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What’s Happening Now: May 2013 (2 VERY IMPORTANT MEETINGS!)

by pccfa

Fact Finding this Thursday, May 30 – District may impose an unfair contract!

The FA is committed to negotiating the best possible contract for its faculty, but we need full support from our faculty. Do not let them dismiss your voice!

Let the District know how you feel about the contract– that the District is attempting to impose and that you want them to negotiate our contract in a civil and collegial fashion.  

Together we need to let the administration and the Board know that we as faculty and community members believe an important part of their job is to conduct honest and collegial negotiations.  The imposition of a contract on any labor union on campus signifies an admission by the Board and administration of job failure as well as the illegitimacy of their leadership. Otherwise, why wouldn’t they respect shared governance? 

Let us raise our voice in such numbers that the administration and the Board can no longer claim that they are the complaints of an isolated few. Both the Board of Trustees and President Rocha have expressed that they have only heard from the same 15 or so disgruntled faculty on  campus.   Let us not stand in silence while they impose conditions that are not only divisive and detrimental to faculty but are deleterious to our students and their academic goals.

The District’s Last, Best and Final when they cut off negotiations:

  • more students in your classroom= LESS success! (see: Effect of 20 Percent Increase in Class Size Over 1982 (March 2013); if our school is headed towards statistical-based “success stories”, it’s going to be an uphill battle. More students in your classroom essentially reduces any pay raise (along with overload teaching limitations/restrictions)
  • the two-tiered approach to health care that the District wants is unnecessary as the District has over $17 million in reserves and the May Revise is positive (see FACCC budget report below).
  • a permanent union sign-off on winter’s elimination, without adherence to shared governance.  Do you really want to give up your students’ Winter? (See pedagogical rationale for maintaining winter  and campus-wide success rates for years with and without winter.)

A summary of the FA’s latest proposal is here:

May 30, 2013 (2pm, C217)  there will be a Fact Finding hearing.  Now is the time to DO something. What needs to be done cannot be done for you.

What is happening with the Winter and 2012-2013 calendar?

Bell was diligent enough to send faculty a memo reminding them (5 weeks ahead of time) to turn in grades for the “Spring 2” intersession, but what about his getting the paperwork from the Calendar Committee that had just approved the 2013-2014 calendar to the Board of Trustees so they could put it on their agenda to have been discussed at the May 1 Board Meeting?

His response: my bad!

That seems to be the typical response on this campus.  Shared governance has done its due diligence; nevertheless, the Board of Trustees maintains that the cancellation of Winter 2012-2013 is a PERB (unfair labor) issue and thus don’t want to discuss Winter 2013-2014.  This, despite the fact that the Board has been presented with the pedagogical rationale for a semester with winter, and both the Calendar Committee and Academic Senate have approved the 2013-2014 calendar WITH winter on it. To date, the Board has not presented its own rationale for continuing a calendar without winter.

COME TO THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING ON JUNE 5 @ 6:45pm; SPEAK AT PUBLIC COMMENT OR JUST SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO YOUR COLLEAGUES THAT DO. When the Board sees an empty room, their ‘rationale’ could be that faculty are disinterested.

Interesting Reads

From FACCC  May 14, 2013 Newsletter

Governor Releases May Revise Budget Proposal; Includes COLA and Growth, Abandons Performance-Based Funding

The quietest California budget season in recent memory heated up today as Governor Jerry Brown released his updated January budget proposal known as the “May Revise.” In the wake of Proposition 30, Governor Brown noted that “this is time for prudence, not exuberance” and emphasized the necessity to maintain fiscal restraint, prioritize funding for education, and implement the Affordable Health Care Act.
APPORTIONMENTS   

An increase of $30 million over the January proposal Proposition 98 General Fund in 2013-14, including monies for  COLA, growth, and funding of the Student Success Act:
  • $87.5 million for a cost of living adjustment representing 1.57% of base apportionments
  • $89.4 million available for general enrollment growth representing 1.5% of base apportionments
  • $50 million for additional student support services including orientation, assessments, counseling, advising, and education planning, as developed by the Student Success Task Force recommendations and the Student Success Act of 2012. 

ADULT EDUCATION

The Governor’s controversial transfer of K-12 adult education to community colleges has been revised to propose a regional consortium model between providers of adult education and workforce development partners be developed and funded through grants over the next two years.

PERFORMANCE-BASED FUNDING

The revision abandoned performance-based funding and 90-unit caps.  Click here to read the revised summary in detail.