Stop Over 270 Class Cuts At SF City College

12/10 SF City Hall Press Conference To Support $2.7 Million Funding To Stop Cut Of Over 270 Classes By CCSF Chancellor Mark Rocha

Date:
Tuesday December 10

Time:
1:00 PM

Place:
SF City Hall Polk & McAllister
San Francisco

Issue:
SF City Funding To Stop The Cut Of 270 classes at San Francisco City College


San Francisco City College faces 270 classes being cut from the college offering. This would prevent students from graduating, cause extreme stress on students, faculty, and staff. It would be another amputation of
our community college built up after many decades. CCSF Chancellor Mark Rocha's number is his official statement is 288 that includes 90% of the older adult classes They are likely to cut more classes if their enrollments are low before and after the term starts.

It is also part of the ongoing organized destruction derby going on at SF City College by the administration. City College is a critical resource for the people of San Francisco and the residents have voted again and again for ballot measures to fund our community college.

HEAT Higher Education Action Team has been organizing against the cutbacks and with the support of AFT 2121 has been lobbying the SF Board of Supervisors for an ordinance to appropriate $2.7 million to
make sure that the cuts do not go through and the classes are protected to reverse the cuts that have been made.

At this press conference, students, faculty and community supporters of SF City College will urge support for this funding to protect the college. At the same time, HEAT is calling for an independent audit of CCSF
due to serious concerns about the real financial situation and the action of Mark Rocha and the BOT to award raises to the school top management while cutting classes and the destruction of whole departments at the college.

The most recent cuts announced by the administration would prevent students from graduating and further threaten our community college. Vocational classes and many other programs that are critical to working-class students are literally being destroyed in this new massive cutback. The administration has said that they were needed because of the financial crisis.

Additionally, now in a shocking action, Chancellor Mark Rocha has written to the Board of Supervisors to oppose this funding to stop the massive cuts of classes arguing that it is part of his “of a long-term restructuring plan”.
This must not stand. This is taking place in one of the wealthiest cities in the world with a growing number of billionaires and where at the same time, working-class students and the poor rely on the college to have a future and develop their careers while seniors use to continue their education and protect their health and creativity.

Please join us at the press conference and speak out at 2:00 PM at the Board Of Supervisors Public Comment.

Also on Thursday at the Ocean Campus at 4:00 PM, there will be a Board Of Trustees Meeting. Please attend this as well.

Defend Our Community College
Support The $2.7 Appropriation
Stop The 270 Class. Cuts
Independent Audit NOW!
Free High-Quality Public Education Is A Right!

https://ccsfheat.wordpress.com
ccsfheat(at)gmail.com



Open Letter to City College Trustees:
On November 21, administrators unveiled a budget projection showing a “newly discovered” shortfall for 2019-20. This shortfall results in deficit spending of $13M. Any deficit spending over $11.4M puts our reserves below the state-mandated levels and threatens another state takeover. They addressed this purportedly unanticipated shortfall with a series of spending cuts, including the cancellation of 280 classes from the already printed Spring course schedule.
In response to these class cancellations, faculty, students, and community members began lobbying the Board of Supervisors for funds to restore the canceled classes, and AFT 2121 leaders scheduled appointments to request supplemental bridge funding from the City.
We were stunned and horrified to learn that rather than support our efforts to address the budget shortfall, Chancellor Rocha instead attempted to thwart them by emailing the Mayor and Board of Supervisors to say that the college does not require bridge funding and that the cancellation of 280 classes the day before registration began was not an emergency measure at all, but simply part of a long-term restructuring plan.
This assertion flagrantly contradicts the rationale the Chancellor gave for these cuts on Nov. 21, suggesting that the “crisis” was manufactured in order to justify the class cancellations. Moreover, this pre-emptive refusal of City funds demonstrates that this Chancellor’s priorities are far out of synch with those of the community you represent, the student body we serve, and the faculty that serves them: While he actively ushers in the junior-collegization of City College, AFT 2121, our students, the people of San Francisco, and you as their representatives have repeatedly rejected this agenda, and vowed instead to fight for the diverse curriculum and the full funding such a curriculum warrants.
We urge you, as guardians of the public trust, to stand with AFT 2121, our students, and the people of San Francisco by passing a resolution that directs Chancellor Rocha to accept any new funds raised and to use those funds only and immediately to restore canceled classes.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Worley
President, AFT 2121

