Glendale College OKs Shake-Up of Management

The Glendale Community College Board of Trustees this week approved a plan that would reorganize much of the school’s management structure, but the board rewrote parts of the controversial shake-up proposal offered by college President Rex Craig.

The unanimous decision ends more than a month of public debate in which several reorganization plans were submitted to the board of trustees for consideration from various groups on campus.

The plan adopted Tuesday is a compromise stemming from the first administrative shake-up proposed by Craig since he was hired nearly three years ago. Craig proposed that realignment to improve efficiency and save the school about $25,000 annually.

Teachers Object

But teachers objected, offered some alternatives and unsuccessfully sought a delay of Tuesday’s vote.

The reorganization plan approved Tuesday will:

Create a new, $47,000-a-year position of director of special programs and services.

Abolish the $52,000-a-year job of dean of instructional support services.

Add to and shuffle some of the responsibilities of four deans.

Taking into account support costs for the jobs, Craig expects the new plan to save the district $135,000 a year when fully implemented.

Craig’s original proposal included all the above measures, but he also had wanted to add a vice president of administration job at a cost of about $60,000 annually and to eliminate two other positions, director of library services, which pays $47,000 a year, and coordinator of parent education, with an annual salary of about $40,000.

Trustees voted to preserve the library and parent education positions until more information is available on how their elimination would affect the school. Craig last week agreed with the board that the new vice president job was not needed now.

“It’s hard for me to explain to the community that we don’t have a head librarian,” trustee Robert Holmes said. “I think that sends a certain message to the community . . . and I think we should retain (the position) until things can be worked out.”

Changes Possible

Board President Rae Berry said some refinements may still be made in the plan.

Craig said after the meeting that he is “generally pleased” with the compromise vote.

But Pete Witt, president of the faculty guild, said most teachers oppose the compromise plan, although they find it less distasteful than Craig’s original proposal.

Witt asserted that the reorganization would not save money and argued that trustees should have waited for more studies on the plan.

“We think the plan is too top-heavy--too many chiefs and not enough Indians,” Witt said. “We should have thought about this much longer. I think the trustees got sold a bill of goods that isn’t going to work well.”

Witt also said that some of the deans and administrators who will take on different responsibilities are not qualified for some of their new duties.

Craig, however, said that “much of the criticism has been made out of naivete,” and that many of the charges “are the result of the faculty not getting their way on certain issues in the past.” Craig said the new plan will give the school “a more cohesive and efficient organizational structure.”