CCCFE Faculty News Notes June/July 2013

June 28, 2013

Clarification of the Due Dates for Final Grade Submission:

            The posting of final grades on line is due eight days (business days) after the last day of final exams.  The reason for this submission date—which has always been in our contract—is so that students will be able to enroll in classes for the subsequent semester or summer session before the supporting documentation for the final grades is due.  The supporting documentation deadline is sent out by email from ECC, and that is usually ten days after the on-line posting is due.   Therefore, it is important that your grades be posted by 8 business days days following the last day of finals to avoid being on the list of faculty submitting grades late. The Federation has informed the District that the two seemingly contradictory emails sent to Compton faculty, one from the offices of Academic Affairs and Student affairs claiming that grades need to be submitted 10 unspecified days, following final exams, and the other from Torrance, are unclear and therefore confusing to faculty as to when the grades really need to be in.  Remember: 8 business days from the last day of final exams for the on-line posting of grades;  documentation is due on the day indicated by the Torrance campus.  The District has been claiming that the time required for posting is ten unspecified days;  the contract says otherwise, and very clearly states 8 business days ( that is, Monday – Friday). It is apparent that the District is counting Saturdays, whereas the Federation counts business days as the standard workweek of Monday through Friday.  This matter needs to be resolved during the current negotiations.

Flex Credit Alert:

        A number of faculty members have not as yet submitted their hours for flex credit.  Perhaps some may have forgotten to do so by the end of the semester.  It is essential that you maintain careful records of the hours you have spent in acquiring flex credits and submit them at the end of each semester.  12 hours are required for each semester—or 24 each year.  This is part of your professional obligation. Please see page 64, Section 16.4 of the Federation contract.

Negotiations Up-Date:

            Some talk and no action sums up the progress;  however, the negotiating team will meet with the District’s team on Tuesday, July 2. We have gotten quite close to an agreement on evaluation procedures. The basic evaluation has additional requirements:  a mini-portfolio that includes professional development, and samples of class assignments, syllabi, assessments, and reflections. We have managed to reduce the number of division chair duties and responsibilities, given the new organizational structure, but we are not in agreement with other items proposed by the District in the division chair article.  Since there is no agreement in this area, five chairs remain in the structure—however haphazardly the disciplines have been  aligned or combined. The 20% reassigned time and the stipend will remain for this year;  the District—favoring a 3-chair structure—had proposed a 40% reassigned time for each chair, but with no stipend, except for $2,000 for summer work.  We  rejected that .  Faculty members can readily see the District’s intent in this reorganization and in the intent to reduce the number of chairs and the cost of their positions.  You might also notice on the reorganizational plan that any potential savings to the district are earmarked to support classified assistants’ positions for the three deans.

A Word about the Budget:

            Prop 30 money is not new money coming into the district;  it is like a back-fill or stabilization funds to provide the district the financial ability to operate at the 2011 level, when mid-year cuts were severe. In some districts, it allows for the rehiring of faculty and staff who were laid off as a result of the severe cuts.  In other districts it allows for the restoration of classes that had been cut from the schedule and for the increase in part-time staffing.  The point is that this is not an augmentation to the budget;  it is a restoration of the 2011 funding level.

            The May Revise budget shows a potential 1.57% COLA and possible growth funding;  these funds have not been secured.  We will keep you apprised as to what happens to this potential income to the district.

            The major problem—as far as how any possible new money may be used-- is that the District has repeatedly stuck to a preference for adding new positions (8 faculty positions) and, with Prop 30 money, restoring 150 class sections to the schedule.

Equity for Whom?

            The District, in reorganizing itself, has equalized the workload for the deans, asd the reorganization of disciplines gives each dean a roughly equal number of FTEF (full-time equivalent faculty) load between 47.9 and 49.9, with the Turducken Division # 3 (Math/English and Library LRC) having the most FTEF:  49.93.  It has a reasonably equalized distribution of FTES, ranging from 786.8 to 937.8 –with the Turducken Division #2 (VocTech and Social Science and Fine Arts) having the lion’s share at 937.85.

·       The workload for the Deans is mitigated by the two division chairs assigned to Division 1 and Divison 2.

·       The Deans’ workload is further reduced by instructional coordinators, instructional assistants and administrative assistants.

·       Turducken #3 has only one division chair and what appears to be a head librarian position.

·       While the Chairs in Division 1 have approximately 23.95 FTEF each, and the Chairs in Division 2 (including Social Science, Fine Arts, Voc Tech and business) have 24.5, the one division chair for Division 3 –another Turducken—has 49.9 FTEF, in other words, the most full and part-time faculty to work with in the scheduling of classes and coordinating faculty evaluations.

Surely equity is not the province only of deans. If the District is willing to provide equitable workloads for administrators, in this case academic deans,  and ostensibly by happenstance, whim, or deliberation to some division chairs, but not to another, we should all be reminded of a fundamental tenet of unions:  an injury to one is an injury to all, in this case all faculty.

            If you’re not familiar with a turducken, it’s a chicken and a duck stuffed into a turkey.

Benefits Sign-up period will be early this year:

            Because we are returning to a ten-month payroll distribution cycle this year, the benefits sign up period will be held earlier than its usual time at the beginning of the fall semester.  Because of new reporting regulations, it is necessary to have the sign up period mid-summer so that the benefits can be reflected on the first paycheck for August. The sign up period this year will be July 15 – July 30, 2013.  Human Resources will be sending out additional information and provisions that will be made for faculty who are out of town on vacation.

            There will also be new rates, which Human Resources will announce in the letter that will be sent out to all full-time  faculty.

• Potential Restoration of Part-time Benefits:

The news looks very promising for part-time faculty who have met the requirements for medical benefits, as it appears that the state will be funding colleges for this much needed benefit for adjunct instructors..  Last year, eligible adjuncts were notified during flex day that they would not be getting any medical benefits due to the state’s fiscal crisis and consequent inability to reimburse districts for the cost of health coverage for adjunct faculty.  In accordance with Section 18.7 of the contract and  Ed. Code section 87860 et. seq., to be eligible for benefits, the adjunct faculty member must have been working 40% of a full-time load for two consecutive semesters and have been assigned a 40% load for the third consecutive semester.  These provisions are on page 67 of the current contract.  If you have questions, you can contact any of the union officers.   Check with Human Resources mid-July for more concrete information about the current benefits.

• Medicare Eligibility Reporting:

Some faculty members who are eligible—or have been eligible for Medicare—have not notified the District.  It is a contractual requirement that when you become Medicare eligible that you inform the district and sign up for Medicare parts A and B.  The District pays for your Medicare coverage, and Medicare becomes your primary health care at the time.  Signing up for Medicare does NOT necessitate your taking your social security benefit payments.  If you are age 64 and a half or older, you need to notify the local social security office and sign up for Medicare and notify the district immediately.  Failure to comply has serious consequences, especially when you do claim social security, as you can lose 10% per year of your social security benefits if you fail to contact social security and Medicare.  This draconian measure is Social Security policy;  it is not a mean spiritedness of the District.  I doubt that anyone would have realized the dire consequences of neglecting the reporting responsibility had we not been informed by the Social Security and Medicare representatives that provided a workshop to potential retirees late this past spring.

            It has come to our attention that a number of retirees have been paying for their own Medicare supplemental policies;  the District is contractually obligated to do so, but has never notified any retiree of any process for verifying the coverage through Medicare.  This will need to be clarified and the information distributed to those eligible for Medicare prior to the sign-up period.

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