Negotiations Update 2026-02-04

On our first session back for the Spring, PFF was prepared to start off strong. In order to prioritize our focus on compensation, we presented our proposal for Article 15 first. Highlights are below:

Article 15 Proposal: 

We emphasized to the District that faculty have not had a significant increase in our salary schedule since 2016 while our workload continues to evolve. While Palomar is experiencing struggles due to enrollment, the budget should not be balanced on the backs of faculty. Reserves have grown for over a decade with little investment in faculty salaries. Given inflation in our area and the fact that we did not receive COLA, this equates to wage erosion. We’ve received feedback that our steps equate to raises, but we know that after step 13, which is pretty early in most faculty’s careers, the increase is mainly symbolic, averaging at less than .50% each step. Especially without COLA, our steps are actually pay cuts disguised as an increase. With this in mind, we focused on the following asks in our proposal:

• Increase to salary schedules - a raise!

• Additional compensation for accessibility remediation for all faculty.

• Preparation pay for both part-time faculty and full-time faculty teaching overload.

• Parity for office hours (16 hours per 20% load per semester) for both part-time faculty and full-time faculty overload including summer and winter intersessions. 

• Language to acknowledge degrees earned concurrently (e.g. international degrees) that aren’t reflected in our current salary grade placement.

• Part-time faculty compensation for participation in all participatory governance instead of a select few.

✅MOU for Z-Tech: 

We agreed to an MOU for 20% reassigned time for a grant-funded project in Zero-Emission Vehicles Technology (ZEV Tech) for faculty in Diesel Technology.

Discussion:

• Athletic Director Dan Lynds presented a proposal for a reclassification for the head coach position for football. Instead of the head coach being classified as faculty, that position would be a director/administrator to be competitive with other comparable football programs and to allow for more flexibility in the position. We are gathering feedback from faculty involved before moving forward with these conversations.