San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, January 15, 2014, at Cañada College

EC Members Present: Eric Brenner, Vicki Clinton, Salumeh Eslamieh, Nina Floro, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan (Exec. Secr.), Michelle Kern, Monica Malamud, Sandi Raeber-Dorsett, Anne Stafford, Elizabeth Terzakis.

AFT (non-EC) Members Present:  Doniella Maher (Cañada, English), Karen Olesen (Cañada, Counselor), Rob Williams (Skyline, English)

Guests:  Zev Kvitky (CFT Field Rep)

Meeting began at 2:45

Facilitator:  Sandi Raeber-Dorsett

1.     Welcome and Introductions:

Done.

2.     Statements from AFT (non EC) members on Non-Agenda Items:

None.

3.     Minutes of December 11, 2013 AFT meeting:

Approved with correction of a typo, with two abstentions.

4.     Spring AFT Social discussion:

In the focus groups with part-timers that were held in the fall, one of the issues that came up was the difficulty in getting part-time faculty interested in working on a parity campaign with the union.  So as a first step, it seems that the union should have some kind of social event for PT faculty.  It may be more effective to have an event at each campus.  The idea of having a baseball game with PT playing against FT was brought up, but this may be better saved for the future, and instead we could organize a simpler “meet and greet” with treats.  How would PT be motivated to attend?  According to Dan, the motivation should be that PT are not paid enough.  Doniella suggested framing this event as a “PT appreciation gathering”; this suggestion was very welcomed.  It was agreed that EC members on each campus will work on putting together this event early in the spring semester.

5.     Performance Evaluation Task Force: Spring semester timeline and new MOU

The PETF met on Monday.  The PETF has all the pieces of an evaluation for tenure-track, post-tenure and adjunct faculty.

Q: Why does our contract say we have tenure-track evaluations on year 1 and year 2, but then grants a two-year contract for years 3 and 4? 

A: This prompts an evaluation committee to be really rigorous in their evaluation early on; by the time a tenure-track faculty member has been through the first two years without major concerns, a two-year contract for the following two years sounds reasonable. 

Q: What about evaluation of school nurses?  School nurses are under Student Services, like counselors and librarians, but they also practice medicine… what about this aspect of their job? 

A: Regina S-S is a nurse and she will work on this.

Q: What about the release time for faculty on the PETF and the MOU? 

A: We could roll it over and extend it to include spring semester.

Motion:  Have Joaquin work on a roll over MOU to include spring semester?  Approved unanimously.

It is a good idea to have forums in the spring and again in the fall, just before the ratification vote, so that the PETF can explain the rationale for the changes in the evaluation forms and procedures.  The fall forum should happen during flex days.

6.     Professional Development: continuation of the discussion

At Skyline the Professional Development Committee changed the application forms and the committee chair created a rubric to evaluate proposals.  Additionally, there was a move to evaluate the applications online, without a face-to-face meeting or any kind of interaction among the members of the Professional Development Committee.  One aspect of the rubric was giving more weight to applicants who proposed some event to disseminate what they learned from the professional development activity with the broader campus community; this aspect would put certain faculty members at a disadvantage, if they were to use professional development funds for an activity that was very discipline-specific and had no appeal to the faculty at large.  These changes have been met with dissatisfaction among the faculty.

Another issue is the lack of coordination/cooperation among the Professional Development Committees on the three campuses.

A two-prong approach will be necessary:

–       An intervention at Skyline to deal with current concerns regarding evaluation of Professional Development applications

–       Set up a meeting of the three Professional Development Committees

6b. Quality Public Education Campaign: Spring semester activities – Katharine Harer

The CFT started a new campaign called Quality Public Education Campaign.  The CFT funded 4 grants in other districts (SJ/EV, Cabrillo, LA College Guild, Cerritos).   These grants help locals work on goals such as the following:

–       Internal goals:  membership drive, organizing students (starting student chapters, having student interns who work in the union)

–       External goals:  working with community organizations, elected officials, Board of Trustees

Katharine will write a grant proposal for our local so that we can work on similar goals.  One of the locals surveyed faculty members about their current involvement with community organizations; the intent was to leverage existing relationships between individual union members and community organizations when reaching out to these organizations in order to form partnerships to pursue union goals.

7.     Status of 2.30 – Teeka James:

2.30 = Rules and Regs on Political Activities.  No update.

8.     Recent grievances and complaints – Dan Kaplan:

Tabled.

9.     41^st Annual National Conference (April 6-8 in NYC)

Tabled.

10.  CCSF update – Dan Kaplan:

The judge in San Francisco granted the injunction requested by the SF City Attorney, but not the one filed by the CFT.  Judge’s decision was based on the fact that closure of CCSF would produce irreparable harm to the city of San Francisco.  Bob Bezemek will be working with the City Attorney’s office when the case toes to trial. 

