The Latest News
Ron Reel Addresses Legislative Committee
In support of AB 581 which addresses the issue of community college compliance with the 50% rule, Ron Reel presented the following comments:
Chairperson Portantino, committee members, and those sitting in the assembly, my name is Dr. Ron Norton Reel, President of the Community College Association, a higher education affiliate of the California Teachers Association.
I am proud to be a product of the California Community College System.
I have an identical twin named Don, and I am sure you have heard about one being the good twin and one the evil twin. Of course, he was the evil twin and would always get us in trouble. Our mother would always check up on us. She would call us to her side and say, "Boys did you obey the teachers today?" or "Did you get your chores done?" We always answered, "Of course." and then would ask, "Don't you trust us?" I will never forget her follow up statement: "Of course I do, I only check up on you to make sure I can continue to trust you."
AB581 by Assembly member Tom Torlakson does just that for us within the community college family.
There are two facts we need to understand today.
First, is that the law demands the community colleges to spend 50% of their revenue on the salaries of classroom instructors. When the legislators passed this legislation they agreed with faculty and students that the community colleges make the classroom their top priority for funding. This fact is not open for debate.
When the California State Auditor conducted a review of ten CCC districts in 2000, it was determined that six of the ten were out of compliance with the '50% law' by over $10 million dollars worth of incorrect expenditures at those colleges. The Auditor concluded that the Chancellor's office maintained poor oversight of this law. That fact has not changed. Currently, there is no consistency or even a standardized format from the Chancellor's Office for reporting expenditures claimed by the districts. Each district makes up its own forms.
Second, we live in a society that demands transparency and accountability. All we are asking for is that five random audits of our community colleges take place each year. The districts won't know if they are being audited, and therefore we believe more likely to comply. We feel districts need to comply with the law period.
So, when we ask the districts, "Are you spending the correct portion of your funding on the faculty educating the students?" and they answer, "Of course we are, don't you trust us?" We can answer, "Of course we do." The audits will check up on them to make sure we can continue to trust that the 50% law is being followed.
Open Letter From State President on SLO’s
Dear CCA Members,
Yesterday CCA Consultant to Governance Alan Frey, CCA Vice President Lynette Nyaggah and I met with Barbara Beno, Director of the ACCJC in her office regarding various concerns CCA has over the recent findings and results issued by the Commission.
We had a very productive and informative meeting. I wanted to share three things this morning with all of you. A detailed letter will be sent soon.
- First: Not one community college in California has received a sanction because of SLOs.
- Second: Colleges are free to use any means they wish to achieve the Standards required by the Commission as long as they demonstrate how the Standards are being accomplished. The "Rubric" used by the Accreditation Team is a way of standardizing information brought by the Team to the Commission, but colleges do not have to complete the items on the rubric themselves in order to be accredited. For faculty, verification of student achievement is the key component. The Student Learning Outcome is only one way of showing achievement. If a faculty group decided to use another method, it would be acceptable to the Commission as long as it was data-based and met the Standards.
- Third: Faculty can only control the teaching and, to a certain extent, learning part of accreditation. We must demand that our administrators and trustees keep their end of the bargain for those areas which are their responsibility. Many colleges are being sanctioned for issues outside teaching and learning, and faculty should not be held responsible for those sanctions.
Please let your primary contact staff person know if what you are being asked to do interferes with collective bargaining. We did put Dr. Beno on notice that we will be pursuing these issues as they develop.
Sincerely yours,
Ron Norton Reel
CCA President
CCA Demands to Bargain for SLO Release Time
In a letter to Vice President of Human Resources, Rose Del Gaudio, CCA President, DeWayne Sheaffer stated that "In light of the recent "Warning" given by the ACCJC, I am requesting to "Demand to Bargain" a stipend and reassigned time for each faculty member that will work on creating a process and document for SLO's, ASLO's, and ISLO's." It is CCA's position that, "This request made by ACCJC is above and beyond the creation and revising of curriculum and requires some type of compensation in meeting the deadline established by the ACCJC."
