The Ohlone College Board of Trustees voted unanimously Wednesday night to postpone the anticipated decision to lay off six school employees to help compensate for a $700,000 budget shortfall, until the next board meeting, Dec. 9. The meeting began with a closed session that lasted from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m., an hour longer than scheduled. Trustee Garrett Yee apologized for the delay. The board opened to a full house of some 100 people in the new Student Center Building. Trustees were expected to vote to lay off six members of Ohlone’s chapter of California School Employees Association (CSEA). Several speakers addressed the board. First, CSEA President and Chief Negotiator Linda Evers asked that the board to “uphold the letter of the law,” in reference to California Education Code Section 88017 (c), which states: “A classified employee may not be laid off if a short-term employee is retained to render a service that the classified employee is qualified to render.” Evers said CSEA interprets this to mean that student employees, who are employed “at will,” to be terminated at any time, should be first to be let go to help cover the budget shortfall. CSEA also objects to the work of CSEA employees being contracted out to non-CSEA employees, further citing California Education Code Sections 88001, 88003, which define a “classified staff” employee versus “short-term employee.” The administration had attempted to close the budget shortfall, due to mid-year budget cuts on the state level, by offering retirement incentives to long-time employees, plus proposed salary cuts by way of employee furlough days, mandatory unpaid days off. The administration and Ohlone’s two other unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the teacher’s union, the United Faculty of Ohlone (UFO) agreed to take five days furlough days to address the shortfall. Evers and CSEA Labor Representative Barbara Mays both said that they never said no to these furloughs, and that they had prepared a tentatively accepted “memorandum of understanding” with the board that protected CSEA employees, stipulating the postponing of any layoffs until the end of the school year in June, no hiring of non-CSEA workers to do CSEA employee jobs, and the retention of CSEA employees where a non-classified staff member (typically students) could be let go. Evers said the union was not “trying to remove student’s opportunities to work,” but that she was nonetheless trying to protect the interests of her union’s members. UFO President and Chief Negotiator Dr. Alan Kirshner, who had addressed the board earlier, commented about the more apparent “controversial and adversarial” state of affairs between the board and CSEA. Kirshner also reflected on his views of the college as a greater community, that he wanted amiable solutions for all, though while he was “Happy that the board listened…obviously neither side was 100 percent happy in any fashion.” Health Center Counselor Rosemary O’Neil was honored with the Faculty of the Month Award, in recognition of her many years of service.
By Kyle Stephens
Staff writer
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