The demand for fair wages, affordable healthcare, smaller class sizes and the cost-of-living adjustment dominated discussion during public comment at the Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, March 20.

Disputes between the El Camino College Federation of Teachers and the El Camino College District continue to rage on as faculty and district officials failed to reach an agreement at the previous Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 22 and contract negotiations on March 10.

Federation Vice President for part-time faculty Laila Dellapasqua told The Union during a previous interview on March 16 El Camino is far behind its sister colleges in terms of wages, benefits and basic working conditions.

“Many of my part-time colleagues with [Masters] and Ph.D.’s have not seen any upward mobility on their pay rate scale; their hourly pay rate is stationary,” Dellapasqua said. “Highly qualified educators deserve a longevity increment.”

Dellapasqua said part-time faculty are deserving of quality healthcare and faculty wellness directly impacts and contributes to student success.

The Union asked Jane Miyashiro, vice president of human resources, for comment. Miyashiro, who is on the negotiations team, directed The Union to a previously emailed statement about the district’s position on the negotiations from Director of Public Information and Government Relations Kerri Webb.

The Union approached Trustee Trisha Murakawa to comment on the ongoing contract negotiations. She said she is not allowed to comment because the district is still negotiating and suggested reaching out to public relations.

Trustees Nilo Michelin and Clifford Numark could not share the details of contract negotiations as discussed during the closed session, however, they highlighted their support for faculty.

“We want to try to reach an agreement that definitely values and appreciates our faculty members, and at the same time ensures a consistent future for El Camino College,” Numark said.

Trustee President Kenneth Brown said he hopes to reach an agreement by the next meeting.

“Frankly, I’m not in those discussions, so I get the reports back, but that’s my hope,” Brown said. “I think that everybody’s hope is that we will come to an agreement as soon as possible.”

President of the Federation Kelsey Iino said after the meeting the district is hesitant to access the funds in its budget reserves to distribute amongst both full-time and part-time faculty.

“I think what [the district is] saying is to be on the safe side,” Iino said. “A 20% reserve [in the budget] was good because that will cover all your expenses, operating costs and payroll… We’re not fighting against that fact, [but] the fact that we’re at 38% right now seems pretty offensive.”

Both Iino and Dellapasqua said $200 million is in the state budget earmarked for part-time faculty healthcare and that all California districts have access to this money after Gov. Newsom signed California state legislation AB 190 in September 2022.

Iino highlighted that during the pandemic, El Camino received the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund. She said that 50% of that fund went to students while the rest could go towards operational costs including salaries and benefits, however, the district placed the leftover money into the budget reserves.

“But even before all of the COVID relief money, our reserve has consistently gone up,” Iino said. “We feel that it’s at the expense of fair wages and benefits for employees because every year there is an increased cost [of living].”

Iino does not disagree with having a strong budget reserve, but still believes El Camino is not offering a competitive-enough salary and benefits to attract strong, diverse faculty.

“The longer you stay [at El Camino], the more stagnant your salary is,” Iino said. “Meanwhile, the cost of everything else in your life goes up.”

During Monday’s meeting, many other faculty agreed and said the low salaries impact student success in addition to not being enough to cover their own healthcare.

Khai Lu, a full-time faculty who teaches Computer Information Systems, told the Board he was concerned about the district growing reserves in the budgets.

Lu told the Board the district’s last and final proposal sent a message to faculty who seek employment at El Camino they don’t value their contributions and do not pay enough despite the disproportionately large reserves compared to other college districts.

“I’m strongly considering teaching full-time at another district and I’m sure I’m not the only one,” Lu said. “Raising my family will come first and I will entertain offers from districts offering substantially better health plans and salary and there are out there.”

Biology professor Jessica Padilla reminded the Board that their job was to give direction to the administration on behalf of what is best for students and to monitor campus climate.

“Campus climate between faculty and administration is eroding and that will eventually trickle down to students’ success,” Padilla said.

History professor John Baranski told the Board the negotiations for smaller class sizes should have concluded by May 2022. Full-time faculty Stacey Allen and Renee Galbavy voiced the same concern.

“It’s very disappointing that we’re still meeting with the administration on these course cap applications,” Baranski said.

Baranski said the application to reduce class size was submitted in the fall of 2021 and was approved by faculty and administrators at the Division and Campus Committee level.

“This pattern of delays and negotiations around course cap size mirrors the larger contract negotiations for faculty,” Baranski said. “It’s discouraging, even demoralizing, to be at a college where expertise, our work with students has not always been appreciated.”

Iino said after the meeting they will be marching on campus once again to highlight their demands in their contract Tuesday, March 28, ahead of March 31’s next contract negotiations meeting.

“We were quite surprised with the district’s best and final,” Iino said. “We’re hoping after today’s attendance that we were able to better inform the board and the administration of our position and our asks to hopefully shed light that maybe their negotiating team left out some information that they should consider when giving their best and final.”

Staff Writer Raphael Richardson contributed to this report.