SANTA ANA : New Trustees Set Goals for College

Trying to improve education in the face of declining state funding will be the primary goal for both new members of the Rancho Santiago College District Board of Trustees.

When they assume their new jobs next Monday, Tom Saenz and Enriqueta L. Ramos will help guide a district that has been pummeled by the state’s budget crisis and forced to cut $7 million from its budget this academic year alone.

“Because there’s going to be an increase in students, because there’s fewer classes and because there’s more people graduating from high schools, we’re going to be more impacted,” said Ramos, 60, a Cypress College language arts professor.

“Right now we’re battling with the budget, and we need to set priorities,” she said. “My main priority is maintaining the classrooms and making sure we don’t lose any more needed personnel that work directly with students. We need to make sure that we’re serving as many people in the community as need our services.”

Saenz, 53, principal of Prospect Elementary School in Orange, echoed many of Ramos’ concerns about the budget and said the district must wring the most value out of each dollar it spends.

“I don’t see the state coming through with the economy the way it’s going,” he said. “We need to brace ourselves for more financial constraints. We no longer have the reserves that the college once had.”

Saenz said he would like to play the role of peacemaker on a board whose members have been involved in bitter feuds in the past. “I’d like to go in as a listener and mend fences there,” he said. “I’d like to see if we can get unified and go on with the business of the college and put the students first.”