Every week, “The Patriot” checks all its campus-wide sources to bring you the best of what’s happening at JC.

2010-2011 calendar reveals earlier Homecoming

After “working on [the calendar for the 2010-2011 school year] for four months,” Principal Paul Barker released the date of the Homecoming game next year: Friday, October 8 versus St. Francis.

Lower enrollment signals tough budget choices

Following a January 27 Board of Trustees meeting, where the budget was approved for the next school year, Barker and President Richard O’Hara commented on changes to follow.

The Board budgeted for a school wide population of 745 students next year, a decrease from the current enrollment of 829. O’Hara said, “When you set the budget, you have to be conservative. The challenge we have is with such a big senior class and given the economy [and] the demographics, we’ve been getting freshman classes right around 190. We’ve seen that coming — it shouldn’t be a cause for panic.”

Barker said about how this will affect staff changes for next year, “[There will be] painful decisions we will be making about teachers, like what teachers will be offered contracts knowing our enrollment is likely to be down some. This will be decided over the next couple of weeks.”

For the second year in a row, the rest of the faculty and staff will not get a salary increase, according to Barker. “Nobody’s getting a raise,” he said.

More specific aspects of the budget will be shared at the end of February, according to O’Hara.

Board of Trustees to add new members

The Board’s Committee on Trusteeship has invited two new unnamed members to join, but they must fill out an application and be formally approved before assuming the position. According to O’Hara, they will “hopefully be approved in time to start July 1, for the new fiscal year.”

Kate Froehlich can be reached for comment at [email protected].