Less than two weeks after suffering a heart attack, 92-year-old Lorry Grobes was back at the Napa Valley College gym to attend the adaptive physical education class she had been going to for more than a decade. The 90-minute class, she said, helped her recover from a previous heart attack as well and kept her going.

For Donny Owen, whose family drives him from Fairfield to the college twice weekly, the class enabled him to move and get in and out of cars — something he was not able to do after a stroke in 2014. The class also played a major role in enhancing the 48-year-old’s sense of self-worth, he said, giving him a community of people who understand his situation.

Sophia Borgeaud, a 20-year-old with cerebral palsy, spends most of her days between a specialized vocational program at American Canyon High and her home. Her weekly visits to the college for adaptive P.E. are her only opportunity to explore the world and mingle with other people, her mother, Sophie, said.

“For many of these students, including my own child, this is their first experience of independence and belonging in an educational setting,” Sophie said. “What makes this program truly special is that it is one of the only places in Napa where you can see inclusion in action.”

That will change at the end of the semester, however, when the college discontinues the class. The college’s decision means disabled students who have come to rely on the class must find other affordable and accessible ways to stay active.

Cuts criticized

On Feb. 12, the Napa Valley College Board of Trustees voted to lay off 16 workers and eliminate 17 vacant positions, effectively dismantling the adaptive P.E. program that currently serves more than 200 students. With the termination of the last remaining classified worker who supports the program, the classes will be discontinued beginning in the 2026 summer term.

The program, which has been offered for at least 40 years, provides a range of fitness activities for disabled students in a facility equipped with specially designed, wheelchair-accessible machines. Offering a dozen sessions per week, the program aims to help seniors stay healthy, rehabilitate patients of all ages who are often sent by their doctors, and provide access to college to young adults with disabilities.

According to college leaders, the layoffs were necessary due to fiscal distress caused by the loss of federal grants and lower-than-expected local property taxes that support the institution. But community members who have consistently attended board meetings in large numbers to register their protest against the cuts are questioning why the program was chosen for elimination. Christy Kling, a kinesiology professor who has taught the class since 1986, said she was not consulted before the decision was made.

In a factsheet shared in February, college officials said the terminated positions were selected based on the funding source, impact on student support, effect on essential campus operations and consideration of filled and vacant roles across all departments.

In the weeks since, Kling said she has repeatedly asked at least three college administrators for data on the cost of the program, the revenue it generates and specific criteria used to determine its termination. No one has provided any concrete answers yet, she said, and the query has been tossed from one leader to another. The Press Democrat requested the college to provide similar data but has not yet received it.

“We are committed to finding new ways to lower our operating costs and secure extra funding through the Napa Valley College Foundation and the community,” Kling said. “To accomplish this, we need Napa Valley College to provide us with a budget so that we can develop strategies to fund the program.”

She suggested reducing the number of classes, cutting down student staff positions or even replacing her own position with a part-time instructor to keep the program going.

The college, in a statement to The Press Democrat, said it is using the rest of the semester to “ensure that the necessary thoughtfulness and attention is given to what is next for students that are sad to see this class off the schedule.”

Armando Robles, college spokesperson, said other classes in the kinesiology program would remain on offer and adaptive P.E. students would continue to receive support. Students were encouraged to meet their Disability Support Programs and Services counselor to explore other courses such as swimming and yoga, he said. These classes, however, are not specially designed for disabled individuals.

The college did not allow The Press Democrat to observe an adaptive P.E. class for this story. This decision, Robles said, was based on the campus security and access policy and “concerns about the ability of some of the students in that class to adequately provide authorization or consent to be observed or photographed.”

‘Nothing like this’

With its individualized fitness plans for each student, its specially trained staff and state-of-the-art accessible equipment, the adaptive P.E. program has become more than a class at the college. It has, over time, established itself as an integral offering for people with disabilities in Napa.

The St. Helena Opportunities Program, run by St. Helena Unified for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, brings its students to the adaptive P.E. program every week.

“Since our students began participating last year, we have observed remarkable growth in their physical health, emotional well-being and social confidence,” special education teacher Mary O’Donnell said. “There is no other program like this in the county and its value cannot be overstated. It is a lifeline for many families, caregivers and service providers who strive to support adults with developmental disabilities in leading full, healthy and active lives.”

Karelia Barton provides a similar service through her private agency called Wine Country Support Services. With a mission of empowering young adults with disabilities by equipping them with independent living skills, she brings some of her clients to the adaptive P.E. classes every week.

