FY2025 Budget: Related Messages Archive

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, 2024, 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