St. Petersburg College Budget || St. Petersburg College

Crafting a budget that puts students first

Since 2010, St. Petersburg College has refocused its strategic efforts to emphasize student success, and has shifted personnel, financial resources and energy in an intentional, data-driven way to:

Help students finish what they start
Engage and train staff at all levels to support students in class and out
Produce graduates whose lives are changed by earning a degree or certificate

Budget development process

Each December, Board of Trustee members schedule a workshop and meet in small groups with faculty and staff to identify strategic priorities. During January and February, staff collegewide submit budget proposals for initiatives to support these priorities. Shortly after, senior leadership and staff present the budget proposal presentations that are streamed live to all college employees.

SPC Budget 2015-16

A continued focus on student success

At its June meeting the Board of Trustees approved an operating budget for the 2015-16 year, awaiting state funding. Since receiving the state revenue appropriation, the amended budget was unanimously approved by the board on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

SPC Budget 2014-15

Focused on student success

At its May meeting the Board of Trustees approved an operating budget for the 2014-15 year, calling for a freeze in tuition increases.

Since 2010, SPC has refocused its strategic efforts on student success, shifting personnel, financial resources and energy in an intentional, data-driven way to:

Help students finish what they start
Engage and train staff at all levels to support students in class and out
Produce graduates whose lives are changed by earning a degree or certificate

Budget development process

Budget development began with a workshop in December with the Board of Trustees. Members spent much of the workshop working in small groups with faculty and staff to pinpoint expectations and priorities for the coming year.

From that discussion, the board identified a series of strategic priorities impacting many facets of college operations: from student success and employee professional development initiatives to marketing and communication efforts and enrollment growth plans.

During January and February, staff collegewide submitted proposals for initiatives to support these priorities. The proposal presentations were streamed live to all college employees. Presentations touched on a variety of issues such as expanding the focus of student success efforts from entry-to-exit at the college, achieving a targeted enrollment growth rate, addressing the opportunities and challenges of online education, strengthening graduate
career placement through the college career centers, broadening out-of-class student learning opportunities, evaluating and promoting college scholarship opportunities and emphasizing the focus on employee development and compensation matters.

Those proposals were then ranked by the appropriate strategic committees: Academic Affairs, Student Support and System Support. This final budget proposal is a culmination of that input.

Budget Presentation

Budget Workshop

SPC Budget 2013-14

A new direction

Since 2010, St. Petersburg College has refocused its strategic efforts on student success, shifting personnel, financial resources and energy in an intentional, data-driven way to:

Help students finish what they start.
Engage and train staff at all levels to support students in class and out.
Produce graduates whose lives are changed by earning a degree or certificate.

Even in lean economic times, St. Petersburg College has increased direct spending on academics and student support in the operating budget by shifting resources from administrative support functions.

The 2012-13 budget committed significant resources to implementing five initiatives of the College Experience plan for students:

Student Learning Plans
Career Development
New Student Orientation
Out-of-Class Support
Student Coaching System

The 2013-14 budget supports continued refinement and expansion of the student success efforts. There is less money to reallocate this year, so efforts are focused on using resources even more wisely and getting the most value with the available resources to support the strategic priorities set by the Board of Trustees.

Budget development

As in the past three years, the budget development began with a workshop in December by the Board of Trustees. From that discussion, the board offered these strategic priorities:

Promote Academic Excellence
Expand the College Experience
Expand Workforce Opportunities for Students
Internationalize the College
Develop a Diverse and Outstanding Staff
Encourage Partnerships
Facilitate Cutting-Edge Innovation
Emphasize Continuous Improvement and Data-Driven Decision Making

Not all of the priorities required new funding. Instead, college leaders began to look at how best to allocate existing resources to gain the most value.

During January and February, staff across the college submitted proposals for initiatives to support the priorities set by the board. The proposal presentations again were streamed live to all college employees.

Those proposals were then ranked by the appropriate strategic committees: Academic Affairs, Student Support and System Support.

This final budget proposal is a culmination of all that input.

Promising progress

The investments are starting to show. An April 2013 Chronicle of Higher Education article detailed how St. Petersburg College is using data to improve student success. College leaders meet weekly to review the results data from The College Experience initiatives.

Just a few key facts:

Almost 9,000 students entered at least one term in their individual learning plans. Success rates and retention rates increased for all groups of students who had learning plans, including African American and Hispanic students.
More than 3,500 developmental students attended mandatory, face-to-face New Student Orientation this year. Students who attended orientation achieved success rates comparable to college-ready students who did not attend orientation.
More than 2,000 students have participated in an integrated academic/career advising session. About half of those followed up with career services for further assessment and advising.
Student use of learning support services increased more than 68 percent and tutoring visits increased 65 percent. Students who actively engaged with tutoring and learning support had higher success rates than those who did not.
Using the Early Alert system, faculty sent 2,000 alerts about students who appeared to be having difficulties in developmental classes and in "gateway" classes, the primary courses students take first. About 75 percent of faculty in those courses issued alerts. Coaches and mentors reached out to all those students to offer help and guidance. Success rates in developmental classes improved by almost 2 percent. Success rates in gateway classes improved by more than 1.5 percent.