11.  Report on Community College Council Committee meetings

Labor in the Schools – Michelle Kern

Committee is seeking funds from community groups to cover printing costs of Mandarin language materials.  Committee will be tabling at CFT and AFT Conventions.

Civil, Human and Women’s Rights – Nina Floro:

Committee worked on

i.      resolutions for the CFT Convention (request financial support for a couple of delegates to the Tri-national Coalition to Defend Public Education)

ii.     workshop on human-trafficking for the CFT Convention.

Educational Issues – Teeka James:

Committee worked on resolutions for the CFT Convention, dealing with

i.               providing support for teachers for the implemention of Common Core standards

ii.              support and local control for teachers regarding the use of technology

12.  AFT 1493 video interviews update – Dan Kaplan:

The person who was going to do the video did not do the job as promised.  We only have snippets of interviews and speeches, amounting to 30’, not all of which are useable.

EC members will look at the existing footage.  Discussion will continue at the next AFT meeting, regarding whether we want to produce a video, and what the content would be.

13.  March 2014 CFT Convention:

Tabled.

14.  Statements from EC members on Non-Agenda Items.

None.

San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, December 11, 2013, at CSM

EC Members Present:

Eric Brenner, Victoria Clinton, Salumeh Eslamieh, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan, Michelle Kern, Sandi Raeber Dorsett, Joaquin Rivera, Anne Stafford, Elizabeth Terzakis

Meeting started: 2:45

Facilitator: Katharine Harer

1. Welcome and Introductions

2. Statements from AFT (non EC) Members on Non-Agenda Items

None.

3. * Minutes of November 13, 2013 AFT Meeting

Approved unanimously.

4. Email Instruction

Because we are not allowed to store email messages on our AFT email server, we must regularly delete messages older than one year, or have our AFT email forwarded to another (personal, not SMCCD) account, in which case storing older messages is not a problem. If you have questions or need help, speak with Teeka.

5. Quality Public Education Campaign Update

Katharine intends to meet with people from CFT in the spring to begin work on AFT 1493’s proposal.

6. * Donation to the Tom Torlakson for Superintendent of Public Instruction Campaign?

Though AFT 1493 has traditionally contributed financially only to Board of Trustee candidates, the EC voted (9 “yes” and 1 “abstain”) to contribute $300 to Torlakson’s campaign.

7. Part-Time Parity Campaign: Focus Group Update

Vicki said there has been almost no response from Part-Time faculty to the invitation from the EC’s PT reps to form a small group to work on PT issues. Katharine suggested that all of the EC reps (full-time and part-time) work together to plan some kind of gathering for the spring as an opportunity to get more part-timers involved.

SMCCD is one of four community college districts within the Bay 10 that does not have a parity statement. Those that do, define parity as between 60% – 81%.

8. Recent Grievances and Complaints

Dan gave a brief summary of a range of current complaints and other contract issues.

9. 2014-15 Academic Calendar Update

No update at this time; the proposed calendar has not gone to the Board of Trustees yet.

10. * Performance Evaluation Task Force: Update

Elizabeth reported that the Task Force has not finished its work, and that all members will continue through the next semester. Though the existing MOU expires in December 2013, Harry Joel has assured the faculty members of the Task Force that continuing their release time through the spring 2014 semester will not be a problem. We will, however, have to negotiate a new MOU, including language about continuing compensation.

Because the Task Force wants to wait until all of the materials are completed before releasing them to the EC, and because the materials will likely not be ready until February or March, we will have to wait until Fall 2014 to hold the ratification vote.

AFT will send an eNews to all faculty in January, correcting the information published in the December 2013 Advocate (which stated that the ratification vote would be held in spring 2014 and that if the Task Force was unable to complete its work by the end of 2013, “a subcommittee of AFT 1493 and the District Academic Senate will take up the work.”)

11. Professional Development: Continuation of the Discussion

Tabled.

12. AFT 1493 Video Interviews

Dan announced that as we did not get enough video interviews at the AFT 1493 anniversary party in November, we will conduct more later.

13. DSGC Report (and 2.30)

Nothing to report at this time.

14. Statements from EC Members on Non-Agenda Items

CFT subcommittees are working on drafting resolutions for the spring convention. Teeka will be working on a resolution regarding online education and is looking for contributions to craft a better resolution that the draft currently in existence.

Meeting adjourned: 4:25

*Action Item

San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493

Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at Skyline College

EC Members Present:
Lin Bowie, Salumeh Eslamieh, Eric Brenner, Anne Stafford, Teeka James, Nina Floro, Joaquin Rivera, Katharine Harer, Sandi Raeber-Dorsett, Vicki Clinton, Paul Reukhaus, Dan Kaplan

Guests:
Zev Kvitky, Tom Broxholm

NON-AGENDA ITEMS FROM NON-EC MEMBERS

Tom from Skyline automotive: He has questions about whether meetings are mandatory or not.

