Early projections show that El Camino College will have $20.2 million in identified savings by the end of the 2024-2025 fiscal year, college leadership said.

The projections were presented and reviewed at the Planning and Budget Committee meeting Thursday, April 24.

About $1.17 million in surplus funds will push the college district’s ending balance budget into the positive, a dramatic change from the $19.1 million deficit projected in December 2024.

“We may appear balanced, but we’re not structurally stable yet,” Loïc Audusseau, interim vice president of Administrative Services, said during the meeting.

Projections for next year show the 2025-26 budget will land at a surplus of just $3,121, according to the presentation.

Many of the solutions used to close the budget gap this year are one-time-only measures that can’t be repeated annually, including savings from unfilled ECC employee positions and an abatement of $4 million in IRS penalties, Audusseau said.

And although a balanced budget may be anticipated, the economic climate casts uncertainty on the projected budget’s numbers.

Audusseau said the Trump Administration’s proposed 10% tariff, announced in early April, has rattled markets with major indices dropping sharply, driving volatility and investor concerns.

Market declines especially impact California, which depends on revenues from capital gains tax—made on the sale of stocks, bonds and real estate—to fund a significant portion of the state’s General Fund, including education funding under Proposition 98.

Audusseau said drops in those revenues could cause reductions or delays in funding for community colleges, including ECC, and noted that while funds for the current year under Proposition 98 will increase slightly, the 2025–26 outlook is far more uncertain.

Audusseau emphasized the importance of liquidity in uncertain economic times, especially with state deferrals and delays being looming possibilities in the May Revision, in which the governor of California will release updates to the proposed state budget.

“Cash is king,” he said.

Audusseau said to better align the budget, a “right-sized” budgeting strategy is being used in a transition away from “roll-over” methods which reuse old budget plans and may carry outdated costs.

This new approach matches expenses with actual revenues and trims any unnecessary or overestimated allocations.

“Right-sizing isn’t just a tactic, it’s about building long-term sustainability,” Audusseau said.

When the current budget was adopted by the district’s board of trustees in September 2025, it included a projected $18.5 million deficit, according to the district’s 2024-25 final budget.

The year prior, the board of trustees approved a $4.66 million projected deficit, according to the 2023-24 final budget.

“One of the main reasons [for the deficit] is over the pandemic we had a sudden influx of one-time funding,” Audusseau said.

As pandemic funds were temporary and did not address long-term structural needs, the college is now facing the challenge of managing the gap left by those short-term resources.

Carlos Lopez, vice president of Academic Affairs, said ECC plans to “bucket,” or group, the summer sessions of both 2024 and 2025 into the same 2024-2025 academic year for funding purposes.

Lopez also said there are plans to shift the academic calendar, moving the start of the district’s financial year from the summer to the fall.

This adjustment could align better with state funding timelines to improve budget predictability.

Audusseau emphasized that temporary fixes are not enough, and that there is a need for cautious and flexible budgeting as ECC awaits more information from the May Revision.

Bob Miller, special assistant to the superintendent/president and professional expert on Administrative Services, expressed hope that things will turn around financially, even as uncertainty remains.

Editor’s note:

• This article was updated Saturday, April 26 at 10:48 a.m. to update the featured photo and correct the byline.
• This article was updated Saturday, April 26 at 11:27 a.m. to add context and a link to an additional document.
• This article was updated Monday, April 28 at 6:05 p.m. to correct the spelling of a name.
• This article was updated Monday, May 5 at 7:24 p.m. to correct the paraphrasing of a quote.