Small increase proposed for Haywood Community College budget
Growing Haywood Community College has presented a preliminary budget with a 4.7% increase. Harrison Keely photo
Haywood Community College is asking Haywood County commissioners for a modest increase in its operating budget for fiscal year 2025–26, citing inflationary pressures, employee retention initiatives, rising costs across multiple service categories and a surprising surge in enrollment.
The proposed budget was presented to the Haywood County Board of Commissioners on April 7 by President Shelley White, recently named the North Carolina Community College President of the Year by the state board and the North Carolina Community Colleges Foundation.
White began her presentation by recounting the uncertainty that Hurricane Helene visited upon the school’s students.
“Of course, like everyone in our county, the college had impacts from Helene last fall; all of our students and employees as well,” White said. “We were certainly concerned about the momentum our college was having at that time and the direction our students would take following the hurricane.”
But what many thought would be a disastrous decline in enrollment due to the disruption of the school calendar and the negative financial effects on some household budgets didn’t actually end up that way. Working with students and employees, administrators were able to support those who needed help and in turn increased enrollment for the current semester by 10%.
“We saw the biggest increase in our enrollment from spring-over-spring that I’ve seen since I’ve been there, since 2020,” said White.
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With that growth have come new programs that reflect White’s experience pivoting the college to disaster response — both natural and human-caused.
In 2021, when Tropical Storm Fred damaged eastern Haywood County, HCC became a community hub of sorts. In 2023, when Pactiv Evergreen closed its Canton paper mill, HCC became a resource for displaced workers and added a CDL program to get some of them back to work. In 2024, after Helene, HCC established a program to train the line workers that restore basic services when things go haywire. This fall, HCC will begin to offer a program in public safety administration, which will both strengthen local public safety and disaster response in the future and perhaps export some of the knowledge and experience disaster-ridden Haywood County has to offer.
“When I came in 2020, we embarked on a strategic plan, a five-year strategic plan. One of our main goals, we had five goals on that plan, and one of those goals is to engage with our community, to be a place where our community can connect, to be a place for our community to come and enjoy the beauty of the county but also to connect with educational opportunities whether that’s in the school system or if you’re an adult learner or if you’re out in our communities,” White said. “We really have something for everyone, and I believe we have fulfilled that goal as we come to the end of our five-year strategic plan and we start looking ahead to our next five-year plan.”
White’s proposed budget represents a 4.7% increase overall that reflects a $161,650 increase over the current fiscal year that would bring HCC’s county allocation from $3.43 million to approximately $3.59 million.
The lion’s share of the requested increase, almost $66,000, is earmarked for salaries and fringe benefits. In addition, HCC is proposing the creation of a new part-time events A/V technician position, suggesting that increasing demands on campus event support justify the addition.
Contracted services, including custodial and sheriff’s office support, are set to rise by $10,000 to $545,000. The increase reflects a 5% uptick in custodial contract expenses. Similarly, service agreements are expected to increase by $1,000 to $144,660 despite a substantial $40,000 reduction in telecommunications costs after switching providers.
One encouraging line item in the budget is insurance, where HCC is not anticipating an increase. Minor premium hikes were offset by the planned termination of at least one policy, resulting in what will likely be a net zero change. In today’s insurance market, where double-digit increases have become the norm, holding the line is considered a win.
Despite the overall budget increase request, HCC is finding savings in other areas. The college is projecting a $15,000 decrease in utility costs, largely due to favorable year-end projections for water and natural gas expenditures. White said that staff had been diligent in looking for more opportunities for energy efficiency.
Perhaps the most notable single-item increase is in “other costs,” which rose from $0 in 2024-25 to $122,533. The proposal is intended to augment a contingency fund in anticipation of unexpected costs to materials, supplies, fuel, legal fees or other miscellaneous items.
In addition to the operating budget, White also proposed a number of capital outlay requests totaling $570,000 and including $115,000 in IT replacements or upgrades, a chemistry lab hood replacement ($20,000) and HVAC unit replacements ($100,000).
There’s also a Helene-related expense, $60,000 for engineering related to a storm drain collapse along Armory Drive. White said the work and the engineering, with a projected cost of just over $404,000, is intended to harden the infrastructure in case of future disasters, should be reimbursable by FEMA. Ten other storm impacts to the college, from roof leaks to damage from fallen trees, are estimated to cost a total of $53,000, however those costs could now change based on FEMA’s recent decision to discontinue 100% cost sharing.
Commissioners lauded White’s leadership, not just during Helene but also during her relatively brief tenure at HCC.
“I always say I was so impressed and humbled and thankful that when the mill closure was announced how quickly you jumped in and filled those voids for those folks and the community in general,” said Commissioner Jennifer Best.
“Not only do we have the number one president but we’ve also got the number one community college, in my opinion, in the whole state,” Vice Chair Brandon Rogers said.
