LINN, Mo. - The State Technical College of Missouri expects to take in, and spend, almost $80,000 more in the 2015-16 business year than in the current one that ends Tuesday.
The five-member Board of Regents approved an $18,200,476 spending plan Friday that's based on a slight increase in state funding but the same tuition income as the current year, Chief Financial Officer Jenny Jacobs explained.
Board President John Klebba said, "This is the biggest increase we've had in some time, a long time."
The budget includes a 2 percent salary increase for faculty and staff, a 7 percent increase in health insurance benefits and a 4 percent climb in utility expenses.
"We really needed to give our staff a raise - a 2 percent raise is pretty moderate," Klebba said after Friday's board meeting. "And other costs are going up - you saw the 7 percent on our health insurance and 4 percent on our utilities.
"There's nothing going down - It's all going up."
The school is also opening an Advanced Manufacturers Technology program in cooperation with Toyota and the St. Charles Community College, which is expected to spend almost $1.084 million - but also is getting a $1 million extra appropriation from the General Assembly.
"This year, we had a good year with the General Assembly," Claycomb said. "We met all of our benchmarks that fit in with merit funding, and also received some equalization funding (and) put that all into salaries."
Tuition is increasing $1.75 per credit hour for in-state students, and $3.50 per hour for out-of-state students.
While that seems a small amount, Jacobs reminded the regents "we are restricted to what we can raise tuition by" under state law. The change means State Tech students will pay $159.75 per credit hour, starting this fall, or $319.50 an hour if they're coming from another state.
Jacobs said the school's tuition is higher than Missouri's community colleges, which are also two-year schools.
State Tech President Donald Claycomb reminded the board, "We're mandated by law to have tuition and fees comparable to the (state's) four-year public schools," in the state law that created State Tech as a statewide technical college.
"I think we're ahead of about two or three of those, as far as our cost is concerned," Claycomb added, "so we're in the ballpark as far as the law is concerned."
For years, State Technical College - which was Linn State Technical College until a year ago - enjoyed healthy enrollment growth.
However, school officials think that's leveling off, at least for much of the next decade.
"We also know that the demographics are such that the high school classes have peaked, and are starting to go down," Klebba said. "The reality is, the pie of potential students is not getting bigger - it's shrinking, slightly."
Claycomb added an improving economy is hurting, rather than helping, the school's enrollment.
"In technical education, when the economy gets better, we have fewer people who are wanting to come to school in order to get better-prepared for the job market," he explained.
A number of years ago, he said, he did a study on the school's class sizes that "found that in about four out of five years, going back in history, the enrollment followed the unemployment rate. In those years when the unemployment rate was high, enrollment was high.
"When the unemployment was low, then our enrollment suffered more."
He said he had not "checked this recently," but saw no reason to think it isn't still true.
Also going up is Claycomb's salary, from $188,500 to $200,000 for his final year as State Tech's chief executive.
He has been in education for 50 years, and the school's president since 1993.
The board heard a presentation from a Springfield, Illinois, company seeking to head State Tech's search for Claycomb's successor - and plans to meet next month with representatives of two other companies who want that job, but had scheduling conflicts with Friday's meeting.
"None of us having been through this before," Klebba said, "we just feel like we need to be a little more educated and, in order to do that, we need to talk with one or two others."
With Claycomb's retirement coming June 30 next year, Klebba said, "We feel like we're at least six months ahead - which is better than being behind the 8-ball."