Community Commission

2300 Capitol Ave., 5th Floor, Suite B, Cheyenne WY 82002

Commissioners Ex-officio Mr. Gregg Blikre, Gillette Governor Mark Gordon Mr. Dennis Boal, Evanston State Superintendent Ms. Katherine Dooley, Powell Jillian Balow Dr. Craig Frederick, Guernsey Executive Director Dr. Sandra Caldwell Dr. Jackie Freeze, Rock Springs Ms. Julia Newman, Torrington Phone: 307-777-7763 Ms. Ember Oakley, Riverton Fax: 307-777-6567 www.communitycolleges.wy.edu Memo

To: Joint Appropriations Committee From: Dr. Sandy Caldwell, Executive Director, Wyoming Commission Mr. Larry Buchholtz, CFO, Wyoming Community College Commission Date: December 10, 2020 RE: Update CARES HEERF Funds and State and GEER Funds to Community

Total Costs Due to COVID-19: Approximately $85 million requested including student grants for Fall 2020 with $54.9 million funded via HEERF, GEER and CARES State Funds combined

The Wyoming Community Colleges experienced significant impacts due to the impacts of COVID-19. As a result, the WCCC worked on behalf of the colleges and, in some respects, the and private institutions to ensure student success and operational institutions.

The WCCC worked across the funding sources of three primary components of CARES funding to focus on three specific phases of operations: 1. Mitigation; 2. Recovery and Re-Entry; and 3. Return to the New Normal. In order to achieve supporting the community colleges and higher education students statewide, the institutions had three primary sources of CARES funds: • HEERF Funds—Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund provided a direct distribution from USDE to the IHE equally split between institutional operations and student grants. • GEER Funds—Governor Education Emergency Relief provided a designated amount to each Governor to distribute based on GEER requirements. • CARES State Funds—The total tranche each state received to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 specifically restricting use for revenue shortfalls including those directly related to COVID-19.

Institutional HEERF Student and Institutional Funds and Need for Additional Funds of $6.5 million

Per the CARES Act - the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) is created, a direct distribution was made to Institutions of Higher Education by the USDoE, based on a computation that primarily considered student enrollment and Title IV eligibility, among other criteria.

Casper College $1,370,011 $ 578,938 $ 420,524 Laramie County Community College $1,502,654 Northern Wyoming CC District $1,175,360

Casper College  Central Wyoming College  Eastern Wyoming College  Laramie County Community College Northern Wyoming Community College District   Western Wyoming Community College

Northwest College $ 732,668 Western Wyoming Community College $ 725,242 Total $6,505,397

Student Emergency Grants: $3,252,699 Institutional Funds: $3,252,698

In accordance with HEERF guidelines, 50 percent of these funds must be granted as emergency student aid directly to students and the other 50 percent may be used for institutional expenses directly related to the COVID19 event. Institutions were prohibited from using student grant funds for the purposes of refunding Spring 2020 pro-rata room and board or tuition refunds. Any CARES funds for these purposes had to be funding from institutional HEERF, GEER, or State CARES funds.

Student Grants: CARES Adult and Wyoming College Grants combined for approximately $13 million

Adult Grant: Financial aid targeted at Adults between the ages of 25-64 that have become unemployed or underemployed as a result of circumstances related to COVID-19. This aid will fill gaps in funding after other available funding is used, including PELL and other sources of financial aid that do not cover full cost of attendance. This aid will allow a student to cover costs related to the total cost of attendance other than tuition and mandatory student fees, which includes course fees, transportation, housing, sustenance, books, and child care. This funding was made available to students at the Wyoming Community Colleges, University of Wyoming, WyoTech, , and Western Welding Academy.

CARES Wyoming College Grant: This grant program will provide financial assistance to students who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants will cover expenses other than tuition and fees limited to housing and meals for students attending the University of Wyoming, the state’s community colleges, private and technical colleges. The grant also provides marketing funds for the institutions to ensure the post-secondary institutions communicate with existing and potential students.

For both programs, full-time students received funding for eligible expenses at each institution for the fall semester, while part-time students received a prorated amount according to the number of enrolled credit hours up to full-time. The financial assistance was required per US Treasury Guidance to be distributed as “last-dollar-in” financial aid, after other merit and need-based aid is applied, including scholarships and grants.

Governor Education Emergency Funds of $1.5 million Each state’s Governor was given a 4.7 million tranche within the Education Stabilization CARES Funds that allows for Governor directed education relief. Across all education sectors, requests were approximately $9.2 million. The community colleges received $1.5 million including costs associated with college child development centers. Also note that Adult Education and Carbon County BOCES also received GEER funds, which are not included in the above total.

