Dear SDCCD AFT Guild Faculty Unit Members,
I am pleased to report that we have reached agreement with the District on the details of our 2026 Resource Allocation Formula (RAF) distribution that we believe represents a groundbreaking settlement for our faculty! This settlement will greatly improve the living wage of our lowest paid faculty, and at the same time move us in a significant way toward a “one faculty” model for all faculty.
Our main focus during this round of negotiations was to address the lowest salaries currently being paid to both our full-time and part-time faculty. We are all painfully aware of how expensive it is to live in San Diego, and our entry level salaries currently rank among the lowest in the State.
Given the meager 1.70% COLA that we are due to receive from this year’s RAF allocation, our options were limited regarding what we were capable of achieving during this round. However, just as we did with our Classified Professionals two years ago, our joint goal with the District was to ensure as many of our members as possible would be able to earn a living wage here in San Diego.
To that end, the approach we finally landed on that made the most sense and that provides the greatest benefit to our lowest paid faculty, is to move all faculty from whatever Salary Class they are currently on to the top Class, Salary Class 6. This will apply to both the current Tenure-Track/Tenured and Part-Time/Overload faculty salary schedules.
Here are the details of how this will work:
1) Effective 1/1/2026 all faculty will be “frozen” in their current Salary Class.
2) Step movements will continue to occur, but no subsequent Class advancement will take place for any faculty.
3) Professional Development proposals which are approved by your campus Professional Advancement Committee and submitted to the District by the end of this semester will still be credited.
4) Tenured/Tenure-Track Contract Faculty will move in step on January 1st (11/12 month faculty) or February 1st (10 month faculty) as per our current contractual provisions.
5) Adjunct Faculty will continue to move in step for each 450 hours served as is currently the case, and will bring their accumulated hours with them when they move to their new step in Class 6.
6) All Tenured/Tenure-Track and Adjunct faculty will move to the current Salary Class 6, which will then become the lone salary classification, effective July 1, 2026. Each employee will move to the step in Class 6 which is closest, but equal to or greater than, their current class and step value, with no loss in pay. (see graphics below)
7) All faculty currently on Class 6 will retain their current Class 6 placement with no changes.
8) New hires will all start on the first step of this new single Salary Class.
9) Overload assignment placement for Tenured/Tenure-Track Contract Faculty will continue to be on the matching step of the Adjunct/Overload salary schedule, up to the top step F, as is currently the case.
***In addition, all faculty will receive a one-time off-schedule payment equivalent to 1.70% of their gross earnings for calendar year 2025. This one-time off-schedule payment will be reflected on the March 31st and April 10th, 2026 pay warrants.***
We realize that this proposal is quite unconventional, and not without controversy. It should also be noted that in order to make this work, the District is willing to commit additional resources resulting in more than 2 1/2 times what our RAF allocation would have been. That amounts to an additional $4.3M, not an insignificant amount of additional resource being provided by the District. The Board of Trustees, in addition to the Chancellor and his Executive Management Team, all need to all be commended for their dedication and commitment to ensuring this proposal became viable.
This proposal will bring our entry level salaries up from the lowest in the State to one of the highest. In addition to helping our current members, this will in turn also help us to be more competitive in both the recruitment and retention of new faculty.
Additionally, this proposal is a significant step toward moving us to a “One Faculty” model, where our goal is to eliminate the distinctions between temporary and permanent faculty, a goal we have been diligently championing with CFT statewide over the past two years.
We fully recognize that this settlement isn’t going to make anyone a millionaire, but in light of the very small COLA we are receiving, and given the fact that the District is willing to make a sizeable contribution that they were under no obligation to agree to, we feel that on balance, this is a very good settlement and worthy of your ratification vote. Also, please keep in mind, that this is not the final salary settlement we will ever reach. This is merely the first step, one which we will continue to build upon in future negotiation rounds.
We will be holding several Zoom meetings on the following dates to field any questions you might have regarding this settlement:
• Tuesday, December 2nd, 3:00-4:00pm
• Wednesday, December 3rd, 3:00-4:00pm
• Friday, December 5th, 2:00-3:00pm
• Tuesday, December 9th, 4:00-5:00pm
Zoom link for all dates:
Please keep an eye on your inbox by the end of this week for an electronic ratification ballot coming via ElectionBuddy from: AFT Guild Local 1931 <invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com> . Your AFT Guild Executive Council strongly recommends your “YES” vote on this ratification.
In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly.
On behalf of your AFT Guild Executive Council, In Solidarity,
Jim
Jim Mahler, President
AFT Guild, Local 1931
