To vote on final budget during May 26 meeting
The Yavapai College District Governing Board unanimously voted to approve the preliminary budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
The board will vote to approve the budget during its meeting in Prescott on Tuesday, May 26.
The Clarkdale campus is planned to have $260,000 in maintenance for filling sidewalk and flooring cracks and paint for interior and exterior walls.
When District 3 Representative Toby Payne pointed out the discrepancy of a $7 million maintenance budget for the Prescott campus and a $300,000 budget for the Verde Valley campus, Yavapai College Chief Operating Officer Clint Ewell, Ph.D., said it had worked with a consultant, California-based Gordian, to come up with a plan for all its facilities over the next decade.
The consultant went through each building and gave it a score on its shape and what maintenance and repairs need to be done for the college.
“The projection over thenext 10 years [for Prescott] is $25 million of repairs,” Ewell said. “For the Verde Valley campus, because of some of the work we’ve already done, we only are projecting $5 million. So it is going to balance out over time.”
The Clarkdale campus is also planned for $300,000 worth of marquees and campus signage, which were already approved in previous budgets, but have yet to be completed.
The Sedona Center has nothing built into the capital budget until the 2027-2028 fiscal year, when it is planned to receive $265,100 for acoustical and technical upgrades.
Other projects the college has planned are a $1,292,000 project for Building 3 of the Prescott Student Union and a $1,084,900 project to convert from residential HVAC to commercial HVAC.
“We will continue to keep residential HVAC at the Verde campus,” Ewell said. “But we would also, at the request of several businesses and towns within our community, be adding commercial HVAC to our portfolio of programs.”
Funding
The college has a Fund Balance, which is essentially what it has in savings, Ewell said.
“At this point, we’re anticipating [a total Fund Balance] of $41 million,” he said. “That’s well above what the board has required in terms of fund reserves.”
In Fiscal Year 2024-25, the budget included about $17.4 million from this reserve, in the current year’s budget, there’s a planned $16.8 million included and the preliminary budget for next year drops to $6.8 million.
While the budget’s revenue for the preliminary budget is $113.5 million, 5.7% below what it was last year, the revenue discounting the Fund Balance is up 3%, at $106.7 million.
This includes a 6% increase in the general fund, which is the operating budget, a 4.6% increase in the auxiliary fund, which includes related to the “core mission,” Ewell said, like the book store and residence halls, and a 4.2% increase in the debt fund.
The budget saw decreases in the restricted fund — 14.4%, which is made up of things with strings attached, like grant money that needs to be used in a certain way, and a 37.3% drop in the plant fund, the money used for capital expenses.
The highest expenses inthe budget are salaries and benefits, which includes a 3% raise for eligible employees, at $65,857,200, followed by the supplies at $19,326,800 and capital projects and equipment at $14,761,000.
While the tax levy did not increase for the following year, tuition is being raised 3%, and the college received 3% more money from increased student credit hours.
The only unexpected expenses raised from the budget assumptions the board was presented with in the fall were for utilities and health care expenses, which Ewell is now predicting 6% to 8% cost in utilities, up from a 2% assumption, and a 19% rise in health care costs for college employees.
Board Budget
The board previously discussed its own budget and its expenditures on legal counsel specifically.
“The board requested itemized invoices from our legal counsel at the last meeting and we were told that we would be provided those by this meeting and to date I haven’t received them,” District 1 Representative William Kiel said.
The invoices in question were with Osborne and Maledon, the board’s previous attorney’s law office.
The attorney’s office is reviewing them for release to the board, President Lisa Rhine, Ph.D., said.
“If they aren’t employed by the college, how are we going to get them?” Kiel asked.
The board moved on and no one answered.
The board temporarily approved a new board attorney, Jon Paladini, during its special meeting on May 6.
Former Board Chairwoman Deb McCasland, District 2 representative, unilaterally fired the board last month without notifying the board. She was voted out of the chair post at the next board meeting.