CCSF slashes another 289 classes as spring registration opens and business as usual

Nanette Asimov Nov. 20, 2019 Updated: Nov. 20, 2019 8:37 p.m.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/CCSF-slashes-another-289-classes-as-spring-14851115.php


A person walks past the Student Health Center at City College of San Francisco on Friday, December 8, 2017 in San Francisco, Calif.
Photo: Lea Suzuki / The Chronicle 2017
As spring registration opened Wednesday at City College of San Francisco, administrators slashed 289 classes to close a new $13.1 million budget deficit, The Chronicle has learned.

It cut hundreds of others last summer and spring to patch a $32 million hole, prompting protests from students and teachers — especially as the college sought to increase executive pay.

“No one at the leadership level of the college wants to cut classes,” said college spokeswoman Evette Davis. But she said budget woes make it necessary to remove “underenrolled classes.”

The college’s continuing financial problems raise questions about whether its internal budget controls have improved much since 2012, when accreditors and state fiscal monitors cracked down on the school — in large part because of that issue. City College spent five years fighting to retain its accreditation and emerged from the crisis in 2017.

“The (college) district is projected to have an operating deficit of $13.1 million this year, senior vice chancellor Tom Boegel wrote to deans and department chairs.

Teachers, low-wage workers are fleeing SF
He warned that if cuts weren’t made, “the district would not be able to maintain the 5% reserve, and would in fact end the year with a negative reserve.”

A healthy reserve is considered to be 15%.

Boegel provided a list of 225 credit classes and 64 noncredit classes that the college won’t be offering this spring.

Credit classes cut include Elementary German, Intro to Museum Studies, International Business Finance, Women/Gender in Middle East, Practical Mathematics I, Colonial History of Latin America, Intermediate Golf, Intensive Water Aerobics, Politics of Globalization, Conversational Filipino, Intermediate Photoshop, and Android Programming.

Last semester, the college waited until after students had registered to announce the course cuts.

“That created confusion,” Davis said. “This time, we’re making a real effort to avoid that.”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov [at] sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov

Join AFT 2121 to Protest $100,000 Raises for Administrators amid Massive Class Cuts, Faculty Layoffs

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19SLABNQ2pOVNKI24d0UhkJlpQVHNS0P6/view?link_id=5&can_id=e64126ffc2d57b9ef9f6bfb82a9e877c&source=email-912-11am-protest-100000-raises-for-administrators-amid-massive-class-cuts-faculty-layoffs&email_referrer=email_614779&email_subject=912-11am-protest-100000-raises-for-administrators-amid-massive-class-cuts-faculty-layoffs
Posted by SFLC on September 10, 2019
Title: Join AFT 2121 to Protest $100,000 Raises for Administrators amid Massive Class Cuts, Faculty Layoffs
Location: Conlan Hall ~ CCSF Ocean Campus
Description:
After months of shrinking our curriculum, cancelling classes, laying off counselors, and cutting library hours, Chancellor Mark Rocha handed out enormous raises to college administrators, increasing some salaries by over $100,000, and pushing the pay of Senior Vice Chancellors Tom Boegel, Dianna Gonzales, and Rueben Smith to well over a quarter million dollars!
These raises were built in to the budget approved by the Board of Trustees on August 22nd. Board members contend they did not explicitly approve these administrative raises which means there is still time for the Board to

push the Chancellor to put a stop to this!
Right now, admin are cutting fully enrolled sections. Library and Counseling hours have been slashed. This decision to prioritize raises for top administrators comes immediately after Rocha, citing budget constraints, cancelled over 100 Fall semester classes, laid off numerous academic counselors and instructors, and cut library hours and other student services. This is forcing over-crowding of the sections that remain. How can our chancellor justify using the college’s funds to line the pockets of the same people who are making these cuts?

