The Garden City Telegram
NEW E-Edition!
Subscription
Required
Add Your Comment | Read (1) Comments
GCCC trustees vote not to renew faculty contracts
Published 4/15/2010 in Local News
By MONICA SPRINGER
Five Garden City Community College faculty members did not have their contracts renewed for the 2010-11 school year because of budget concerns during Wednesday night's board of trustees meeting.
Doug Beyer, string music instructor and Southwest Kansas Music Academy director; Rob Schreiber, automotive technology instructor; Cyd Stein, journalism instructor who teaches broadcasting courses; Jeff Davis, instructor in the Frederick Finnup Computer Lab; and Steven Thompson, computer science instructor in the Business and Information Systems Division, did not have their contracts renewed.
The trustees voted 3-2 to accept the decision, which was listed on the consent agenda. Terri Worf, Della Brandenburger and Bill Clifford voted in favor of the resolution for the non-renewal of contracts.
Merilyn Douglass and Ron Schwartz voted against it. Steve Sterling was not present.
The action followed discussion over a plan recommended by Carol Ballantyne, president, to address a projected decline of approximately $30 million in Finney County property tax valuation for the year that will begin July 1. The drop in valuation is expected to reduce GCCC tax revenues by at least $600,000, and the president is simultaneously planning to reduce GCCC's authorized use of reserve funds for the fiscal year. Total combined cuts will range, approximately, from $800,712 to $1,218,979.
"We don't want to do this. We want to keep these programs," GCCC President Carol Ballantyne said. She added that the enrollment in the programs that were cut were lower than expected. "It be done."
Ballantyne said she is still working on the possibility of retaining some of the instructors, but the college is required by the negotiated agreement it has with the faculty to give official non-renewal notices by May 1. The board's last regularly scheduled meeting before that date was Wednesday night.
Ballantyne said Davis still will teach in the Finnup lab on the GCCC campus until he takes early retirement during the 2010-11 school year, but will be paid as an hourly employee instead of a faculty member.
The layoffs mean that the broadcasting program and the strings program will be eliminated. The college will retain its business classes, but is still deciding what to do with its computer programming and networking courses, Ballantyne said.
GCCC still will have one automotive technology teacher. The position that GCCC eliminated Wednesday night was paid for in past years by USD 457 as part of the Centers of Excellence, a joint venture between the school district and GCCC allowing high school students to take college courses.
The school district quit paying for the position last year, and GCCC retained the position this year but can't continue to pay for it, Ballantyne said.
Addressing the trustees
Beyer and Stein addressed the trustees before the vote, and a GCCC music student also addressed the trustees.
Stein and Beyer questioned what they thought was a lack of transparency in the college's budget reduction decisions. Additionally, Barb Lawson, who read a brief statement from the faculty senate, also questioned the transparency of the budget decisions.
Lawson asked that the trustees table the vote on the layoffs and hold a special meeting with the faculty senate before May 1.
The faculty members weren't asked for their opinions and, as Beyer said during the meeting, the faculty could have come up with other budget-saving moves that didn't involve people losing their jobs.
Beyer said, for example, the strings academy could be discontinued, at a savings of $6,000 to $10,000 a year. Beyer said he was willing to teach the academy students in his free time.
"It's not going to make a big bite, but it's a good portion. If we find places like this across campus, we might be able to meet this," Beyer said.
Beyer and Stein said they were concerned about their students but were not speaking to try to save their jobs.
Stein said her three and a half years as an instructor confirmed her desire to be an educator. She also asked the board for guidance on investing the balance of $80,000 in grant funds given to GCCC by Cox Media to develop a recently completed student media lab on the campus.
Stein said she wanted direction on where to spend the remaining $55,000 of the grant money, and questioned whether the money should be spent on a program that is being dissolved.
Stein said a solution would be to ask that Cox redirect that money to benefit other aspects of journalism that will remain at GCCC.
Clifford responded to Stein saying that she should direct her question about use of grant funds to Ballantyne, rather than to the board. Ballantyne said she would meet with Stein to discuss the funds and is also planning to meet with Cox to further discuss the issue.
Sophomore Marianne Lawrence, from Dighton, also addressed the trustees. A music major, she plays piano and is in the band and choir ensembles.
She was hoping to broaden her horizons and learn a string instrument in the next year. Though she's a sophomore, she said she's still planning to attend GCCC next year.
"Music is important to me," she said. "This is a great opportunity for me to expand my horizons, and that opportunity is being taken away from me."
Trustees discuss cuts
Before voting, trustees expressed sadness about the expected drop in revenue and the measures being taken in response.
"It is emotional. We prefer the college to continue to grow," Brandenburger said. "All of us are facing budget cuts. This is emotional for everyone. No one likes to take anybody's job."
Worf said: "For the most part, we've got away with not cutting people. There are no other places to cut. You can't have classes in the dark and you can't turn off the heat. Sometimes you have to cut people."
Ballantyne said she did not know what else could have been done.
"We will be in a deficit next year. I know nothing else to do but to continue to recommend this," Ballantyne said of the five cuts.
Found 1 comment(s)!
First step down the slippery slope
This is very sad and a bit disconcerting that our kids won't have some of the classes that would have possible made a difference in if they come to Gccc or go to another school that DID NOT cut music and auto tech and other classes. Perhaps when no one comes then the board will realize that the Administration should have been cut instead of the teaching staff.
Posted by: Sammi on 4/15/2010