“I have taken my clients to gyms across the valley. There is nothing like this,” Barton said. “At other gyms, I have encountered opposition from other members. It’s very normal to be discriminated against when you have a disability. I’ve been doing this work for four years and the adaptive P.E. program at the college is the only place where I’ve seen inclusion in action.”

Suzy Jordan, the Napa County area director for Special Olympics Northern California, said the organization’s athletes had been attending adaptive P.E. classes at the college for decades.

She said she often refers her clients to the class. Others in the community, she said, come out of physical therapy after a fall or a surgery and join the class when they have no insurance benefits left.

“It’s amazing because they can go there without financial hardship,” she said. “They have someone looking out for them and they get coached in the professional way to do their exercises so they don’t hurt themselves.”

Money matters

For students, the 1.5-unit community college class costs less than $100 per semester.

The college has not shared the annual cost of running the program but it includes the costs of staff — presently one professor, one classified position and four student positions — and annual equipment maintenance.

According to officials, the college had to make cuts in February as a result of financial pressures at the federal, state and local levels.

Napa Valley College, they said, is set to lose about $2.5 million in federal funding by 2028 after the Trump administration canceled grants meant to support Hispanic-serving colleges and universities as well as disabled students and first-generation college students. The college also estimates a loss of $1.9 million as a result of “stagnating state funding sources” by 2028, according to a factsheet college officials shared in February. In 2025, the college registered a shortfall of $775,000 as a result of local property taxes, a large chunk of its funding each year, coming in lower than expected.

Without any action, the college could have faced a budget deficit of up to $4.5 million by 2028 and $6.7 million by 2029, according to the administration’s pre-layoff projections.

At present, the college’s fund balance in its discretionary pot of money sits at $16.5 million, or about 28% of its nearly $60 million total expenditures, per the adjusted budget for the 2025-2026 school year. This includes a recent windfall of pandemic-era relief funds, money that trustees are keen not to use for operational expenses.

Without this money, the fund balance will be about $9.5 million or 16.95% of total expenses. The college wants to maintain a 16.66% reserve level. Its reserves have trended upward in the last three audited budget years, from the 2022-23 year to the 2024-25 year.

As the new relief funds, federal cuts and freshly settled labor contracts shake out, the college may see further “reorganization” over the next few months, according to President Torence Powell, who leaves at the end of this academic year.

But for the adaptive P.E. program, the college’s main budget is not the only source of financial support.

Evelyn Allen, a longtime Napa resident and former Napa Valley College student, left the bulk of her estate to Napa Valley College Foundation when she died in 2021.

Allen’s estate included three Napa Valley homes and a 13-acre vineyard of cabernet grapes. In the trust document, she asked that her gift be used to support the college’s agriculture and adaptive physical education programs.

Jessica Thomason, executive director of the foundation, told The Press Democrat the properties were sold and the proceeds are being used for the Viticulture and Winery Technology program, the adaptive P.E. program and scholarships for students in those programs. This includes housing scholarships to subsidize rent costs for students.

Adaptive P.E. “is a very costly program to run,” Thomason said. “We’re in the process of meeting with college leadership and faculty to look at ways that we can utilize the (Allen trust) funds to support the program in alternative ways that fit within the budget. We need to see what portion we can actually allocate to support the program right now.”

Nearby Santa Rosa Junior College has a similar program that offers physical fitness classes modified to meet the needs of students with disabilities. Most of the classes are free. To keep the program financially strong, the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation has a running donation drive that helps pay for equipment maintenance, supplies and annual awards.

What next

The $7.4 million North Gym, where adaptive P.E. classes are held, was built in 2009, funded by a $133.8 million bond approved by voters in 2022 to upgrade campus infrastructure. The gym has also been used as a training space for the Criminal Justice Training Center, which was discontinued in November 2023. It is unknown what the facility will be used for going forward.

At the most recent Napa Valley College Board of Trustees meeting on March 19, board President Jennifer Baker said the college was “exploring all options” for adaptive P.E.

But when Trustee Jason Kishineff requested that a discussion on alternative funding models for the program — specifically earmarking a portion of all donations to the college — be added to the agenda for a future board meeting, no other trustee backed him.

Meanwhile, students such as Grobes, Owen and Borgeaud are searching for alternative ways to meet their physical fitness requirements. While some are thinking of private gym memberships, others are exploring the city’s adult and senior wellness classes.

Grobes said she will likely have to upgrade her health insurance plan to include membership at a local gym that offers rehabilitative care.

Owen will probably go back to working out at home — a situation he described as “not ideal at all.”

As for Borgeaud, she and her family are not sure where to begin looking for an alternative program that will provide not just a safe and supportive environment for physical exercise but also a welcoming community space the way the North Gym at Napa Valley College did.