Some of the faculty had expressed frustration at a July 17 board meeting because the trustees had accepted the conditions of some, but not all, the retirees, said Chancellor Stan Arterberry. The remaining faculty, totaling 11 instructors, had to wait until the next board meeting to find out if their retirements would be accepted.

Confusion arose, however, on July 30 between the board and faculty's interpretation of their retirement agreement. But after a closed session by the trustees, a new draft of a motion was approved in a 6-1 vote.

The board acknowledged these retirements: West Valley's Clo Hampton, Michael Leary, Gordon Barrett, Kent Harris, Kathleen Grisham, Fiona Sohns and Diane Tsutsumi, and Mission College instructors Carolyn Zerboni, Ina Gard, Gloria Ham and Jody Hacker.

Rhoda Curry, executive secretary to the board, said the board passed a motion that accepted the retirements of those instructors along with lifetime medical benefits, a $25,000 cash incentive to retire early and consent that the instructors will be paid their "banked leave" at an associate or part-time level.

Board President Chris Constantin described banked leave as similar to comp time. He said it's time employees accrue when they teach above and beyond their normal course load of about five classes. Faculty, he said, have the option of using that time as paid leave from work such as going on sabbatical, or they can buy credit years of what is known as pre-banked leave. This means they can be paid out for their banked leave and retire earlier than originally anticipated.

Arterberry said the faculty was offered incentives to retire early due to the WV­MCCD's budget crisis. The assumption, Arterberry said, was that it would be cheaper for the district if long-time faculty and staff at a higher salary retired, and new faculty was hired at a lower salary.

The motion that was passed also states that members of the district's administration, including Arterberry, will meet with the Association of College Educators—or the faculty union—to decide the rate of banked leave payout over time. Those negotiations have yet to take place, according to WV-MCCD Public Affairs Director Ruth Carlson and Arterberry.

Constantin was the only person on the seven-member board to vote against the recommendation, and said he voted against it for two reasons. First, Constantin said, he didn't believe there was any ambiguity over the interpretation of the motion and didn't see a need for any discussion about it. And second, he said he didn't appreciate many of the faculty, who were not all well-informed, going directly to the board to address the issue instead of dealing with the administration before the meeting.

"In my opinion—as one board member—the entire meeting in the end was about the faculty's attempt to get even more money and not give any concessions," he said.

Until the approved draft of the motion was proposed and approved, faculty members were concerned they would not receive part or all of their banked-leave payout.

"It makes no sense. You people are more intelligent that this," said faculty union Vice President Pat Andrews, addressing the board. "The district accepted letters of retirement that expressed 100-percent payout. The district had weeks to take care of this. The teachers believed this money was coming."

Complaints, profanity and grumbling that could be heard from the audience were eventually silenced with the rapping of Constantin's gavel. Andrews stressed that most of the teachers up for retirement had served the district for more than 30 years, and reminded the board to not let their decision cost them their ethics.

"Where the hell is the money I took out of my paycheck and put on banked leave?" said Leary to the board during a public comment section of the meeting.

Following the meeting, Leary, who is retiring as a photography instructor, said he is more comfortable with the second draft of the motion that passed, but will be interested to see how the negotiations play out between union and the administration.

"They made a good start, but I sure wasn't happy during the meeting," he said.

Andrews said she still wasn't satisfied with how the meeting turned out, and was hoping the faculty would have received their banked leave in full.

"It was better than nothing," she said.

Board member Frank Jewett said much of the ambiguity and miscommunication was sorted out when the trustees went into the closed session midway through the meeting. He said the administration will be looking at whether the banked leave payout will take place over one or two years.

"We do acknowledge the sum total of leadership and the commitment the faculty has given to the district—but we are in tight fiscal times," he said.

Arterberry said he is anticipating a $2 to $3 million deficit for the upcoming school year and a $3 to $5 million deficit for 2004­05. Faced with these upcoming challenges, Arterberry said that in early September the staff will be looking at ways to resolve the "tremendous" deficit.

The district will also be looking at facility needs, Arterberry said, including renovation of the West Valley campus and completion of the Mission campus.

While Arterberry said the cost of employee positions are greatly contributing to the deficit, there were remarkably no positions lost for 2003­04. "Paying employees is our top priority," he said.

But employees other than faculty will face an 8-percent pay cut, and he said the union has yet to reach agreement with administration on the amount of its pay cut.

Arterberry said the district is ahead of its target goals for enrollment, with registration up by more than 20 percent. Students may be facing a fee increase of anywhere between $11 to $18 per unit to help remedy the budget deficit.