A point of contention in the negotiations for a new California School Employees Association agreement has been Citrus’ reserve fund.
The California Community College Chancellor’s Office said a reserve is funds a college sets aside for “an unanticipated decline in revenue or an increase in expenditures.”
Cathy Day, a classified employee who has been working at Citrus for the past 24 years, said in an interview with the Clarion she didn’t understand how Citrus’ reserve fund could stay so large while her salary has seen such little growth.
“Do we want to have a healthy reserve? Oh, by all means,” Day said. “ … But it gets to a point where if the pig gets any fatter, it’s gonna pop.”
Claudette Dain, Citrus’ vice president of finance and administrative services, said in an email the total unrestricted expenditures includes the expenses in the unrestricted general fund.
This includes annual salaries, benefits, supplies and materials, other operating expenses and services, capital outlay and other outgo, Dain said.
Regional Comparison
The Clarion looked at the four colleges within 20 miles of Citrus’ campus to compare their reserve percentage with Citrus’.
The reserve percentage is calculated by dividing each community college’s district reserve fund balance by its total unrestricted expenditures.
The community colleges within 20 miles of Citrus include Mt. San Antonio College, Pasadena City College, Chaffey College and Rio Hondo College.
The Clarion found that Rio Hondo College has a significantly larger reserve percentage than other surrounding community colleges. Citrus comes in second with a 16.4% difference between the two schools’ 2023-24 projected reserve percentages.
Linked below are the quarterly financial status reports for the 2023 fiscal year for each college’s respective district.
Size Comparison
The Clarion also used data from the Chancellor’s Office to find the six California community colleges closest in size to Citrus and then compared their reserve percentages.
Rather than working with population based on headcount, the Clarion’s analysis decided to use the number of full-time equivalent students in fall 2023 for each campus respectively.
The Chancellor’s Office said, “A ‘full-time equivalent student’ is an enrolled student who attends 15 hours each week during the semester (or a group of students who, together, attend 15 hours each week).”
The definition is used for funding calculations from the state and is not used for any other purposes, such as financial aid.
The six colleges closest in size to Citrus by the fall 2023 FTES count are LA City College, Grossmont College, Allan Hancock College, San Diego City College, Chabot College and College of the Desert.
In that analysis, the Clarion found that Citrus has the largest reserve percentage compared to the four schools the Clarion has data from.
The Clarion was unable to find the financial status reports for Allan Hancock College and Chabot College. Both schools did not reply to multiple requests from Clarion for their financial status reports.
Linked below are the quarterly financial status reports for the 2023 fiscal year for each college’s respective district along with each school’s FTES count.
- LA City College* (4,076.50)
- Grossmont College* (4,075.91)
- Allan Hancock College (4,042.74)
- Citrus College (3,943.01)
- San Diego City College (3,898.28)
- Chabot College (3,890.66)
- College of the Desert (3,846.03)
Chabot College’s quarterly financial report was sent directly to the Clarion.
*These colleges are in districts with other college(s)
All of the numbers shown in the graphs above can be found in this Google Sheet.
This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. on May 20 with the reserve percentages from quarterly financial report for Chabot College’s district.
