By The Telegram
The Garden City Community College Board of Trustees on Thursday approved the 2012-13 negotiated faculty agreement and a proposal to change management of the bookstore from contract to internal management.
The negotiated agreement covers the full-time teachers who belong to the faculty negotiating unit and is for the 2012-13 academic and fiscal year, which began July 1 and runs through June 30, 2013.
Before going to the board, the negotiated agreement was approved by a faculty vote on Sept. 21, by a vote of 38-7.
The 35-page agreement, which covers 65 to 66 instructors, addresses the salary schedule, sick leave, health insurance and early retirement.
The agreement adds $203.73 to each line of the faculty salary schedule, and allows each qualified member to move one line on that schedule. For instructors not able to move, each will receive an additional $629.27.
The agreement increases the sick leave bank from 10 to 12 days per year and allows up to five days of sick leave to be used as personal leave. It also incorporates a definition of family members for whom sick leave applies.
Under the Kansas Public Employee Retirement System, qualified employees may retire with full benefits when their age and years of service equal 85. The college has allowed retiring employees using that benefit to stay on the GCCC health insurance plan and receive $400 per month toward the premium cost, until they qualify for Medicare or other health insurance. The new agreement further defines eligibility, noting that such retirees must be at least 62 years old, unless they already are receiving the health insurance benefit, retire before July 1, 2015, or have served GCCC for 20 years or longer.
Staff and administrative personnel, who are not covered by the agreement, also received raises of 2 percent, effective July 1, and the college contribution toward their health insurance increased from $400 to $425 per month, the same amount allocated to faculty.
Trustees also approved a change in Broncbuster Bookstore management. According to a GCCC press release, the proposal for that change came about after an 18-month review by GCCC President Herbert Swender and key administrators.
The bookstore, which has been managed by Follet Higher Education Group of River Grove, Ill., since 1995, now will be internally managed by GCCC.
Moving to self-management is designed to provide lower book prices to students and make more GCCC brand items available for purchase. The contract covers wholesale textbook pricing, website support and implementation of a point-of-sale system, allowing both on-site and online sales.
The change also includes a contract with MBS Textbook Exchange, Inc., based in Columbia, Mo., to provide wholesale textbooks with an annual software and hardware maintenance charge of $9,185, as well as initial investment of $24,023. After the first year of the five-year agreement, GCCC will pay only the $9,185 annual software and hardware charges.
Swender recommended MBS from among five vendors, noting that it best met student needs.