Professional development: Tom has concerns about the professional development process at Skyline. Skyline has a rubric that includes points for sharing with colleagues and students. But you get more points for sharing what you learn with colleagues than with students. Seems backwards to Tom. He understands that the committee is trying to make things fair, but he still has concerns.

Tom talked with the PD chair, Rick Hough, but Rick decided to go forward with the form.

He thinks folks need to get approval in advance, even for conditional funding. It’s hard to plan to attend conferences that are early in the fall because we don’t know if we’ll get funding or not. You are supposed to apply 21 days ahead, but some folks are applying closer than 21 days ahead and even some are applying after they’ve gone to the conference and they’re still getting funded. It is frustrating to have people who do not follow the rules still get money; it seems like there should be some system of priorities.

What is the rubric? It’s new to the Skyline PD committee. It is a couple additional questions to help them figure out whom to fund. Salumeh says she’s on the PD committee at Canada, and they don’t use any kind of rubric. The Skyline committee does everything through email. Nina has heard from a committee member who doesn’t feel like her views are heard in the committee deliberations. The intentions are good, but there seem to be glitches. Katharine heard about the rubric, and can see why it would be helpful. But she’s wondering how the decision to use a rubric was made. Not all of the committee even votes, since it’s through email.

It seems like AFT needs to step in. We might look at how the three committees are discharging their duties. Dan used to contact the PD chairs to check in. Maybe we need to resume doing this. Perhaps ask for yearly reports. Perhaps have face-to-face meeting with the PD chairs and set up a best practices list.

We need to stick to the language of the contract. Canada takes late applications on a case by case practice. Teeka and Dan will contact the chairs and meet with them.

MINUTES

Approved with one change; 8 yes, 3 abstain

ANNIVERSARY PARTY

Dan is concerned about attendance. We currently have about 30 who have said they are coming. We’ve planned on 100, so we’ll just see what happens. Set up is at 3:00. We are prepared, thanks to Dan’s heroic efforts at organizing this shindig.

ACCREDITATION PETITION

Teeka and Dan went to CFT Area Council meeting last week. Sandra Weiss brought up the idea of doing a petition of sorts in support of Ron Galatolo’s courageous stand against ACCJC. Apparently there are 12 other “CEOs” who are in support of Ron’s views, but they are not willing to stand up and be counted. Zev clarifies that the petition would really be focused on the CCSF fight against ACCJC, but Ron and his actions might be a part of that.

ACADEMIC CALENDAR

The calendar discussion. We looked at two proposed calendars. We voted to approve #3, but we are not completely happy about the flex day being moved to the day before Thanksgiving.

PETF: NEXT STEPS

Harry is on vacation, and PETF’s clerical support has evaporated. Elizabeth and Nina are ready to be working on the layout and “professional” look of our contract, as ours looks pretty janky[1] in comparison to what other schools use. Harry is working on several pieces that the other PETF members do not have access to, so they’re not sure what to do. Perhaps we can ask Ron Galotolo for help on the clerical piece.

Teeka will call Ron to ask about the clerical help.

With all the accreditation fuss, Lezlee and Elizabeth met with the accreditation site visit team at Cañada, and they had a love fest around the SLOs.

QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN UPDATE

Katharine, Zev, Teeka and Dan had a meeting to brainstorm the project for our CFT grant. We want to build our capacity for activism and build our leadership. We also talked about the threats to education and how to link a response to those threats into our proposal. Start a political action network SMCCPAN. We focus on local issues, try to connect with our students. In the spring, Katharine will be working on writing the grant with Zev. She’ll have some time for this paid by AFT 1493.

ASSOCIATED STUDENTS PULL BP 2.30 (POLITICAL ACTIVITY) FROM BOARD CONSIDERATION

We’ll see what will happen. Maybe Teeka should contact Barbara and Ginny about it. There was a quid pro quo on this.

BOT’s DISCUSSION ON THE ACCJC RESOLUTION

Mandelkern didn’t like linking our problems w/ ACCJC with the CCSF issues. Mandelkern wanted to do two resolutions, separating CCSF and ACCJC. They don’t want to pass the resolution until we hear about our accreditation reports. So, they’re going to wait 60 days. Holober said that the board is 100% behind Ron.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Joaquin will represent AFT on the hiring committee for the new head of HR. At our last three meetings, we’ve had very low attendance. We decide to cancel our December 4th meeting, because so many folks will not be able to attend.

Meeting adjourned at 4:55.

Minutes by Teeka James

[1] Janky, we learned from Elizabeth, means haphazard and unprofessional.