Ccs Faculty To Vote Again On Salary Issue After First Tally Invalidated, Ballots Will Be Mailed To Homes
The faculty for the Community Colleges of Spokane have invalidated a vote on salaries because a high number of ballots did not come in.
Richard Cox, president of the Association of Higher Education, said Monday that the union did not receive ballots from 40 full-time instructors in time for last Thursday’s election deadline.
That raised concerns by the union’s executive board that mail services at the colleges and the Airway Heights Correctional Center, where instructors work, may have delayed the return of the ballots.
“Given the importance of the election, the executive board has agreed to hold a new election,” Cox said. “Being that the vote was so close, we recognize the importance for all faculty to vote on the issue.”
Faculty were asked to vote on new salary schedules that would dictate who gets what chunk of a state pay raise.
Full-time instructors barely approved their salary schedule by a 140-124 vote. But part-time faculty overwhelmingly adopted their salary schedule 228-14.
Part-timers support the change because it boosts the pay of the lowest-paid instructors to a more equitable rate.
But some full-time instructors are against their proposed schedule because they said it favors the highest-paid faculty.
A new vote will be taken Nov. 6, Cox said.
He said ballots will be mailed to the homes of faculty members, rather than to their place of work, to ensure quick delivery and provide enough time for them to return the ballots.
In the first vote, nearly two dozen instructors were uncertain about where they would be placed on a new salary schedule, and part-time faculty were not allowed to vote on salary schedules for full-time instructors.
For the new vote, full-time and part-time faculty will be allowed to vote on both schedules.
The union has 333 full-time faculty members and 516 part-time members sprinkled throughout six Eastern Washington counties.
, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TAKE TWO A new vote will be taken Nov. 6.