Faculty News Notes Oct 2, 2014

October 2, 2014

Contract Ratification Voting:

        A copy of the Tentative Agreement has been placed in the library at the polling place in case you want to review the articles.  Following is a brief summary:

• Compensation:  COLA 1.57% on schedule retroactive to July 1, 2013 for full-time faculty. This was the amount of COLA for that year.
• The total dollar amount available was $265,000;  the amount applied to the Full-Time Schedule is $130,000, which equals an increase of 1.57%.
• The balance, $135,000, will be applied to the Overload/Part-Time Schedule.  This represents a 6% increase on the current salary schedule.  This increase is also retroactive to July 1, 2013.
• This means that everyone who has been teaching here since July 1, 2013, will receive a retroactive check for work performed between July 1, 2013 and the present, and everyone will receive an on-schedule increase as described above for full-time, overload, and part-time work.

What is particularly interesting to the negotiating team is that the copy of the compensation proposal was dated 9-26 by the district, when, in fact, the Federation submitted the proposal on April 8.

Fringe Benefits:  The $2,000 increase has already been in effect, for those who are covering families.  Of course, this year, since the rates for health care have increased, faculty members covering a spouse or family are still spending far too much of their paychecks.

            Insurance benefits can be continued following retirement (with 20 years of service to the District) for those hired before July 1, 2014.

            Retirees may continue with District health plans with premiums paid by the district until they are Medicare eligible;  When Medicare becomes the primary provider, the district will cover the cost of Plan B (Senior Advantage plans) that the District’s carriers provide.  This provision is not available to those hired after July 1, 2014.

            Faculty Emeriti:  this provision previously appeared in Board Policy;  the District agreed that it was more a matter for the contract than for Board Policy.

Division Chairs:  The District, having tried to eliminate the Division Chairs entirely, agreed to 3 Chairs, one for each division.  Since there are currently five Chairs, an election will need to be held in two of the divisions, if the contract is ratified.

Evaluation: The District demanded, repeatedly, the elimination of basic evaluations and the replacement of them with the comprehensive evaluations.  In accordance with the Education Code, evaluations must be conducted every three years. The changes for tenured faculty evaluation teams will be found on page 4 and include:

o   the appropriate academic dean or academic administrator as chair,

o    the division chair or designee,

o    Two tenured faculty from the discipline

o   If possible, one additional faculty member from a related discipline.

This represents the team for a standard evaluation.

            Evaluations for tenured faculty require classroom observations up to three classes (sections). Probationary faculty will be observed in all of their classes.

            Portfolios for tenured faculty are updates of existing materials (syllabi, assignments, professional growth, assessment reflections).

            Part –time faculty will be evaluated in accordance with section 10.5 of the current contract:  the team consists of the appropriate division chair or designee and one tenured or probationary (3^rd or 4^th year) faculty member from the discipline.  One observation is required, along with a collection of student surveys and syllabi, sample assignments and self-evaluation and reflections.  These provisions are already in the contract and have not been changed.

The last three pages are new evaluation forms for non-teaching faculty:  the FYE Coordinator/Counselor, the Instructional Specialist, and the Librarian.

Attached you will find the balloting instructions.  Voting will begin late Thursday afternoon and will extend until Wednesday at 3:30, after which the votes will be counted and the results released.  In accordance with past practice, the Federation secretary and Grievance Officer participate in the counting of ballots, along with two members of the library staff, one of whom must be a classified employee.