College district cuts explained to legislators

This past summer, the Northern Wyoming Community College District cut over $4.2 million from the district’s expenses to compensate for loss of revenues.

Dr. Walt Tribley, who’s president of the district which includes Sheridan and Gillette colleges and the Sheridan College campus in Johnson County, talked about the financial picture at this week’s legislative forum.

Dr. Tribley said around 30 positions in the district are coming up for retirement between now and the end of September 2021. He said as a further adjustment to the district’s budget, not all of those positions will be filled.

He told legislators that the district knew last year that the budget would be impacted by COVID-19, but no one knew how big a hit until they received a letter on June 4 from Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.

Two days after that, he said, the board called a special meeting in which Dr. Tribley and members of his staff laid out potential cuts across the district.

He said the board had a healthy discussion that included the college board along with the chairs of the Johnson County and Gillette College advisory boards.

On July 1, the college board of trustees took the action that formally cut the district’s budget.