the university level. She will be stepping in as the executive sponsor of any district-wide Student Services efforts and will convene the VPSS group regularly as well. Learn more about Dr. Monica's background.

These assignments are in place effective immediately and will be reassessed periodically in the future as the work and organization needs evolve.

Thank you all for your work in service to our students. I am excited for the leadership our college presidents will also bring to our collective work across the district.

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap 
Chancellor 
Seattle Colleges

Dear Colleagues,

I want to inform you of an important development affecting all community and technical colleges in our statewide system.

The State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) notified all college presidents and chancellors of an error by the Office of Financial Management (OFM), the state agency that distributes legislated allocations from the state to all of our colleges.

While the Seattle Colleges “portion” of this error is approximately $2.7M, overall, OFM allocated the SBCTC an extra $28M. OFM is now directing SBCTC to reduce the system allocation.

The college presidents and I are working with our fellow presidents and chancellors across the state to explore and advocate for legislative solutions and will continue this work throughout the upcoming legislative session.

Our shared priority is to protect community and technical colleges — including Seattle Colleges — from the financial impacts of this error. While we can’t predict at this moment how our district would respond in a worst-case scenario, we do know that we will do everything possible to lessen the impact on our students and employees.

I will keep you updated as we gain more clarity on the situation.

Thank you,

Dr. Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap 
Chancellor 
Seattle Colleges