DACC Budget under review

DANVILLE — Danville Area Community College would be able to boost staff in three programs with continual high enrollments, renovate DACC's new extension site in Hoopeston and complete the Mary Miller Center expansion and renovation under a proposed budget for the 2013 fiscal year.

DACC trustees will review the proposal at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Aug. 21) and vote on whether to put it on display. 

President Alice Jacobs said "I'm certainly pleased we have a balanced budget."

Under the proposal, the college would spend about $34.42 million over the current fiscal year, which started on July 1 and ends on June 30, 2013. That's about a 10.5 percent decrease from the 2012 fiscal year budget of about $38.5 million.

Part of the decrease reflects a decrease in enrollment due to the end of a two-year federal stimulus grant funneled into the Workforce Investment Act Fund. The money helps provide students tuition, books and other services necessary for their education and training.

The college will have funding to continue the Achieving the Dream initiative, aimed at helping more students, particularly low-income and minority students, achieve their academic goals. It also will be able to finish the last phases of the Mary Miller project that's providing much-needed space for the math and science division, and renovate its new extension site in Hoopeston.

The board will vote on whether to accept property at 847 E. Orange St., Hoopeston, for the extension site.

In addition to the health center's donation of the site, the Hoopeston Area Healthcare Foundation donated $206,000 to the DACC Foundation for the extension site. Of that, $50,000 will go toward developing the site, and $156,000 will provide scholarships to students from Armstrong, Bismarck-Henning, Rossville-Alvin, Hoopeston, Milford and Cissna Park going into health-care fields.

94.1 FM, WGFA