College Teachers’ Union to File Grievance

Saying the community college district will improperly employ instructors when it launches a new police and fire academy next month, the college teachers’ union said Thursday it will file a grievance with the state.

District officials said they are confident the law enforcement officers and firefighters who will teach classes as part of the 16-week intensive cadet training program meet state guidelines for instructors.

The Ventura County Federation of College Teachers plans to file its complaint with the state Public Employee Relations Board next week.

It is illegal for the Ventura County Community College District to offer college credit for courses taught by instructors who are not faculty members, said Larry Miller, the union’s president.

“We don’t like our contract being violated in such an arrogant manner,” Miller said.

But Larry Calderon, president of Ventura College, which would administer the program, said the college has the ability to certify the fire and police teaching personnel as district instructors, provided they meet minimum district requirements.

But union officials worry that without faculty supervision, the quality of instruction will not be up to district standards.

They suggest an “instructor of record”--a faculty member responsible for the delivery of the teaching program--who would oversee numerous law enforcement guest speakers. For example, a faculty member runs the Moorpark College biotechnology program although guest speakers from Amgen and Baxter Healthcare Corp. do the majority of the instruction.

Calderon points out, however, that teachers at the police and fire academy would be working from curriculum that has already been approved by a panel of full-time community college faculty members.

Because district administrators believe they have the authority to use non-district employees to teach cadets, they don’t plan to go through the usual hiring process for approving the academy’s instructors.

The district cannot hire the officers as part-time faculty members, because deputies are not allowed to earn money from another agency, according to Chief Deputy Dante Honorico of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

In recent weeks, college district officials have consulted the state to resolve the Sheriff’s Department’s concerns about compensating instructors and potential faculty-union issues.

Based on a provision in the state education code, the college can use law enforcement agents as instructors without hiring them as district employees, Paul Sickert, an attorney for the California Community Colleges chancellor’s office, wrote in an opinion for the local district.

“As far as we’re concerned, it’s fine,” Sickert said in an interview Thursday.

The chancellor’s office did not, however, address whether the plan would violate collective bargaining agreements, Sickert said.

When cadets complete the Ventura College-run program, they will meet the requirements to become law enforcement officers and also will receive 39 units in college credits.

The program is a collaboration among the college district, the Ventura County Fire Protection District and the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

Courses would be taught by working law enforcement professionals, who would work under a coordinating district staff member. This arrangement gives police and fire instructors reign over the classroom, without designating an instructor of record.

The academy is expected to bring scores of new students into the district--which officials predict will mean more than $1.5 million in extra revenue. For each new full-time equivalent student, the district receives $3,400 from the state. The new academy is expected to attract the equivalent of 444 new students.

Part of the extra money will go toward building a public safety training center on the grounds of the Camarillo Airport, where the academy is based.

Construction on the facility would begin by 2002 with completion expected a year later.

“Everybody is going to win on this one,” said Yvonne Bodle, district spokeswoman.