Students may be pleasantly surprised to find new sections of English, math and other classes added to the spring schedule.

DVC officials have decided to accept the district’s offer of some one-time money to add the new classes.

But the offer comes with some potentially serious strings attached.

If the new classes fail to draw an overall average of 33 students each, DVC must pay the money back out of its operating budget.

“Operating funds are what buy the chemicals in the labs and pay for the food for the culinary students and gloves in the dental hygiene [courses],” said instructional council member Kim Schenk, interim senior dean of transfer and general education, “I mean, it’s our bread and butter … so we wouldn’t want to go there.”

The district first made the offer earlier this semester following an outcry by faculty and students over class cuts. But College President Judy Walters and Susan Lamb, vice president of student affairs, flatly rejected it, because it was too great a risk.

But with enrollment trending up for the first time since 2002-2003, Walters told the Inquirer editorial board last week she feels better about rolling the dice.

“I think we’re going to be OK,” Walters said. “I think we’re going to make it.”

In an effort to offset some of the risk, Lamb told the Faculty Senate on Oct. 28 that she, along with the Instructional Council, had carefully selected a pool of sections.

The tentative list of classes to be added, include sections of math, English, nutrition, computer science, speech, Arabic, art history, drama and humanities.

Still, Lamb said, it’s a gamble.

“We are placing our bets … that we can get enough students in these courses that it’s not going to pull us down in the spring,” she said.

In a recent interview with the Inquirer, Lamb explained another potential risk: The new classes could threaten the student/teacher ratio (called “productivity”) of other sections.

“We have to make sure that they don’t siphon students off our other classes,” Lamb said. “The rest of the classes across campus [must] stay above that [33-student] watermark, too.”

In order to prevent “siphoning,” she said she will watch enrollment in these classes closely for two weeks into the semester.

If necessary, the new classes will be the first pulled from the schedule to protect the overall productivity number, she said.