San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
Wednesday, September 11, 2013, at CSM
EC members present: Lin Bowie, Eric Brenner, Victoria Clinton, Sandi Raeber Dorsett, Salumeh Eslamieh, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan, Michelle Kern, Joaquin Rivera, Anne Stafford, Masao Suzuki, Elizabeth Terzakis, Lezlee Ware
Other Attendees: Tania Beliz, Bailey Girard (student), Charles Jones, Zev Kvitky (CFT Field Rep), Tom Mohr (Candidate, SMCCD Board of Trustees)
Meeting began: 2:35
Facilitator: Salumeh Eslamieh
Closed Session: Negotiations
Joaquin updated the EC on the most recent negotiating session on September 9, 2013 (the only session since our last AFT meeting.) He felt confident that we were very close to reaching a tentative agreement. The EC voted unanimously to accept the agreement, which includes, among other things, salary increases for all faculty. The base increases will go up in the second and third years of the contract if the assessed value of property in the county exceeds 3%.
1. Welcome and Introductions
2. Statements from AFT (non EC) Members on Non-Agenda Items
3. * Minutes of August 21, 2013 AFT Meeting
Approved unanimously.
4. Board of Trustees Election
Tom Mohr, a candidate for the upcoming SMCCD Board of Trustees election in November, met with AFT to answer questions and express his views on a number of issues.
His two primary reasons for running:
· His interest in issues of equity and access to education, which he saw being directly addressed when he served as President of Cañada College.
· He misses being a part of Cañada.
Questions:
Q: Do you have an agenda?
A: It’s a mistake to have too explicit an agenda, but he will focus on improving student success, graduation, and completion rates by working more closely with middle schools and high schools. SMCCD needs to invest in closer relationships with these schools and should be teaching more classes at the high schools during the day. He wants the District to have more of a presence at the high schools so that students have a better idea of what college is really like.
Q: Do you see Common Core filtering up to SMCCD from K-12, or filtering down from us to K-12?
A: That is up to faculty. He would like to see a greater investment in faculty development.
Q: Do you support district elections for the Board of Trustees?
A: Yes, in general, because this will result in greater diversity on the Board.
Q: What is your position on binding arbitration?
A: He feels it makes sense in terms of employee grievances.
Q: What are your thoughts on renewing the county parcel tax?
A: Doing so is essential. Tom talked about using the parcel tax to support transfer and career/technical study. He talked about the need to get closer to employee leaders in the area, and the need to keep new students enrolled in our colleges.
Q: Do you have any thoughts about how to improve the relationship between AFT and the Board of Trustees?
A: Tom suggested regular forums or meetings for AFT/faculty leadership and Board members. This helped strengthen the relationship with CSEA at Cañada.
Q: What are your feelings about shared (participatory) governance, specifically the process for faculty input in hiring four new administrators?
A: Decision-making should be transparent. He feels it is important not to move on decisions without a critical mass of support.
Additional thoughts:
During a discussion of ACCJC and its accrediting process, Tom said he feels strongly that Cañada’s and CSM’s warnings in 2006-07 were unjust, and that despite significant financial issues at CCSF, closing that college is “incomprehensible.”
Regarding SLO’s, Tom pointed out that there is no research showing that they actually improve student outcomes.
The EC voted to endorse Tom Mohr and Richard Holober for the Board of Trustees.
Holober: YES: 8 NO: 0 ABSTAIN: 5
Mohr: YES: 11 NO: 0 ABSTAIN: 1 NOT VOTING: 1
5. Strategic Campaign Initiative: Quality Public Education
CFT grants are available to locals for a variety of projects. These grants have been consolidated into the Strategic Campaign Initiative. At the moment, the focus is on a Campaign for Quality Public Education. Katharine has some time to work on this and is interested in putting together a proposal for fall 2014. She would like us to think about something we would really like to do, so that she can get started in spring 2014.
6. Performance Evaluation Task Force
Though Tania Beliz announced at the last District Academic Senate meeting that the PETF will finish its work by the end of this semester, DAS is seriously concerned that they won’t be finished by then. The task force still needs to develop the student evaluation form for non-teaching faculty, the appendices to the evaluation documents and procedures, and the peer evaluation materials for Distance Education. Some members of the EC also voiced concern that the task force will not have final versions of all of the necessary documents by the end of fall 2013.
Earlier in the process, the two administrators on the task force (Harry Joel and Regina Stanback Stroud) had conveyed a sense of urgency, but now feel that the task force is on track to meet the accreditation requirements that the colleges have procedures and documents in place for evaluating distance education and a method for including the development and assessment of SLO’s in the faculty evaluation process. Elizabeth and Lezlee stressed that Harry and Regina feel the necessary work will be completed on time. While the administrators on the task force have told other PETF members that the task force must only develop and test the Distance Ed student evaluation forms to satisfy accreditation standards, Teeka expressed concern that all related documents and procedures must be finalized to meet the standards. Task force members stressed that they have heard little from faculty, staff, and administrators working on accreditation regarding the urgency, or lack thereof, to finalize all documents and procedures to satisfy accreditation requirements.
AFT discussed the possibility of considering, and perhaps even ratifying, the Distance Ed documents and procedures, as well as the inclusion of SLO’s in faculty evaluation separately from the rest of the package.
It was brought to AFT’s attention at today’s meeting that one of the administrators believes that the PETF has the authority to vote on which documents and procedures to adopt; in fact, the MOU states that faculty must ratify all changes.
Katharine requested that in order to clarify for the District and campus senates, and for AFT, exactly which “pieces” of the work have been completed and which must still be done the PETF to compile a checklist. Lezlee pointed out that the information is on the Sharepoint site, but agreed that the task force would create a checklist. Diana Bennett asked for the checklist and a planning calendar to be completed in the next two weeks.
One PETF member believes that despite the pressure to finish quickly, the task force needs two more semesters to complete the entire process. We reminded ourselves that AFT and DAS were ready and willing to form the PETF and start working a long time ago; it was the administration that dragged its feet.
7. Introducing Skyline PTers, Paul Rueckhaus and Janice Sapigao
Janice could not attend today’s meeting, but Paul was present to introduce himself. The EC voted unanimously to appoint both Paul and Janice as AFT PT Co-Reps at Skyline.
8. AFT Local 1493 50th Anniversary Celebration
Tabled
9. *Discussion of 2 Additional Dates for AFT Meetings Each Semester
Tabled – will vote on Doodle poll
10. AFT Local 1493 Budget
Tabled
11. AFT Local 1493 Grievance Structure
Tabled
12. Campaign for a Healthy California
Tabled
13. 2012 AFT Local 1493 Audit
Tabled
14. DSGC
Tabled
15. Statements from EC Members on Non-Agenda Items
– Eric and Michelle are interested in starting a Facebook page for AFT 1493.
– Salumeh suggested that instead of passing out calendars in the future, we think about T-shirts.
– Our extra AFT meetings for 2013/2014 will be held in October, November, March, and April. Please respond to Doodle poll to determine specific dates.
Meeting adjourned: 5:05
*Action Item