CARES State Funds of $36.1 million Given the fact that the HEERF funds and GEER funds were insufficient to cover the costs necessary for the colleges to respond to the impacts of COVID-19, the WCCC and colleges applied for additional funds for the colleges. All granted funds will be expended by the deadline. Attached is a summary of the CARES requests and awarded funds.

Casper College  Central Wyoming College  Eastern Wyoming College  Laramie County Community College Northern Wyoming Community College District  Northwest College  Western Wyoming Community College

Chairman Nicholas Request Enrollment Comparison Fall 2019 to Fall 2020 Fall 19 Fall 20 Headcount 20,258 18,473 (1,785) 91.19% FTE 14,447.60 13,423.80 (1,023.80) 92.91% Credit Hrs 173,371.20 161,085.60 (12,285.60) 92.91% $99/CH $ 17,163,749 $ 15,947,474 $ (1,216,274)

This shows the amount of tuition revenue losses from Fall 2019 to Fall 2020. Fee revenue is equivalent to another 50% of the tuition loss amounts, or another $600,000, for this single semester.

Chairman Nicholas Request CARES Act Funding

Total Requests Actual Receipts Actually Used Reverted EAEC #1 $ 7,500,000 $ 7,500,000 $ 2,624,127 $ 4,875,873 Displaced Adult Learner Financial Aid Sub-total $ 7,500,000

CC #1 $ 30,925 $ - CC #2 $ 10,330,148 $ 2,259,111 $ 2,259,111 Reimbursement of refunds Due to EO's and Local Directives Actual or Anticipated Expenses Related to Change in Course Delivery Modality, Virtual Graduations, Computers, CC #3 $ 10,463,062 $ 10,450,062 $ 10,450,062 Conversion to Telework, etc. Actual or Anticipated Expenses to Modernize and Sustain CC #4 $ 10,154,921 $ 9,722,771 $ 9,722,771 Faculty/Student Interaction For Remote Learning CC #5 $ 4,598,056 $ 4,796,838 $ 4,796,838 Cost to Re-Open CC #6 $ 7,052,414 $ - CC #7 $ 3,498,816 $ 1,460,075 $ 1,460,075 Wages attributed to COVID-19 CC #8 $ 1,661,294 $ - CC #9 $ 2,596,450 $ - CC #10 $ 1,865,945 $ - CC #11 $ 1,539,000 $ - CC #12 $ 917,672 $ - CC #13 $ 218,745 $ - CC#14 $ 30,000,000 $ 20,000,000 $ 10,294,282 $ 9,705,718 CARES Wyoming College Grant Program CC #15 $ 463,900 $ - $ - $ 85,391,348

CC Portal Requests $ 5,235,012 $ 5,235,012 $ 2,211,595 Reversion after other requests were funded $ 53,923,869 The $2,259,511 plus $5,235,012 were funded with leftover Cares College Grant funds of $9,705,718

GEERF #1 $ 4,474,000 $ 1,073,760 $ 1,073,760 Technology Improvements CC#15 from above, AG denied CARES funding, GEERF #2 $ 463,900 $ 463,900 Gov funded with GEER Institutional Spend Student Spending Total HEERF Total $ 3,252,699 $ 3,252,699 $ 6,505,397 Direct Distribution to institutions Casper $ 685,006 $ 685,006 $ 1,370,012 Central $ 289,469 $ 289,469 $ 578,937 Eastern $ 210,262 $ 210,262 $ 420,524 LCCC $ 751,327 $ 751,327 $ 1,502,654 NWCCD $ 587,680 $ 587,680 $ 1,175,360 Northwest $ 366,334 $ 366,334 $ 732,668 Western $ 362,621 $ 362,621 $ 725,242

Totals $ 54,885,335 Total actual receipts CARES/HEERF/GEER $ 12,918,409 Total actual CARES student Aid $ 1,537,660 Total Governor's GEER Funds $ 6,505,397 Total Direct Distribution HEER Funds US Dept of Ed

Rep Sommers follow-up regarding Administration Budget Agency/Admin Budget Agency Budget $ 257,415,201 Admin Budget $ 6,795,653 2.64% Reduction Step 3 $ 2,990,176.00 Payroll 44.0% $ 159,102.00 5.32% $ 2,200,000.00 *Ellucian 32.4% *One-Time Transcript/Course $ 769,000.00 Catalog 11.3% $ 252,000.00 *ETS 3.7% Total 91.4% $ 584,477.00 What's Left 8.6%

* Any reduction in these line items would result in an additional cut to the colleges and in some cases would require UW and K-12 to partially fund the costs to store their data within the SLEDS environment.