PORT ANGELES — Financial troubles for the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center appear to be diminishing.
Higher enrollment for the spring semester not only means the vocational training school will be out of the red, but possibly have a surplus at the end of the school year.
“We’re thrilled about that,” said Port Angeles School District Superintendent Gary Cohn, one of five superintendents on the skills center advisory board.
Cohn said the higher enrollment numbers came as a relief for the board whose other members include the superintendents of the Sequim, Crescent, Cape Flattery and Quillayute Valley school districts.
Skills center enrollment was lower than expected last semester, forcing the board to cut the center’s almost $1.2 million budget by 40 percent in November, reducing the budget to about $696,000.
About $50,000 of the cuts were made based on low enrollment projections for this semester, but the board feared the reductions might not be enough.
The projections showed the skills center wouldn’t meet the required average of 150 full-time students for the year to maintain its skill center status.
Not having skills center status for a vocational school means the loss of about $450 per student in state funding.
46 student increase
However, the skills center board was pleasantly surprised when enrollment increased by about 46 students since last semester.
Current enrollment at the skills center is about 155 students, meaning the year-end average will be about 128 students, said Jim Jones, executive director of business and operations for the Port Angeles School District.
