CCSF faculty pack hall as cuts weighed S.F. EDUCATION

Angela Thomas speaks during the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees meeting at City College in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Oct.25th, 2012 Angela Thomas speaks during the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees meeting at City College in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Oct.25th, 2012 Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle Photo: John Storey, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close CCSF faculty pack hall as cuts weighed 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Over the objections of labor leaders, trustees of the nearly bankrupt City College of San Francisco were expected to dismantle a long-standing system of faculty leadership on Thursday night to streamline governance and save $2 million.

The move would send dozens of department chairs back to the classroom from the administrative positions they have held for years, earning extra pay for that work while being released from teaching. Deans would largely take their place, as is customary at other colleges.

Trustee Steve Ngo has called the system a "peculiar and dysfunctional management regime that inevitably existed for its own sake, answered to no one, and (served to) attack anyone who wanted to change the status quo."

Faculty members packed the small auditorium at 50 Phelan Ave. and crowded the halls and an overflow room at the college's main campus to protest what they said was a shakeup done behind their backs. They urged trustees not to dismantle the system.

"Shame on you," said Debra Wilensky, an instructor in English as a second language.

Faculty union president Alisa Messer told the trustees, "Rather than engaging us, rather than consulting us or even arguing with us" college officials acted unilaterally. Messer urged the trustees not to change the system and fought back tears as she considered the downsizing of the college.

Downsizing is what the trustees were expected to do on Thursday, perhaps for the first time. The college is fighting to keep its accreditation and could be forced to shut down because trustees have been diffident in their approach to cuts, making only limited reductions even as state funding for City College plunged by $25 million since 2008.

Closing a budget gap

Now City College must find a way to close a $15 million budget gap expected for the 2013-14 school year, Vice Chancellor Peter Goldstein told the trustees, letting them know that if voters reject Prop. 30, a tax measure on the Nov. 6 ballot, the school's budget would drop by another $11.4 million.

The Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges has given the college until March 15 to repair 14 major deficiencies, including a muddled and bureaucratic leadership structure. Overhauling that was just one of several painful decisions on Thursday's agenda.

Another was whether to close the Bernal Heights State Preschool to save $84,000. It's one of four college-run child care centers that are supposed to serve as laboratories for child-development majors and where parents learn parenting skills. Not all of the programs offer college credit, however, and City College spends $700,000 a year to run them. The trustees also were to vote on whether to end summer hours at the other three centers.

The trustees approved the hiring of a "special trustee," giving veto power on all accreditation-related decisions to Bob Agrella, retired head of the Sonoma County Junior College District. In closed session, the trustees gave Agrella an eight-month contract at $1,000 per work day, roughly $160,000, and a taxpayer-funded car.

Uncollected fees

The other issue on the jam-packed agenda was for the trustees to tell administrators what to do about a practice that has cost City College $8.5 million over many years: letting students take classes without paying enrollment fees. College officials revealed for the first time last month that the school loses $400,000 a year by not collecting the fees.