PENDLETON — Blue Mountain Community College announced Wednesday that it laid off 11 employees.

The college will ultimately eliminate 23 positions from the 2020-21 general fund budget for a savings of $694,000 in salary and payroll expenses next year. This week, the school delivered notices to three full-time and seven part-time employees. Positions also cut include 12 vacant positions that are being eliminated.

In April, the college announced the intention to cut at least $2.8 million from its 2020-21 budget as the school’s reserve fund erodes, but later adjusted that estimate upward. The impact of COVID-19 could potentially grow the gap to more than $4 million.

BMCC President Dennis Bailey-Fougnier called the reductions “devastating,” and said all corners of the college will feel the impacts. He said additional cuts will likely be needed to handle the remaining budget gap.

“The decision to reduce these positions was not made lightly, and it’s heartbreaking to have to take this drastic step to help balance our budget,” Bailey-Fougnier said. “BMCC has been fiscally conservative for years, and prior to the pandemic, these reductions likely would have nearly closed our budget gap. However, we still have work to do depending on how deep our mid-biennium state cuts end up being.”

Besides the impact of COVID-19, other factors include a decline in enrollment, insufficient state funding and increasing Public Employees Retirement System costs.

During spring term, enrollment declined 27% and the school’s dual credit and early college credit program took a hit when K-12 students were forced to stay home. In addition, the state indicated it may make a mid-biennium cut to the Community College Support Fund, which supports the college’s general fund. This cut is estimated to roll back 8.5% of the CCSF from all community colleges in the state — about $1.3 million for BMCC — all of which would need to be realized in the second year of the biennium. The state’s May Revenue Forecast reiterated that possibility.

In April, BMCC board members voted unanimously to increase in-state tuition $2 per credit hour from its current $108, with equal increases to follow in each of the following two years.

The news wasn’t all bad on Wednesday, though.

Late last week, the Oregon Department of Corrections notified the college it would allow Blue Mountain Community College employees to resume the corrections education program at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, Two Rivers Correctional Institution and Powder River Correctional Facility on June 1. The employees had been barred from the facilities since mid-March to reduce the risks of bringing COVID-19 into the prisons. The nine employees furloughed because of the temporary DOC contract suspension will soon be back at work.