Find out the latest information about our progress toward the 16 week calendar and other important issues. This is an opportunity for you to inform the leadership about your concerns and for us to provide you with information about what CCA is actively doing to make LBCC a better place for you and your students.
Your participation is important, please plan to attend at least one session.
CCA Looks to State Regarding Legality of VP of Academic Affairs
At the request of the Academic Senate, DeWayne Sheaffer has asked CCA staff member Alan Frey to look into the legal issues surrounding this blatant misuse of the provision in Title V that allows for the use of an 'interim' administrator. There is no current search taking place at the college for a permanent VP nor has there been one for over two years.
Larry White Receives WHO award
It was announced that Larry White is this year's recipient of the CCA WHO award. This award honors local chapter members that have demonstrated outstanding participation in their organization. The presentation took place April 25th at the Spring Conference in San Diego.
From the Chronicle of Higher Ed
California's Budget Problems Leave Community Colleges Holding IOU's
By JOSH KELLER
San Francisco
When California approved its budget last month, the community-college system managed to escape the sharp budget cuts that befell most other agencies. But the state's fiscal troubles have nonetheless created a cash crisis for two-year colleges.
As part of its plan to close a $41-billion budget deficit, California will delay providing $540-million in aid to its community colleges this year, forcing them to come up with the money for several months while the state waits for more revenue to come in. Payments that would normally arrive in the spring will be on hold until July, and payments scheduled for July will be delayed until October.
The delay affects most state agencies, including the University of California. But it puts an especially severe strain on the state's 110 community colleges, which have less room in their budgets for discretionary spending than their larger counterparts do, and only enough reserve funds to survive short-term emergencies. At many two-year colleges, 85 percent or more of the budget is committed to salaries and benefits, making it difficult to weather unexpected dips in revenue.
The impact of the cash shortage on the system's campuses varies widely, depending on the size of the campus and how well administrators prepared for the recession. Although California's formula for financing community colleges is unique, the disparities among the system's districts offers a warning to public colleges in other states of the perils of not maintaining a healthy reserve and the rewards of planning ahead.
At institutions that squirreled away funds during better times, administrators have been able to scrape together enough money to keep building new classrooms, buying instructional equipment, and expanding course offerings to accommodate a surge in enrollments. At less-prepared colleges, course sections may be cut, construction projects are on hold, and administrators are struggling to find the money to stay in business.
"We have some small districts where it's going to be really, really hard for them to stay independent districts," said James Austin, vice president for business services at the Mira Costa College District, which has three campuses around San Diego. "The district has to decide, Do I have the money to front?" If a district goes under, its governing board would be dissolved and its campuses taken over by another district an exceedingly rare step.
An Especially Challenging Year
Cash-flow problems are not new for two-year colleges in California, where state budgets are typically late. The state has occasionally also deferred its payments before. But campus leader s say the unprecedented size and length of the deferrals in this year's budget, combined with other bad economic news, will lead to one of the most challenging years in recent memory.
In addition to the decision to delay some aid to community colleges, the state stopped paying for thousands of public-works projects in December because California's bond market has been frozen.
That has forced community colleges to put up their own money to continue construction on $1.5-billion worth of libraries, classrooms, and other facilities, or risk defaulting on existing contracts. Some colleges have no choice but to go forward, often at the expense of other programs; others are holding off on breaking ground until the state can once more foot the bill.
The second major revenue source for the state's community colleges, local property taxes, is threatened by California's plummeting housing prices.
In the past, state officials have usually elected to replace some of the revenue community colleges has lost from declining property values, but those payments have often been insufficient to fill the gap and have been disbursed months after the fact. Declines in housing prices could have a chilling effect in the state's wealthiest counties, where two-year colleges are supported almost exclusively by property taxes.