Faculty and students are justifiably incensed, and we will not stand for it!
AFT 2121 calls on all members to join us on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 11:00 a.m. at Conlan Hall to show our outrage and demand:
o An immediate, emergency meeting of the Board of Trustees Budget Committee on the proposed administrative salary scale
o Cancellation of these increases
o Redirection of these funds to recall laid off counselors & instructors and restore cancelled classes and library hours.

We know that many of you are teaching during that time. Never-fear! You can still stand with us:
• Wear your #RedForEd AFT T-shirt or a red outfit on Thursday.
• Take a solidarity selfie with your colleagues and students. If possible, make and hold a sign that describes what other priorities at our college the hundreds of thousands of dollars in these raises could be used for.
o Send to James jtracy [at] aft2121.org and Athena awaid [at] aft2121.org.
o Post and share on social media and, if you’re able, tag Rocha and Trustees.

More info: 415-585-2121

Start Time: 11:00

CCSF’s executive pay debacle: College appeared to break rules, its lawyer says


Photo of Nanette Asimov
Nanette Asimov Nov. 4, 2019 Updated: Nov. 4, 2019 4 a.m.




https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/CCSF-s-executive-pay-debacle-College-appeared-14803605.php?t=6fe9b0cc75&fbclid=IwAR2xTc63mLQHFe6D8_x_qFX1NKtUTR65KFqos91i5k-dmuKJPoEsRpgYYQk

"City College of San Francisco officials appear to have violated their own public disclosure policy by adding executive raises to their budget just one day before trustees adopted the spending plan, the school’s top lawyer advised a trustee in an email obtained by The Chronicle.
College staffers broke no law, attorney Steve Bruckman told trustee Ivy Lee. But he said he would remain mum on whether the action “met the spirit” of state and local laws meant to give the public enough time to review matters up for a vote.
City College policy gives the public at least two days to examine documents up for discussion. But on Aug. 22, when the board approved the executive raises that had been added to the thick budget the day before, “it could be argued that the (college) district did not comply” with its policy, Bruckman told Lee."
Lee had raised questions about the college’s bungled — and later aborted — attempt to double some executives’ pay and raise others’ by up to 90% as the campus struggled with a $32 million budget gap by cutting classes and eliminating jobs. Faculty discovered the move weeks later, and accused the trustees and Chancellor Mark Rocha of giving colossal raises in secret as the rest of the college suffered.
The emails offer a behind-the-scenes look at how City College officials stepped into a public-relations debacle by doubling executive pay after complaining to City Hall about their deep financial woes.
The emails reveal that college leaders tried to mask the damage by claiming it never happened — days after their lawyer privately confirmed to them, on Sept. 11, that the new executive pay rates had been legitimately adopted as part of the newly approved budget.
The next day, faculty and students stormed Rocha’s office to protest the large raises and class cuts.
The controversy prompted Rocha to issue a public apology and defense of the raises that he said would need additional approval by the trustees.
“The administration apologized for any misunderstanding or confusion surrounding the proposal to increase administrative salaries, and confirmed that there was in fact a two-step process that would culminate in an open, transparent vote by the board of trustees,” a college spokeswoman said Friday.
The emails show that after the protest, Rocha and Chief Financial Officer Dianna Gonzales scrambled to calm the growing criticism by preparing the public statement, which referred to “proposed” raises in the budget that would need additional approval.
“If this 2-step process is what we intended all along, why didn’t we say that in our (previous) official statement?” Gonzales asked Rocha on Sept. 14, a Saturday. She offered a solution: “Maybe we add, the administrators salaries have NOT been approved nor is anyone getting a $100k increase.”
On Sunday, hours before dawn, Gonzales dashed off another note to Rocha about another problem: “I just realized, the new admin salary schedule is posted on the web site.” She arranged for staff to replace it with the old pay rates, “today if possible.”
On Monday, Rocha sent out the agreed-upon public statement: “The fact of the matter is that the administrator salaries have NOT yet been approved.”
One in 4 administrators quit or lost their jobs since last year and the remaining 57 say they carry a heavier workload than before. Many in the college say they deserve a raise.
The pay increases doubled vice chancellors’ pay to $250,000 at the low end, and raised it 23% at the high end to $260,000. The trustees created a new executive tier, “senior vice chancellor,” with pay from $275,000 to $285,000. They doubled pay for associate vice chancellors to $228,000 at the low end, and raised it 23% at the high end to $238,000. Deans got a 90% raise to $208,000 at the low end, and an 18% boost at the high end to $218,000.
“You made a good decision for the good of the college,” Rocha emailed the Board of Trustees on Sept. 4.
The trustees first considered raising executive pay last year but decided against it “due to the pending re-election of several trustees in November,” Gonzales reminded the trustees and Rocha on Sept. 6.
This year, only one trustee, Lee, is up for re-election. On Aug. 22, as the trustees prepared to approve the 105-page budget — with the executive raises added the day before — Lee left the meeting before the vote. She said she objected to how the raises were approved.
Bruckman, the college’s lawyer, responded with a written analysis. He told Lee the trustees used an “unusual process” to approve the raises. He said staff worked on the budget “up to the day of the board meeting,” so it could be argued that they failed to comply with the policy requiring public disclosure at least 48 hours in advance. Although it wouldn’t invalidate the vote, he said, “it could subject the district and the board to potential criticism and adverse publicity.”
Lee wrote Bruckman again on Sept. 10: “I cannot support any such action without a full and public discussion.”
By then, news of the raises had trickled out to the faculty.
“Shame on you all!” Jim Gormley, who teaches adult education, wrote the trustees on Sept. 10. “It’s like you are living in a different universe!”
Gormley urged them to rescind the raises and said his income had dropped 25% because he’d had a class cut, “as have so many others.”
City College has cut at least 300 classes since last year and has eliminated more than 100 faculty jobs. After struggling for five years to remain accredited, its budget problems worsened in 2017 when the state cut off the tens of millions of dollars in extra funds it provided during that time to stabilize the school.
Meanwhile, the trustees’ less-than-transparent process for approving the executive raises created confusion about how they came about.
English instructor Andrew King wrote them alleging that they broke laws by failing to include the pay increases on the meeting agenda. And Gormley accused them of approving the raises in private, or “closed session.”
Trustee John Rizzo replied: “The board did NOT approve pay raises, secretly or otherwise, in closed session.”
The raises were approved in open session, but not discussed. Nor did the public know the raises were being voted on.
“Clearly, the board could have had the discussion in open session (and the board discussed this), but it was not required,” Bruckman, the lawyer for the college, emailed the trustees the next day.
A month later, on Sept. 26, the trustees replaced the big administrative raises with much smaller ones: 10%, of which the college will pay only 6.74%. The rest will be covered by a state-funded cost-of-living increase. They also voted to hire a consultant to study whether additional raises make sense.
Rocha and the next four highest-paid executives — including Gonzales and Bruckman — will see no increase unless the consultant recommends it and the trustees approve it."

