Campus wifi complaints, understaffing at Mountain House and a presentation on Fierce Mustang Media were all on the agenda of a Sept. 10 meeting of the Delta Board of Trustees. The vast majority of the meeting, however, was dominated by a discussion and vote on the college’s adopted 2024-2025 budget.
Vice President of Administrative Services Augustine Chavez gave an updated presentation on Delta’s budget that summarizes the district’s funds, expenditures, cost of living adjustments (COLA) and deficits.
“The bookstore and food services funds are running annual deficits,” said Chavez. “And we will be looking at what we can do to improve the physical operation.”
According to the budget report, the bookstore made $2,587,833 of revenue in 2023-2024. With the costs of operations, the expenditures come out to $3,272,060. Where revenue resulted in $684,227 loss.
In the same report, food services total revenue made $322,436. The cost of operations netted $445,292 with expenditures. The department lost $122,854 in revenue.
President of the Board Dr. Charles Jennings, who was not physically present but attended on the Zoom call, questioned the presentation of the budget and the availability of documents to the public.
“I was provided a recreated detailed budget, and I’m wondering, if the rest of the trustees have an opportunity to see that,” said Dr. Jennings. “And secondly, could that detailed PDF be included in the board minutes as part of the approved budget document.”
“No. We haven’t published the detailed budget it isn’t included in the budget process,” Chavez responded.
The meeting had physical copies of the adopted budget reports, however, the detailed budget was not included in the handouts or the meeting agenda.
Director of Marketing and Communications, Alex Breitler, clarified the confusion.
“Trustee Jennings requested that the board be provided with that level of detail (that snapshot) in the board agenda. What was clarified was that the detailed version had been posted on the website. However, it was not included in the board agenda. VP Chavez will ensure it is included in the adopted budget item in the future at the Board’s request,” said Breitler.
