Update from CCFT President Paul Harvell
2008-09 Budget Cuts
May 20 , 2008
The plan for the 2008/2009 budget was to cut about $600,000
in on-going costs and funding the rest of the structural deficit out of the
reserves. The proposed
cuts came in at $750,000.
Some of the cuts in expenditures were in supplies or services.
Much of the budget cuts were the elimination of unfilled positions.
The troubling piece of the cuts was cuts in filled positions. Most of these were in the Children’s Center (3 faculty, 1 classified).
The CCFT council devoted much of its April meeting to discussion of the loss of those faculty positions. The CCFT position was to take a position against layoffs. I acted upon that position at CPC by not ratifying the proposed cuts. The proposed cuts will probably be given to the board without CPC support at the June board meeting.
Taking a position against layoffs needs to be understood as distinct from a position about the Children’s Center reorganization and reduction of service. In response to growing problems within the Children’s Center, the ECE (Early Childhood Education) and Children’s Center faculty have been working on a plan of reorganization for a couple of years. Though the current reduction is more than what many had envisioned, there is some agreement among ECE and Children’s Center faculty that reorganization (program reduction) needs to begin in 2008-09. year. For some of the history of what happened at the Children’s Center, read Eric Hoffman’s article in the April 2008 CCFT newsletter.
Though I support the Children’s Center changes, CCFT and I are still opposed to the layoffs. On the faculty side, the problem has been reduced from three people to one. Of the eliminated faculty, two already have other jobs secured (one, a tenure track position in ECE at Cabrillo). The union will be working with administration to mitigate to the fullest extent possible the impact of this layoff on the last faculty member affected.
CCFT also supports the mitigation of the impacts of layoffs on classified staff (hopefully, most of that will come through change of jobs at Cabrillo). CCFT and I recognize the support of current Cabrillo employees as a top priority.