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# SMC turns to state for help with teacher rift
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smc-turns-to-state-for-help-with-teacher-rift/
- Published: 2006-05-13T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:49:06.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Education, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Teachers threaten to cut back hours*

SMC — Unable to reach an agreement regarding pay raises for faculty, administrators on Thursday filed a request with the state for mediation.

The Santa Monica College Faculty Association and administrators at SMC have been negotiating a new contract since September 2004, and have come to an agreement on most issues, including health care, which the college has agreed to pay completely, representatives from the association and the college said.

However, the SMC board of trustees has been unwilling to grant two pay raises totaling 5.5 percent for faculty because of a lack of funding. The trustees are offering a raise of 3.5 percent, said Robert Sammis, the college’s chief negotiator and vice president of planning and development.

Professors are seeking a 2-percent raise on top of the 3.5 percent the college has offered. Faculty members feel a combined 5.5-percent raise would put them on par with administrators, who received similar raises last year.

Professors led marches on the college campus and at SMC headquarters over the last few weeks, culminating in a presentation to the board of trustees on Monday, May 8\. The effort was intended to put pressure on the trustees to approve the raises.

The California Employment Relations Board (PERB), a quasi-judicial agency which oversees public sector collective bargaining in the state, is evaluating the college’s request for mediation and is required to make a determination within five working days. The request was filed May 11, said Robert Thompson, general counsel for PERB.

To determine if a mediator is necessary, PERB will consider the length of negotiations, the extent to which counter offers have been made, the number of items agreed upon, and other factors, Thompson said.

This isn’t the first time the college and faculty have come to an impasse, said Mitra Moassessi, a math professor at SMC and the lead negotiator for faculty.

“The district never makes negotiations easy,” she said. “This has happened in virtually every contract negotiation we’ve had with the district.”

Moassessi said if PERB approves of mediation, the association will ask its members to cut back on office hours, the number of students they allow per class, and other services they provide, but are not required under their current contract. Moassessi said oftentimes professors will allow more students to enroll in a class than what is allowed, which means more money for the college.

“We are going to put more pressure on the district by asking our faculty to only do what we are contractually required to do,” Moassessi said. “We all care about our students and our goal here is not to harm them. We are not all going to call in sick one day and not come to school. If cutting back to the required office hours is harming the students, then the students need to look to the administration.”

Faculty is requesting a 2-percent raise effective January 2005, and a 3.5-percent raise effective January 2006, Moassessi said.

Sammis said SMC faculty members are already some of the highest paid in the state, and approving raises totaling 5.5 percent would put the college’s balanced budget “at risk.”

Sammis said the college has conducted a study looking at the last 10 years of salary increases and found that raises for all employees are just about equal. If faculty was to accept the 3.5-percent increase in pay that the college has offered, they would receive the largest increase among SMC employees — 32.6 percent, compared with 30.54 for classified employees, such as custodial staff, and 30 percent for administrators. “I think our faculty is in a good position,” Sammis said. “We’re proud that our faculty are some of the highest paid anywhere.”

Nancy Greenstein, president of the board of trustees, could not comment on the board’s decision not to grant the pay increases requested by faculty because that decision was made in closed session, however, she said there is hope that an impartial mediator “can help us come to an agreement that is fair for everyone.”

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 13, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/051306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)