Negotiations Update 30 October 2025

Today’s negotiations meeting was a promising one. We are coming to the end of our reopeners and had collaborative discussion at the table with the District on how to best meet faculty needs in these final proposals. During difficult times, it was refreshing to have such positive conversations and we are optimistic about these last proposals. 

Action:

📌Article 15 Counter Proposal #1 (PFF)

PFF presented our first counter proposal for Article 15 Compensation. Our focus continues to be on salary increases and cleaner processes. Given the new language around vocational salary credits, we introduced a new process for faculty with certifications and licenses that don’t have documented hours attached. The District will take our proposal to the board and plans to counter at our next negotiations meeting. 

📌MOU_Accessibility Remediation

The District was unable to provide a counter for this MOU at the time. PFF continued to emphasize the importance of this work and the necessity for compensation as we move to remediate in time for the April deadline. This will be discussed again in tandem with Article 15 at our next meeting. 

📌Academic Calendars

While we are excited that the District is moving toward more accessible formats for calendars, PFF shared with the District the importance of multiple means of engagement and requested that both the accessible list calendar and the graphic visual calendar be made available for the Palomar community. The District agreed and will be sharing both formats with us soon. As soon as we have both formats, we will share with faculty to gather feedback before countering. 

Discussion:

• ECELS Alternative Master Teacher Assignment

The District shared a temporary assignment for a position at the lab school. We asked the District to include the parameters for this position so that we can share with the impacted faculty before agreeing. 

• ASL Interpreters

The District met with our ASL faculty team to gather more information about the interpreting needs at Palomar College and what a designated interpreter position might look like. This was an incredibly positive conversation where the District reflected on the many ways we’ve all grown from PFF’s Parity Project initiative to raise awareness on the need for ASL interpreters. Thank you to the ASL faculty team and PFF’s Parity Project for their advocacy and efforts. We are optimistic about progress on this position. 

• Federal Grant Time and Effort Reports

The District shared that we haven’t been meeting our federal guidelines on Time & Effort reporting, as groups have been reporting in different ways, especially with our hourly type of work. In an effort to reduce forms, Payroll is piloting a new form for federal grants only. Ideally, this would expand to more Time & Effort reporting. The District shared the new form and their goals for the pilot. We are excited to see this kind of streamlining and hope to see it expand. 

Dual Enrollment:

This negotiations session was extended to allow for continued negotiations of a Dual Enrollment MOU.  The District invited our Vice President of Instruction and our Associate Dean of Dual Enrollment to join us in these conversations. The details for this discussion are in a separate post all about Dual Enrollment. :) 

Next Meeting: Thursday, November 13th 

Signing off—but still here for every comma, clause, and cause.

Your PFF Negotiations Team