Citrus’ superintendent/president, Greg Schulz, held an open forum on May 13.
Schulz shared that in the pre-pandemic academic year, 2019-2020, full-time equivalent students, which is the calculation that transfers students credit hours into an equivalent number of full-time, full-year students, enrollment was at 11,414. That was near one of the highest peaks that Citrus College had seen.
He said after the pandemic, Citrus’ enrollment experienced a significant decline. During the 2021-2022 school year Citrus’ enrollment was about 8,600 FTES.
“Though last year, 2023 the FTES enrollment was 8,957, and this year we continue to see a rise in our enrollment,” Schulz said.
He said the projected FTES count, as of April, is 9,356.
Schulz said the college is hoping to experience 10,000 FTES or higher, as of June. It is becoming possible since unduplicated headcount states, individual student enrollment is at 9,940 this spring semester.
He also shared the college is experiencing some effects of the nationwide FAFSA delay. He said great lengths are being taken to reach out to students to invite them to seek assistance from Citrus’ financial aid. Communication will be shared.
During the comments/questions, vice president of finance and administrative services Claudette Dain also updated on hold harmless funding and the LB Building demolition.
“The college is just about ready to release a request for qualifications to hire a design build entity to start the demolition of the LB Building,” Dain said.
Once the plan is done it will be sent to the Division of State Architect for approval.
“Right now we are projecting that the LB Building will be predicted for scheduling through December,” Dain said.
More updates will be announced once the request for qualifications goes into action.
She said as of June 30, 2025, hold harmless will change. Initially it came about as part of the student-centered funding formula and was supposed to be around for three years, though Dain isn’t sure how many years since it kept getting extended.
Hold harmless allows the college/district to continue to receive state funds based on what they generated in 2017-18 under the old formula plus any subsequent apportionment COLA provided by state.
Dain explained that from 2018-19, when the student-centered funding formula first was adopted, “Hold harmless was intended to allow districts an opportunity to transition from being fully funded based on FTES fully to also being funded based on supplemental outcomes.”
She said if hold harmless no longer receives COLA augmentations after June 30, 2025, the district hold harmless level will become their new base. If their revenue declines, they will have base level funding. Citrus is projected to be above hold harmless for funding in 2024-25, so it is not currently a concern.
In regards to the state budget, there will be a tentative budget forum, which is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. on June 13 in CI 159.