"We're all sitting on pins and needles," said Scott Lay, president of the Community College League of California, a nonprofit organization that helps two-year colle ges organize and lobby for money. "It's extremely difficult to predict property-tax revenues in California, especially in the current climate." In response to the cash shortage, the league will probably soon help some of the system's 72 districts band together to borrow money from a private investment bank, an effort that will get them better rates than if they borrowed alone, Mr. Lay said. Other districts will depend on loans from their local counties to make it through the year.
Small Colleges Under Pressure
Many of those borrowers are smaller districts, which typically find it more difficult than larger ones to cover unexpected costs. The College of the Siskiyous, one of the system's smallest campuses, with about 2,500 full-time-equivalent students, expects to meet its cash-flow needs this year, "but just barely," said Steve Crow, vice president for administrative services.
The college keeps a reserve equal to about 7 percent of its budget, enough to sustain campus operations for just one month, Mr. Crow said. The institution will borrow money to get it through this year, he said, but it may in turn be forced to put off equipment purchases and the expansion of its nursing program.
"It's difficult for us to invest in new programs and meet the needs of the community when we know we're always under the gun of a tight budget," Mr. Crow said.
At the Lake Tahoe Community College District, which serves about 1,750 full-time- equivalent students, the added cost of borrowing at least $50,000 out of a budget of $16-million comes at a particularly bad time. Enrollment is expected to rise by 8 percent this year, one of the largest increases in the 34-year history of the district, said Chris Janzen, vice president for business services.
The budget crisis is costly to community colleges in less obvious ways as well, he said. It sets into motion an "unspoken drain" on community-college business officers because of the enormous amount of time and energy they must spend figuring out how to keep enough cash in the bank.
"After a while, you're trying to remember your educational mission as you spend all of your time on payment deferrals," Mr. Janzen said. Large Districts in Better Shape Some larger districts are better prepared to weather the storm. With bigger budgets, those districts can use creative fiscal maneuvers, like short-term delays in hiring or paying bills, to come up with extra cash. College officials who have budgeted conservatively many of whom faced criticism during healthier budget years that they were too quick to put cash away feel vindicated as they confront the cash shortage with more assurance than their counterparts can.
The Los Rios Community College District, which has about 58,000 full-time-equivalent students on four campuses in the Sacramento area, structures its budget with a bigger buffer than most districts have. It sets spending levels for salaries and discretionary funds only after it has received money from the state, rather than basing those decisions on anticipated levels of revenue, as other districts do. Administrators say that buffer will help them to absorb the delay in state appropriations.
"We don't spend a lot of our money until we actually earn it, so there's a little bit of a lag, and we're probably in a little better shape than most," said Jon Sharpe, deputy chancellor.
But even administrators at large districts say this year will be extremely difficult. Los Rios officials say they expect the state's deferred allocation to cost the district $200,000 to $300,000 in borrowing costs and income it would have gained if it could have kept more money in reserve. The Los Angeles Community College District, which serves more than 100,000 students, will similarly lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest revenue, said Marshall E. Drummond, chancellor.
Fears of a Permanent Shift
Mr. Drummond, who previously served as the California system's chancellor, said he hoped the state's financial situation was merely a "valley of pain" that would continue for two or three years at most. Deferring payments to community colleges as a permanent practice would have wide-ranging implications for even the most financially secure districts, he said.
"I think we can make it through the gantlet, so to speak, and not have to go out and sel l revenue-anticipation notes," Mr. Drummond said, referring to a common form of borrowing among state agencies. But if the state's practice of delaying its appropriations continues indefinitely, "then we're going to have to completely rethink our cash-flow strategy."
Community-college leaders say they worry that now that California has built the deferrals into its budget, the policy will be difficult to undo. Reversing its decision to delay payments to state agencies would cost the state millions of dollars, the campus leaders said, a difficult cost to justify in a recession.
