Parkland board members recently granted unanimous approval to the 2016-17 budgets of Lehigh Carbon Community College, Lehigh Career and Technical Institute and Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21.

LCCC’s total budget for the next school year is $49.8 million, a $1.1-million decrease over the previous term.

Parkland’s appropriation is $701,635 toward the operating budget and $528,522 for debt service and capital budgets, for a total of $1,230,157, a $26,304-increase over the prior year due to an increase in enrollment.

Last fall, 821 Parkland residents were registered for classes at LCCC, 48 percent full time and 52 percent part time.

Majors for these students included liberal arts, 26 percent; general studies, 10 percent; business administration, 9 percent; and computer-related programs, 8 percent.

The district’s share of the LCCC operating budget is based upon a five-year enrollment average.

Of all the sponsoring school districts, Parkland’s appropriation accounts for 16.95 percent of the operating budget.

The district’s portion of the debt service/capital budgets account is based on market valuation.

Parkland covers 25.829 percent of the total market value of sponsoring school districts.

The 2016-17 general fund budget for Lehigh Career and Technical Institute is $25.6 million, an $881,600-increase over the previous year.

Parkland’s share is $3.2 million, a $12,512-increase over the prior term.

The LCTI academic center budget is $1.66 million, a $43,880-increase.

Parkland will be paying $198,043 toward the academic center budget in 2016-17, an $11,819-increase over the previous year.

Students enrolled at the academic center spend the entire day at LCTI, taking a mix of technical classes as well as general education courses, instead of traveling back and forth to their home high schools.

The general operating budget of the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21 for 2016-17 is $3.1 million, a $59,835-increase over the previous year.

Parkland’s contribution, $210,652, is a $4,313-increase.

CLIU Executive Director Dr. Elaine Eib commented on the new budget.

“We have not asked for any increase in many years in the general operating budget,” she said. “It funds curriculum, instruction, technology and building maintenance.”

Eib said the CLIU is trying to offset the increase in expenditures by developing and selling online programs.