Monthly Archives: December 2020

PARENTAL LEAVES RENEWED FOR SPRING!

We are happy to share some good news!  Through the hard work and heartfelt testimonies of a number of union members, especially faculty parents, we have now settled a Memorandum of Understanding for Spring 2021.  The MOU renews the leave opportunities previously guaranteed by the FFCRA: that is, faculty caring for children whose schools are closed may take up to 12 weeks of paid leave or have their load reduced without sacrificing their income.  Under the MOU, faculty who took FFCRA in the Fall will be eligible to take leave again in the Spring.  Part-time faculty also qualify.

Faculty who want to take a leave in Spring should contact Ingrid Melgoza (Melgozai@smccd.edu) at District HR as soon as possible. Please reach out to HR rather than contacting deans who may be away over the break or may not be aware of the new provisions.

We will be in touch soon with more information on other details of the Spring MOU. In the meantime, enjoy the holidays, and thank you again for your advocacy and organizing.

For any questions, please reach out to your chapter chairs or Marianne Kaletzky, AFT 1493 Executive Secretary.

Read information on paid family leave from Summer-Fall 2020 MOU

At the December 14 SMCCD Board of Trustees meeting six faculty parents spoke (and one other’s statement was read) on the need for SMCCD to extend Paid Family Leave to employees during the pandemic. Click on the the names below to jump to that speaker.

(Two additional faculty members spoke at the beginning of the video about part-time faculty pay parity–Annie Corbett, starts at 0:11, and Monica Malamud, starts at 3:51.)

– Michael Hoffman (starts at 8:12)
– Suzanne Poma (starts at 13:33)
– Liza Erpelo (starts at 16:37 )
– Soonyoung Hwang (starts at 19:25)
– Lezlee Ware (starts at 21:53 )
– Nadya Sigona – (starts at 25:48)

December 2020

View full December 2020 issue (pdf)

In this issue:

Explaining “Basic Aid” or “Community-Supported” districts

What does it mean when SMCCCD is called a
“Basic Aid” or “Community-Supported” district?

A small number of California community college districts, including the San Mateo district, are referred to as “Basic Aid” or “Community-Supported” districts because they are funded differently than other districts. A district becomes “community-supported” when its share of local property taxes plus student fees exceeds the state funding guarantee as determined by state formula. Community-supported districts do not receive state apportionment funds based on enrollment (FTES), but instead they get to keep the higher revenues as local property tax values accumulate above the state apportionment.

As property tax revenues in San Mateo County increase, our district’s share of those revenues increase, so most of our revenues are not dependent on the state budget and are not based on our enrollment levels. The other community-supported college districts in the Bay 10 are Marin, West Valley/Mission and San Jose/Evergreen. When comparing our district budget, including salary comparisons, to other community college districts, it is logical to compare ourselves most closely to other community-supported districts, since community-supported districts’ revenues are higher than other similar-sized districts.

The San Mateo district attained “basic aid” status in 2011. At that time only three other community college districts in the state–Marin, Mira Costa and South Orange—were basic aid. Since then West Valley/Mission and San Jose/Evergreen (in the Bay 10), along with Napa Valley, San Luis Obispo County and Sierra districts have also become community-supported districts.