Board of Trustees Meeting, February 19, 2019

Last night was the Board of Trustees Meeting. The closed session began at 4:30; the public session started at 6 pm and went to 10:15 pm. Below are some highlights:

• Four classified employees were selected from the 3 colleges and the DAC as classified employees of the year. Joel Diaz, Gilbert Downs, Jo Nell Miller and Dana Boynton. From this honored group, Dana Boynton was selected to be nominated and her name forwarded for the State "classified employee of the year". Congratulations to all.
• A total of 22 F/T faculty were granted tenure from our 3 college campuses. Most were able to attend and were recognized by the Board and the Chancellor
• The College Foundations for our three campuses gave their annual report

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There was other recognitions for students who were selected to participate in NASA orientation/training programs from OC as well as routine consent items relative to business services and capital spending. Of particular importance to AFT 1828 was the acceptance by the board of the initial proposals by the VCCCD and AFT 1828  to begin collective bargaining. The date to start has now been confirmed to be March 1.

At the 4:30 public comment before the closed BOT session, Steve Hall, Bea Herrera and I addressed the following concerns. 1. Steve Hall expressed to the Board of Trustees that moving into negotiations, our faculty surveys and his discussions with faculty indicate tremendous dissatisfaction with the last contract negotiations that has resulted in extremely low faculty morale throughout the District. 2. Bea Herrera noted that additional faculty are now the subjects of District performance documentation that she was unaware existed. She wanted to ensure that these faculty were aware of their rights to receive due process and union representation. 3. I commented on the tenure review process. There is a systemic issue regarding an unwritten policy that faculty will not be granted tenure until the completion of their 4th year despite the recommendations of the tenure review committees. The process requires that recommendations of the tenure review committees are forward to the Campus President and then the  Chancellor. If these recommendations differ, the BOT votes to resolve the issue. On the agenda for this evening was the 4 recommendations by the VC tenure review committee to recommend tenure for 4 faculty in the 3rd year. In opposition to this, the College President and the Chancellor recommended no action on this request. This situation fails to honor the hard work of the faculty tenure committee and it does it properly recognize the individual efforts made by the candidate to receive this recommendation by his/her peers. These same concerns were also expressed at the 6 pm public comment at the start of the open session.

During the open session the following was of particular interest for the AFT.

• Trustee Chancer addressed an item on the consent calendar (Acceptance of Quarterly Financial Status Report). He asked a hypothetical...what if some citizen asked him what are the current cash reserves of the college district? Since besides the dedicated cash reserves of between 28-30 million, it appears that monies in accounts 113 and 114 (which are unrestricted) would push that total to 72 million.  VC El Fattal replied that this quarterly report was only a "snapshot" in time, but, yes, at this juncture it could be said that 72 million was available to the District. A discussion ensured over how the picture would change over time, but Trustee Chancer pushed the issue of what happens when these accounts still have unused balances at the end of the Fiscal Year. Trustee Chancer recommended that a more formal policy on District cash reserves and unrestricted monies be pursued. Trustee Torres also spoke in favor of this proposal.

• When the issue of the tenure recommendations for VC faculty after the third year by the tenure review committee at VC came up for discussion, the agenda items indicated this was NOT aligned with the four-year probation for the listed faculty. During this discussion, Trustees Chancer and Torres asked pointed question of the BOT Chair Dianne McKay. She recalled that the "policy" change to rigidly adhere to the four year rule was adopted around 2010. (That would have during former Chancellor Meznek's tenure) Previously to this time, faculty could and did receive tenure prior to the end of 4 years based on the recommendations of the tenure review committee and the College President.. Both Trustees Chancer and Torres voted yes to honor the current recommendations for tenure by the VC committee after the third year. However, the vote was 3-2 to take no action and thus the tenure review process will continue for the 4 unnamed faculty.

• Lydia Morales, Academic Senate President at VC read two resolutions from the VC Academic Senate.  The full content of this resolution is available to read  at the below link https://www.boarddocs.com/ca/vcccd/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=B96NCG5D4065 Scroll down to "College Reports" and click onto it and then you will see these resolutions. One resolution is a vote of no confidence for State Chancellor Oakley and the other resolution raises concerns over the current dual enrollment program

• Diane Eberhardy, Academic Senate President for OC commented on the wait times for students to see counselors at OC was often 2 or 3 hours. She mentioned that there was a need for additional staffing and more pathways for their tenure.

Lasting in the above link, you will see the entire BOT agenda for Feb 19 and you can click onto any item on the left side to open up a detailed description of the listed item.

In Solidarity

Doug Thiel
President, AFT 1828