Students, Faculty & Community Demand STOP The CUTS At CCSF With Funeral
https://youtu.be/2caDc_WN60g
A funeral was held at San Francisco City College on September 25, 2019, to protest the massive cutting of classes and faculty at the college. Students, faculty and the community spoke out.
For additional media:
Shooting Yourself In The Foot & Increasing Executive Salaries At CCSF By Chancellor Rocha
https://youtu.be/3esO55xUlp8
Speak-out On Privatization of Balboa Reservoir For Developers Which Threatens SF City College
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbeRvY-HRhY
BUSTING up CCSF! CCSF Chancellor, Bd President & Bd Majority Wrecking City College
https://youtu.be/pizpoBQcQuQ
The Downsizing & Privatization Of CCSF "Vision 2025" & The Secret Illegal CCSF Board Meetings
https://youtu.be/JhDq_BakeQo
Privatization and Destruction of CCSF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnDjK5RAkes&t=2s
Build The PAEC NOW! Stop The Privatization & Developers Rip-off Scam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkGMe_w6JaU
Conflicts of Interest, CCSF & The Attack On Public Education Privatization With Kathy Carroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux4mRloWBEA&t=3s
Public Education, Privatization, Corruption And The
Destruction Of Our Schools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_eu5u70tTE
"Are You Out Of Your Minds"? AFT 2121 Faculty Challenge CCSF Board On Mark Rocha Appointment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEZpOS8p4gQ
Production of Labor Video Project
http://www.laborvideo.org