Dear Peralta Community,
Welcome to PFT’s second and final 2010 summertime roundup, with items from the July 20 meeting of the PCCD Board of Trustees and news on other recent district goings on. Look for the e- Communiqué and PCCD Board Watch, PFT”s regular email publications, in the fall.
*Part-time faculty and their supporters addressed the board about the district’s decision to ignore its contractual obligation to compensate eligible faculty with parity pay, a specific program funded in the state budget. Among the many eloquent speakers was longtime Laney English teacher Judy Juanita, who pointed out the sad irony of an allegedly progressive institution using tortured legal logic to balance its books on the backs of low-wage workers. PFT President Debby Weintraub reminded the board that the district money grab violated the union contract. PFT has filed a grievance on behalf of eligible faculty and, assuming district recalcitrance continues, will go to binding arbitration.
*The Office of Institutional Research recently unveiled its Course Ranking Index (“CRI”), described in a district PowerPoint presentation as “a formula (and spreadsheet) that combines measures of a course’s value into a single variable that can be used t rank and compare courses in your program, across campus, or district-wide.” The CRI doesn’t trump the terms terms of our collective bargaining agreement, and it can’t be used in class-cutting decisions unless administration negotiates its use with PFT. How the CRI scores on PFT’s highly scientific Managerial Initiative Quantifier, now in beta-testing, remains to be seen.
*The board unanimously approved all management appointments for the upcoming year. Incoming managers will join the rest of the Peralta Administrative Team in taking a dozen furlough days for 2010-11, a cut the board approved along with eight furlough days for unrepresented confidential employees, six for both SEIU and Local 39.
*Wise Allen, interim chancellor, issued a new organizational chart for the district office at the board’s July 19 budget workshop. Jacob Ng (VC Student Services) and Jeanette Dong (Assoc. VC/Special Assistant to the Chancellor) were among the familiar district faces to secure new roles. Pointing to new challenges in the proposed 2010-11 budget-due to be voted on by the board at its Sep. 14 meeting- district officials continued to stress cost-saving ideas such as salary cuts, step-and-column freezes, as well as minute from the July meetings, see http://peraltaccd.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2.
*The board reached an agreement with district bargaining units to honor Cesar Chavez Day. The holiday, to be celebrated by Peralta in lieu of Admissions Day, will be held on the Friday of spring break (it won’t affect the instructional calendar). PFT joins President Abel Guillén, the trustees, and its union brothers and sisters in hailing one of the nation’s greatest labor leaders.
In unity,
Debby Weintraub, President
Matthew Goldstein, Communications Director
Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1603
For more about PFT-contract information, contracts, downloadable forms, updates, etc.- visit www.pft1603.org or write PFT1603@gmail.com