'All the walls are falling.' Shoreline Community College plans layoffs

Shoreline Community College is planning layoffs as it faces a $4 million three-year budget deficit.

Jack Kahn, the college president, said community and technical colleges are facing a combination of reduced state funding, federal pressure on international student enrollment, and the state clawback of funds it accidentally overpaid colleges — $1 million, in Shoreline’s case.

Community colleges have also seen lower local enrollment than before the pandemic.

“I've been in higher education for 30 years, and this is the worst experience I've had in my entire career,” Kahn said. “As one of my colleagues has said, all the walls are falling at the same time.”

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Nine Shoreline employees have received reduction-in-force notifications — including faculty, administrative, and classified staff — warning that their their jobs will end next July unless the financial situation improves. Kahn said layoffs are a last resort.

“We did a travel freeze. We reduced overtime and reduced use of consultants. We did a hiring freeze. We worked with our managers to try to be as strategic as we can with our budgets," Kahn said. "Unfortunately, it was a good start, but it just wasn't enough.”

Even a small number of layoffs can hurt students, said Eric Hamako, multicultural studies professor and president of the Shoreline faculty union.

“Cutting one faculty member from our medical lab tech program alone will have significant impact on our ability to offer a medical lab tech program at all,” Hamako said — a skill in that's in high demand.

Hamako said that while the fundamental problem is state underfunding of community and technical colleges, in Shoreline’s case, financial mismanagement is also to blame.

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The college acknowledged that it is still dealing with $15.6 million in deficits that Shoreline spokesperson Cat Chiappa said predate Kahn’s presidency, including $10.7 million parking operations and fund level shortfalls, a $1.9 million drawdown of the operating fund reserve, and a $3 million deficit due to lower international student enrollment and “reconciliation and legacy clean-up,” including past accounting errors.