Long Beach City College, through a combination of cost savings and an aggressive enrollment push, has dramatically slashed its deficit by $5.9 million.

LBCC’s 2017-2018 budget included a deficit of about $10.7 million. It is anticipated that as of July 2018, the total deficit amount will be reduced to $4.8 million.

“We’ve been able to reduce $5.9 million from our deficit without layoffs or cuts to instructional programs,” said LBCC Superintendent-President Reagan F. Romali. “In the next few months, we will address the remaining structural deficit and get LBCC back on solid financial ground.”

In continuing to reduce the deficit, LBCC offered a Supplemental Employee Retirement Plan (SERP), which allowed employees over the age of 50 to retire early with a monthly benefit in addition to their CalSTRS/CalPERS retirement plan. Fifty-three LBCC employees voluntarily accepted the SERP plan.

“I want to thank these amazing members of the LBCC family,” said Romali. “They watched the two campuses transform into modern state-of-the-art facilities and the start of the Long Beach College Promise. They leave behind an amazing legacy from the programs they launched and the people they have trained.”

LBCC made an aggressive push to enroll additional students into the Summer Session classes which have resulted in a 21 percent increase in full-time equivalent students compared to last year’s Summer Session numbers. LBCC is also providing a number of workshops for future and current LBCC students to assist them enrollment or answer questions about financial aid.