Lifting a ban that had been in place for several years, the District has agreed to once again allow classified staff members to hold adjunct faculty faculty teaching assignments.
Chancellor Carroll deserves a great deal of credit for ensuring this ban was finally lifted. (Positive emails thanking her for her work on this issue are highly recommended.)
The following message is from the Chancellor’s Cabinet:
————————————–
The following guidelines have approved by the Chancellor¹s Cabinet in order that classified employees may again be considered for appointment to adjunct faculty positions. These guidelines are effective beginning with the summer session 2007.
Classified Employees Concurrently Employed as Adjunct Faculty
Guidelines
The following guidelines are provided in the employment of District full-time classified employees who are hired as adjunct instructors in the college or continuing education programs of the district.
1. The approval of the appropriate manager of the classified position must be received before the employee is assigned a teaching or non-teaching adjunct assignment by the academic manager. This is to be done on a term by term basis, including summer and intersession assignments and will be reflected by signatures on the Tentative Assignment Offer.
2. Classroom preparation may not take place during regularly assigned classified working hours, exclusive of approved breaks.
3. The work hours of the classified position may not be modified in order to teach classes or perform academic non-classroom assignments (e.g. counseling of students)
4. The District Classification and Compensation Office must determine whether a special hourly pay rate for the adjunct faculty assignment (called a blended rate) must be paid to the classified employee as provided under federal statutes.
5 Classified employees must be offered the right to choose STRS when offered a teaching assignment. They will be provided a specific document which advises them of the impact upon their Social Security retirement annuity by retirement from STRS which is not integrated with Social Security.
————————————————-
We are working with the District in developing the fact sheet relating to number 5 above. Classified staff teaching as adjunct faculty have several retirement selection options for their teaching assignment, including, possibly, remaining with PERS, all of which we are currently researching.
For the small number of classified employees who signed the waiver form a few years back in order to continue teaching, that waiver will remain in effect, however, the restrictions on your assignment load will be lifted. You will each be receiving additional information regarding this via US mail to your home in a few weeks.
The above represents a great benefit not just for our classified staff, but also to our students and programs who will now be allowed to take advantage of the experience and expertise our classified staff bring to the classroom.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions regarding the preceding.
In Unity,
Jim