College District Plans to Hire 9 New Faculty Members : Education: Non-teaching staff members criticize board’s move to replace instructors but not service workers.

Despite concerns that projected state education funds may fall short again this year, the Ventura County Community College District is forging ahead with plans to hire nine new faculty members for the fall.

If hired, the nine new instructors will fulfill district plans--expedited last month after impassioned pleas from faculty members--to replace 16 full-time faculty members lost to early-retirement buyouts in the summer.

But as faculty members of the three-campus district cheered the board’s decision at a meeting Tuesday, a small contingent of non-teaching staff carried placards that read, “There’s No Class Without Classified” and chastised the board for rushing to replace instructors but not service workers.

Classified employees, which include workers ranging from custodians to administrative aides, saw their numbers dwindle by about 24 in 1993 due to early retirements.

In addition, the employees have received only a 1% pay increase in four years. Tuesday, they accused the board of playing down its fiscal health in order to delay salary negotiations started last spring.

“What are we, chopped liver?” Candace Peyton, vice president of the classified employees union, asked after berating the board for ignoring the union’s concerns. “There has been an uproar about all of the faculty taken away from the classroom, but two years ago we lost about 24 people that were never replaced. They are implying that our positions aren’t vital.”

Student services at the three campuses have suffered due to the loss of staff and low morale, said Leanne Colvin, president of the classified employees union.

Library hours have been shortened, lines for services have lengthened and the time it takes to process items such as transcripts has doubled, Colvin said.

“There is not enough of us,” she said. “. . . Students are coming in screaming about the long lines.”

Although they didn’t seem to notice problems with lines, students interviewed this week from all three colleges said they have noticed declines in library services.

At Moorpark College, hardest hit by the 1993 buyouts, library hours returned to normal this week. For the last two years, the library was closed between 3 and 6 p.m. on weekdays. That changed Monday, when the district hired a temporary part-time employee. “The library has been a real problem,” said student Janette DeVorre as she studied Wednesday. “Everyone complained about the hours. I didn’t even get out of class until the library had closed.”

Ed Tennen, the dean of Moorpark College’s library services, says the part-time employee is only a stopgap measure, based on hopes that the district will pay for more hires in its next budget.

But trustees--who warned that they might have to freeze hiring for the nine faculty positions if projected state funds fell short--said they will have to wait until February to meet the classified employees’ demands.

That is when the state adjusts funds to the colleges based on actual property tax revenue. For the past four years, the district’s funding has come in lower than anticipated.

“We want to do something for the classified, but with the obligations that seem to be looming on the horizon, we have to wait until we know a little bit more,” Trustee Norm Nagel said. He pointed to anticipated expenses, such as the construction of three new academic buildings not fully funded by the state.

Though the same concerns may eventually stop the new faculty hires, trustees said they are more comfortable going ahead with those hires because of the savings achieved by the early retirements.

Even though it is replacing the 16 retirees--with three faculty members hired in the fall, four scheduled to start in January and nine approved for next fall--the district is still saving $250,000 by replacing older, highly paid faculty members with younger teachers who make less, said Barbara Hoffman, president of the teacher’s union.

The same is not true for classified workers, who have less variance in salary, said Jerry Pauley, associate vice chancellor for human resources.

But union officials say they have seen many signs of fiscal health that could pay for raises and new hires.

According to Colvin, district officials recently said they have as much as 5% of their budget in reserve, the highest since 1988. The new chancellor will make $6,000 more than his predecessor, she said, and the district will benefit from a $1-million rebate from its insurance company, a $500,000 state block grant for equipment and new lottery funds.

All that frees up funds for classified employees, she said.

“We are not stupid,” Colvin told the board. “We know you have the money to give us raises, so do it.”