The proposed budget includes an overall 2-percent increase in spending.

In order to increase enrollment and revenue for the 2010 fiscal year, the college hopes to create four new positions. Two are teaching positions — for the wind energy turbine technology program and the environmental science program — and are funded by grants.

Two new non-teaching positions are planned for the next year.

One is a new staff member in the Continuing Education Department.

“We have served 130 businesses throughout our service area, and we do contract training for them,” Jablonski noted.

“On those contracts, we often make a little margin. So, the position that we’re adding is a strategic one because we believe that the revenue that we will generate will more than offset the expense of the position that is in there.”

A second non-teaching position is also expected as the college looks to hire another recruiter in the Admissions Office.

“Thirty-nine percent of the high-school graduates in this community enroll in Clinton Community College,” Jablonski noted.

Others students are involved in College Advanced Placement classes while in high school.

“Enrollment is critical for us,” Jablonski said. “It’s critical because that’s our mission. Without people enrolled in the program, we’re just bricks and mortar.

“But it’s also important financially. Our budget is funded in large part by the number of students that we enroll.”

Those students are to pay more in the proposed budget.

“We are proposing ... that the students increase their contribution by way of the tuition that they pay next year,” Jablonski said.

Tuition will rise $70 per semester.

“That still keeps us very affordable, very reasonable,” Jablonski said.