The Chippewa Valley Technical College president says four new programs will help close a $3.4 million gap for the 2008 budget.

President Bill Ihlenfeldt says he hopes $3 million dollars worth of new programs in physical therapy, micromachining, horticulture and the new university transfer program will bring in more money than three previously eliminated programs. Those programs are the office and administrative assistant programs and geographic information systems.

He says they were eliminated because of low enrollment and not budget crunches.

“The $3.4 million gap comes from salary roll ups and fringe benefit increases. It’s contracts that have been negotiated with staff that will cost us more. We'll have a 14 percent increase from health insurance,” Ihlenfeldt says.

Ihlenfeldt says the school also will eliminate 12 or 13 jobs. Those include four retirements, six open positions that won't be filled, and three that will become part time.

But that’s not the end of possible job cuts. Ihlenfeldt says school leaders are looking at every job in every department to close the multi-million dollar gap.

“That’s probably a product of today's environment where there’s simply not enough money to do everything we want to do,” he says.

Ihlenfeldt says along with the new programs, the school can work on closing the gap with money from high-fee seminars, grants, and outsourcing. The school is also closing the academic service center for the summer—that’s an issue that has concerned some students.

Ihlenfeldt says there’s still about $700,000 in cuts to make.