Community College Pact Adds Calendar Flexibility

Los Angeles community college officials have signed a tentative, three-year contract with the faculty union that will give the district’s nine campuses flexibility to adopt new calendars, including compressed semesters.

The contract was recommended Tuesday by the executive board of the union, a chapter of the College Guild of the American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, that represents about 4,000 full- and part-time teachers. Members will vote by mail in the coming weeks.

District and union leaders praised the agreement as a sign that they are getting along better.

The contract provisions designed to promote calendar changes--as well as those aimed at containing health care costs and allowing paid leaves for faculty--are in part the result of a new, more constructive relationship, said John McDowell, the union’s political director.

“So much of what was done was in the interest of both parties; it has set a new standard,” he said.

Kelly Candaele, president of the district trustees, agreed. “It really did seem different this time,” he said. “There was not a lot of hostility at the table. . . . It seemed more professional.”

The district’s current calendar, consisting of two long semesters and summer classes, has been blamed for the loss of potential students to schools such as Santa Monica College, where students have more choices about when, and for how long, they take classes.

Santa Monica offers several alternatives to the traditional calendar, including compressed winter sessions lasting only a few weeks.

If the L.A. contract is ratified, West Los Angeles, Pierce, Valley and Los Angeles City colleges may be the first campuses to adopt shorter semesters and compressed sessions, said Carolyn Widener, a union executive who led the push.

Besides the scheduling changes, the contract contains raises averaging just over 3%--modest enough to permit a healthy reserve for the district. A portion of the raises is linked to performance--kicking in only if district enrollment grows.