December 5, 2023

RAPP - 12/5/24 Meeting

Attendees:

Raquel Puentes-Griffith shared on the District budget and 50% law. 

Unrestricted fund includes Fund 14 expenditures. Instructional and non instructional salaries, benefits supplies and other operating expenses are the categories that go into the 50% law.  

The first category (Activity ECSA) is the numerator which includes instructional salary cost. The second column (Activity ECSB) is the denominator is everything in the numerator and everything else. The third column (Activity ECSX) are the excluded activities that are more community or economic development related activities.  

Tim asked, within salaries, is reassigned time excluded. Raquel confirmed it is only in-class instruction. Growth awards are included if they are part of the base salary of an instructor.  

Additional exclusions include retiree benefits on instruction and non instruction, rents and leases, and anything charged to lottery sources, these get omitted from the denominator.  

The results page totals the exclusions from the numerator and denominator. After all exclusions the numerator and denominator get us to the percent of CEE (Instructional salary cost/Total CEE) we are currently at 50.83%. 

Erick asked about noninstructional faculty and where they fall into the calculation. Raquel said that if they are teaching, they will be in the instructional category in the numerator, if they are not teaching, they will be non-instructional and in the denominator.  

Tina asked if we are able to get a percent for our campus and Raquel indicated the percent is is based on the dollar amount of the salaries. Since this is a districtwide calculation across fund types, and central services costs, so it is almost impossible to calculate a rate for a college rather than at the district.  

Raquel mentioned that there is some fine-tuning that can take place to remove items from the denominator like chancellor’s salary when they are working in the community or economic development items. Some district do this but we do not yet, but we are getting close.  The district is closely monitoring the 50% law.

Mallory asked if the district looks at the proportion of each positions’ salary and benefits as a proportion of the denominator and how much a particular position is contributing to the denominator in comparison to other positions when we are looking to hire new positions. Raquel indicated that was not monitored but they have asked leadership to track their schedules so they can exclude community work. Exemptions are coming from non-basic aid district.  

Tim asked why we play the calculation so close to the line. Rqual indicated that we as a district have not enlisted the many exclusions. We fall within the range of other colleges. Tim asked where legal expenses fall, Raquel said that the expenses can be moved over for a large settlement outside of Fund 14.  

Tina asked where we have been historically, Raquel indicated that 52.02% was the highest we have been in the last few years. It was 50.83% in 2022-23, 50.57%. 

The presentation is posted to the RAPP website for more details.

The committee then continued to work on reconciliations.