Northampton Community College presents $81 million operating budget; cites enrollment gains and workforce training needs

Northampton Community College President Dave Ruth and Chief Financial Officer Jason Lobaugh presented the college’s proposed operating budget of about $81 million for fiscal year 2025–26 to the Saucon Valley School District board on Feb. 25, emphasizing recent enrollment growth and investments in workforce programs.

Lobaugh said the $81 million figure covers credit and noncredit instruction plus auxiliary enterprises; the capital budget was described at about $8.5 million. He told the board the credit-instruction portion is roughly $69 million and is rising about 3.15% over the prior year. “Total budget revenue expense is balanced at $81,000,000, 2.92 percent increase,” Lobaugh said.

Ruth described steady enrollment gains and said nearly one in four Northampton County high-school graduates enroll at NCC at some point. Lobaugh said NCC serves about 30,000 students across credit and community-education programs and reported year-over-year increases in fall and spring terms.

The presentation included sponsor-support detail for district partners: Lobaugh said the college uses a five-year average of FTE to allocate operating contributions and that Saucon Valley’s five-year average decreased relative to other sponsors, producing a deduction of roughly $282,000 in the district’s contribution formula for 2025–26. He said Saucon Valley’s share of the credit-instruction budget is about 21% of the portion for Northampton County students.

Lobaugh outlined tuition and fees: current in-county tuition is $185 per credit hour and the college proposes raising it to $195 per credit hour for 2025–26. He also said out-of-county tuition is approximately double the in-county rate and out-of-state roughly triple.

Ruth and Lobaugh discussed workforce programs and recent federal and grant-funded initiatives, including sonography and respiratory therapy programs that initially ran on earmarked grant funding; those grants have ended and the college must absorb those program costs into operating budgets. They highlighted short-term certificate training tied to employer needs (line-workers, welding, precision machining) and said employers often hire students before program completion.

Saucon Valley board members asked how the college’s offerings align with high-school CTE pathways and expressed interest in expanded dual-enrollment opportunities. Ruth said Saucon Valley currently sends 25 students and 34 dual-enrollment students to NCC, and he described articulation and prior-learning-credit arrangements that allow some CTE credits to transfer into college programs.

Why it matters: the district’s sponsor subsidy and student pathways to NCC affect local tuition allocation, workforce pipelines and how dual-enrollment opportunities are funded and expanded.

Next steps and uncertainties: Lobaugh said state subsidy amounts were not finalized and could affect the final budget; federal grant funding (including Perkins equipment funding) was discussed as a potential risk to capital-equipment purchases but not to core operating revenue in the college’s view.

What board members asked: trustees pressed for clarity on how CTE credits transfer, the potential impacts of federal funding changes (Perkins and other grants), and whether the college’s enrollment and budget projections would require future sponsor requests. Ruth and Lobaugh said they expect modest variability (low-single-digit percentage effects) and will return with details as state and federal decisions become clear.