San Mateo Community College Federation of Teachers, AFT 1493
Minutes of General Membership/Executive Committee Meeting
Wednesday, November 12, 2014, at Skyline
EC members present: Vicki Clinton, Salumeh Eslamieh, Stephen Fredricks, Katharine Harer, Teeka James, Dan Kaplan (Exec. Secr.), Michelle Kern, Doniella Maher, Monica Malamud, Sandi Raeber-Dorsett, Joaquin Rivera, Paul Rueckhaus, Shaye Sahedi, Janice Sapigao, Elizabeth Terzakis, Rob Williams.
AFT (non-EC) members present: Tom Broxholm (Automotive Technology at Skyline), Masao Suzuki (AFT rep to District Committee on Budget and Finance, Economics at Skyline), Najla Breo Abrao, John Searle (president of DART – District Association of Retired Teachers)
Meeting began at 2:36 p.m. in closed session
Facilitator: Teeka James
Closed Session — discussion of grievances, complaints and compensation issues
The EC met in closed session to discuss confidential matters.
Wecome and Introductions
Done.
Statements from AFT (non EC) members on Non-Agenda Items
None.
Minutes of October 8, 2014 AFT meeting
Approved with some wording and spelling corrections. All in favor, one abstention.
Negotiations update
Joaquin distributed a proposed calendar for 2016-2017 which meets all the required parameters.
Motion to approve the proposed calendar for 2016-2017. Seconded. Approved unanimously.
Joaquin reported on the most recent negotiations session:
Health benefits:
Union requested increase of medical cap by $100 for single, $150 for 2-party and $200 for family effective January 1, 2015. District insists on $50/75/100. District presented data on the cost of their offer; union pointed out that their calculations were an overestimation.
Union requested increase of medical stipend for PT from $600 to $1800 per semester, effective 1/1/15.
Class assignments:
Union asked whether contract language about PT assignments can be extended to FT. Eugene said that he would check on this with Deans. Eugene sent a proposed MOU which only says that if not happy with assignment, then faculty can go to VPI and next to college president; but in this MOU, Eugene also included what the District wants in terms of administrators being allowed to teach, which had not been brought up before at the negotiation table.
Strategic Campaign Initiative Organizing Project update:
Katharine and Michelle have worked very hard and shared all the materials they have produced. They have designed forms, flyers, information cards, etc. The materials are very professional and they include quotes and pictures of faculty who are not on the EC. Michelle and Katharine have been meeting with recently hired faculty members with great success; every faculty member they meet with receives an AFT 1493 tote bag, an AFT 1493 T-shirt, and printed materials.
Workload Survey and parity discussion
The survey had two goals: to see if FT’s work load has increased (it has), and to help determine PT parity pay. However, the survey showed that there was an uneven distribution of the non-teaching workload among FT faculty — some FT spend a considerable amount of time on non-teaching tasks, others spend most of their time teaching. Both FT and FT are now feeling the pressure to participate in many committees and activities; there seems to be a culture of overworking in our district. We will continue to discuss this topic at a future meeting.
The following two items (A and B) were added to the meeting agenda:
A. Resolution about repeatability
Dan passed a resolution drafted by Cabrillo College. Cabrillo has been working to increase the number of times that students can repeat a class (which was reduced a few years ago and necessitated significant curriculum changes in order for repeatable courses to be compliant with the reduction).
Motion to approve this resolution, seconded, passed unanimously.
B. Website design
As decided at a previous AFT meeting this semester, a subcommittee has been making decisions about the AFT 1493 website redesign. Since the subcommittee was not able to reach consensus on some design elements on the home page, four design options were presented to the EC.
Option #1 won by clear majority, with the other three options getting few or no votes.
District Participatory Governance Council:
Teeka reported on some Board Policies that were presented to the DPCG:
Added military and veteran status to the list of protected groups.
Presence of non-registered students in classes is prohibited unless expressly authorized by management. The EC finds this problematic.
Outside employment: District is proposing that employees give notice and details about the terms of outside employment. Current policy is that District employees may have outside employment as long as it is not during work hours. The EC believes that this proposed change infringes upon employees’ lives outside of their employment with the District.
Kathy Blackwood will be coming to the AFT meeting in December to talk about the District’s proposal to increase reserves to 15-30%.
Appointment of Najla Abrao as Skyline PT co-Rep
Motion to appoint Najla, seconded, approved unanimously.
Should PT faculty automatically be interviewed for FT jobs: third discussion
Tom proposed that a PT who has been teaching in the District for five years be given a priority interview status for a FT opening, provided the applicant fills out an application and meets all evaluation expectations.
Since hiring procedures are written by the Academic Senate, Tom was directed to take this conversation to the Senate.
District Association of Retired Teachers (DART)
John Searle, president of DART, gave an overview of the membership and activities of the association. There are about 30 members, and they organize an activity for retirees a couple of times a year.
Monica shared that retirees are, since the last CFT Convention, a formally recognized group of the CFT. There is also a retirement committee among the CFT Committees. These are opportunities for retired faculty to stay involved in union issues, and contribute their time and valuable experience to the union.
Resolution to improve PT pay
Tabled for next meeting.
Adjourned at 5:03 p.m.