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On April 21, the College of The Albemarle Board of Trustees met virtually via Zoom for their regular monthly meeting.

On the agenda was an item pertaining to the Dare County budget in which Dare had requested that the board submit their funding request earlier than when the requests are typically sent.

At their March 24 meeting, the COA finance committee heard from COA President Dr. Jack Bagwell regarding this request.

Bagwell told the board that normally Dare County’s budget is sent to the finance committee as a whole. This year, however, the county asked to receive the request early, “so the business office is putting it before the board at this time.”

The finance committee had approved the request at that time and on April 21, so did the Board of Trustees.

Susan Gentry, chief financial officer, said Dare is usually “one of their first counties working on their budget.” She reported that Dare had already had their budget prepared by the time the Board of Trustees met in April.

Currently in the works for the Dare campus of COA is a new facility. James Davison, COA director of facilities, reported that a meeting is scheduled for the week of April 27 with Boomerang Designs, the architectural contractor for the project.

Dare County is set to meet with Boomerang to begin discussing interior finishes for the building. Davison said after the meeting, there will be a better understanding of the project timeline and what is to follow.

Along with the approval of the Dare budget, the board of trustees also approved the Government Education Access Channels (GEAC) budget.

This budget would take effect July 1 of this year and must be approved by every participating member of the channels, including the six towns of Dare County, Dare County Schools, COA, the Coastal Studies Institute and the county itself.

The budget required no additional funding other than the yearly membership fee of $1000 and included funding for two full-time staff positions and a Local Programming Development Initiative. This initiative would assist members in the development of programming for channels.

The budget highlighted continued funding for two regular news magazine shows. In an effort to maintain the fund balance, the GEAC budget included a 50% cut to LPDI funding in the 20/21 fiscal year and a gradual 50% reduction to contractual services over the next three years.

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