GCCC Board names Ruda Interim President, approves budget

Garden City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) The Garden City Community College Board of Trustees unanimously named Ryan Ruda the temporary Interim President of the college Tuesday night. The announcement was made to cheers from the packed house.

“Moving forward I think a big part of my job is just working with the board, the faculty and staff and the community to restore trust in the college,” said Ruda.

The board also approved the budget for fiscal year 2019 with no increase to the mill-levy. However the dollar amount did go up over $800,000 from last year, from over $17.8 million to over $18.6 million.

“A big part of the increase was from online book learning, software maintenance agreements and the health insurance that wasn’t budgeted for last year,” said CFO Glendon Forgey.

He also said that the school has permission to spend up to $37 million if they need to. Whatever money the board would use to hire a new President would have to come from the surplus. The current budget does not have funds to hire a new President. The board estimates the hiring would cost between $75,000 and $100,000.

The budget was met with criticism from attorney Jean Lamfers who addressed the board on a number of issues she saw. Lamfers questioned why the college was allowing the board to spend over $37 million when they had never allowed more than $23 million before.

She also questioned why the budgets weren’t easily accessible and why there was only one copy available to the public during the meeting. Other issues Lamfers pointed out included the Faculty Senate’s budget was zer0, which she thought was retaliation to the senate for speaking up about issues. She also said she thinks board member Leonard Hitz needs separate legal counsel after being “beat up” by the other board members.

During the meeting the board also said that there was update on the investigation of the IT department and there was no estimate as to when the department would return to work. It was noted during the meeting that the lack of an IT department was causing difficulties for students and teachers, especially after classes started on Monday.