Winter Break Update

Happy New Year! Over the winter break, we were able to agree to the following:

✅Accessibility Remediation - we started negotiations for accessibility on August 7th of 2025. Our initial proposal included a stipend for both full- and part-time faculty, but the District was adamant that a remediation stipend would only apply to part-time faculty who aren’t paid for prep pay. This MOU guarantees 4 hours of additional compensation for each unique course preparation per modality during the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters at the faculty member’s noninstructional rate. HR will be sending out a form to complete in order to initiate payment. 

✅Increase in paid seats for Part-time Senate Representation - Faculty Senate is the only committee that has part-time seats limited by the contract instead of by the governance process. Therefore, any conversations in Faculty Senate around increasing the number of seats have stalled until we negotiate an increase in seats in the contract. However, negotiations typically happen after Senate seats have already been established. So, we were able to get ahead of the situation by agreeing to an MOU to increase the number of paid seats from 4 to 6 beginning Fall 2026. It is important to note that membership is determined by Senate per Senate bylaws. This MOU just allows for funding to be available should Senate wish to increase the number of part-time seats.

✅Long-Term Benefits Temporary Adjustment - this MOU is a temporary agreement to protect newly hired full-time faculty after the District’s long-term care insurance benefit is discontinued for new employees starting January 1, 2026. It creates an interim reimbursement process so that new hires can still receive comparable support until a long-term care plan is implemented. 

✅EAC ECELS Timeline - the Evaluation Appeals Committee was granted an extension to the appeals timeline in order to accommodate the ECELS schedule. 

Discussion: 

• Calendars - the District shared their calendar proposal with two versions: one accessible version and one graphic version. Please look for an email from Nicole to share feedback on this calendar to inform negotiations. 

• 3-year sunshine - PFF and the District sunshined the articles for the next 3-year contract. This went to the board on January 13th. The articles and appendices were selected based on faculty feedback from our listening sessions and faculty communication. 

• Part-time Dental Updates - after many discussions about the limitations with our current part-time dental benefits, HR is going out for a bid to explore other options. This will be discussed further at the Benefits Committee.