Despite previous fears, it is doubtful that layoffs will be necessary at Northwest College in the coming biennium, thanks to $450,000 in federal stimulus money.“We are fortunate that we are going to be receiving some stimulus funding, and that should allow us to build a budget that won't include any layoffs,” said NWC President Paul Prestwich.

The federal funding will provide $225,000 for both years of the coming biennium, which begins July 1. It was facilitated by the governor's office and comes from the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds program, Prestwich said.

College administrators first heard of the possibility at the end of last school year.

“Now we heard it's a go, so we're excited to have (the money),” Prestwich said. “I'm hopeful that it will get us through the hardest part of our economic situation.

“It gives us time to plan for the following biennium,” he said, but added, “We have to know that it may not be replaced by state funding, so we have to be careful.”

While the college board and administrators expect a cut in county property tax income, “I hope we don't receive cuts from the state like we did last year,” Prestwich said.

Typical of almost any economic change at Northwest College over the past two years, good news about the stimulus money came with a bad-news twist: The college received the smallest share of $8.3 million in stimulus money allocated between the state's seven community college districts.

That is because the stimulus money is based on enrollment growth at the colleges, and Northwest had the lowest percentage of enrollment growth in the state over the past five years.

“Enrollment growth is key for this money,” Prestwich said. “We've been not only at the bottom — we've been far below the system average. Typically, our growth (percentage) has been less than half of what the system average has been.

“What has happened then, was that our percentage of the state (enrollment) has decreased, so we're a smaller percentage of the overall enrollment pie.”

Enrollment figures for the current school year are not final and were not included in calculations for distributing the money, he added.

“We're, of course, moving in the right direction; enrollment (this year) is very strong,” he said. “It will be several months before we know how we stand as far as this year's enrollment growth in Wyoming. Unofficially, I think we're doing quite well. What we do now either pays off, or doesn't, for years to come.”

Prestwich said NWC faculty and staff have adjusted well to this year's dramatic increase in enrollment.

“I think we've done a very good job of accommodating the growth we've experienced this year,” he said.

Plans are for enrollment to continue to grow in future years, though probably at a slower pace.

“We are developing contingency plans in case we do experience continued growth,” he said. “It's a complicated issue. It has to do with staffing, classroom space, lab space. Perhaps the biggest challenge is residence hall space. We're looking at all of our options.

“We do have some flexibility because of Trapper Village West, and we're looking at how to use those facilities as efficiently as possible.”

As for classroom space, “We do have a very good physical plant,” Prestwich said. “We're fortunate to have some key types of instructional facilities that some colleges just don't have ... We will utilize what we have in the best possible manner, given the possibility of some enrollment growth in the future.”

He said plans for an applied science and technology building have been put on hold.

“It will likely be a while before we see major funding for capital construction from the state, and we need to put that idea on hold just because of the reality of the state's position,” he said.

Between the stimulus money and savings through retirements, resignations and reductions in operating costs, “I'm very confident we won't need to lay anyone off.”

Prestwich said no decisions have been made yet about filling positions vacated due to recent resignations, retirements, non-renewal of contracts or terminations.

“We always evaluate those; sometimes we do fill them, sometimes we don't. Sometimes we simply restructure,” he said. “We will need to make decisions on most of those fairly soon because of how long it takes to do a successful search.”

No decision will be made in the case of the activity director's position until next month at the earliest, as the appeals hearing on former activity director Mike Taylor's termination is slated for the first week in March, Prestwich said.