By Mitra Moassessi

The end of 2004-05 academic year is approaching, with no agreement on salary and the majority of other monetary issues on the horizon. The district's last proposal on salary was 0% for 2004-05, even though SMC has received $1.6 million in COLA, $3.6 million in Equalization, and $3.6 million in Partnership for Excellence for 2004-05. Several non-monetary issues also remain unresolved, including Associate Faculty, part-time parity and part-time retirement provisions.

Throughout the month of April, we reached table agreements on the following two articles:

Retirement (Article 19): Changes in this article mainly updated the language to that in existing regulations.
Team teaching (New article): This article defines team teaching, clarifies compensation for team teaching, and makes it available to part-time faculty.

Given that our college will make its base FTES for 2004-05 and will not face any deduction in funding for the current year, and given that the prediction for the Governor's May revised budget for 2005-06 is very encouraging, the District is in a position to settle this contract negotiation successfully by the end of the year. The question is, will they?