Scott Miller, vice president for business and finance at Napa Valley College, said his district would be able to make it through the year without having to borrow money, largely because housing prices in Napa County have remained relatively stable. But he does not expect things to get any easier.
"Two, three, four years from now, I anticipate that these actions will still be in place, and I anticipate that a majority of districts around the state will be challenged to maintain cash flow," Mr. Miller said.
California's budget process, he said, leaves something to be desired: "If I did my budget like that, I'd be fired."
Faculty lead the effort to 16 weeks
Long Beach City College faculty have through the hard work of the Academic Senate and CCA, lead the way toward the conversion of the current eighteen week semester to the more popular sixteen week model that has been implemented in a number of other colleges throughout the state. After many years of administrative delay CCA is aggresssively pursuing these issues so that they can finally become a reality.
Board of Trustee Roberto Uranga To Run For City Council
Board member Roberto Uranga officially announced his intention to run for the Long Beach City Council seat representing the 7th District. The seat is currently occupied by Uranga's wife Tonia. It is unclear if he will be vacating his seat on the Board of Trustees, but it is assumed that Uranga views his current position as a stepping stone in his political aspirations.
Latest NEA Update
January 31, 2009 House Passes Economic Recovery Bill: Keep Up the Pressure on the Senate
This week, the House passed an economic recovery bill with significant investments in education. As we have reported, the package reflects the hard work of activists like you across the country whose voices were heard loud and clear in Congress.
The Senate is expected to take up their version of the bill next week. Like the House bill, the Senate version includes a number of proposals put forth by NEA, including:
- School modernization assistance.
- Money to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas.
- Increased funding for Title I and special education.
- An increase in the Pell Grant maximum award.
- The Making Work Pay Tax Credit, which would put additional income into the hands of working families and allow them to contribute more to their local economies.
A $300 payment for retirees, disabled veterans, and SSI recipients, which would put more cash in the pockets of retirees living on fixed incomes. For more information on the economic recovery package, including how it will impact your state, visit the NEA website.
Contact your Senators Today! Tell Members of the Senate to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill.
Help elect and support Members of Congress who will stand up for students and public education, who understand the value of teachers and education support professionals. Raise your voice. Click below to contribute today to The NEA Fund for Children and Public Education.
FACCC News
ASSEMBLY HIGHER EDUCATION COMMITTEE UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES CONCURRENT ENROLLMENT BILL
Tuesday, the Assembly Higher Education Committee unanimously approved AB 78 (Portantino), legislation easing restrictions on concurrent enrollment between high schools and community colleges, and creating greater opportunities for partnerships between the two segments. Last year's version of this measure, AB 1409 (Portantino), was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee. AB 78 now moves to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.In related news, the Assembly Higher Education Committee also unanimously approved House Resolution 4 (Portantino), a non-binding resolution calling upon Congress and the President to enact a "New Deal for a New Millennium for Higher Education." This effort seeks $70 billion in federal spending across the country to increase access to postsecondary education and student loan forgiveness for public service.
NEW LEGISLATION INTRODUCED ON CLOSED CAPTIONING; 75/25; VIOLENT STUDENT OFFENDERS
Last Friday marked the bill introduction deadline for this year. New community college bills include:AB 386 (Ruskin), would require electronic versions of nonprinted instructional materials be compatible with audiovisual captioning software for students with hearing impairment. This measure expands upon current law specifying circumstances when publishers must provide electronic versions of nonprinted instructional materials for Braille translation or speech synthesis software.AB 1095 (Hill), prohibiting the ability of the Community College Board of Governors to waive the requirements on hiring full-time faculty pursuant to guidelines established in AB 1725 [(Vasconcellos) of 1988]. The measure states the intent of the Legislature that the community college system achieve the goal of 75 percent full-time faculty teaching credit classroom instruction by 2013-14. AB 1400 (Fong), would allow community college districts to share information with one another about individuals who have committed violent offenses, and authorize districts to deny admission to specified offenders following a hearing.
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