MOSES LAKE - The welding program and some staff positions are being eliminated at Columbia Basin Job Corps, with staff cuts starting this month.

Acting center director Mike Kelly recently announced the changes, Susan Mann, the center's business-community liaison, said.

Students currently enrolled in the welding program will be allowed to complete it, but no new students will be accepted, Mann said. "Within the Job Corps program we'll get them (current students) their certification," she said.

Job Corps administrators looked at the five-year record of job placements in making their decisions on what to cut, Mann said. While the welding program's record has "been great" the last six months, the five-year record was not as good, she said. In addition, "(welding) is an expensive trade to teach," she said.

The center's college prep program won't be eliminated, but the number of places available is being cut, she said.

Directors haven't determined how big the cut will be, she said.

"The good news is we're getting students back in," she said.

The Moses Lake center will be allowed to accept a maximum of 247 students, she said, which is a cut in the number of students authorized.

But that's an expansion of the current student body, which had dropped to 188 with a stop on enrollments that started in February. The Moses Lake center started accepting students July 17, she said, and will enroll new students every two weeks.

Staff positions that will be cut have been announced, Mann said. The actual process of reducing staff starts with people taking early retirement and termination packages, she said.

What happens after that is still being discussed by agency and union leaders, she said.

"As far as the students are concerned, it's business as usual," she said. Students are working the fire lines and providing meals at fires in Washington and Idaho, she said, and student construction crews are assisting with the new Habitat for Humanity project.