College workers may get pay hike

Amy R. Spurgeon

COSTA MESA -- Thanks to a boost in full-time student enrollment,

Coast Community College District employees are scheduled to get their

second pay hike in a month, boosting their pay by more than 10% this

year, officials said.

State education officials have granted the district $1.9 million in

what’s known as a growth fund because of a jump in enrollment during the

1999-2000 school year.

As a result, trustees are expected to approve a 6.5% across-the-board

salary increase for employees at Wednesday’s board meeting, said board

President Jerry Patterson.

Included in the raise will be educators, administrators, supervisory

management, maintenance and operations workers and employees of KOCE-TV,

the district-run public television station in Huntington Beach.

The district encompasses OCC, Coastline College and Golden West

College.

Not included in the growth fund will be Chancellor William Vega, whose

contract omits him from the raise.

“It’s a good pay raise. I’m really pleased,” Patterson said. “But I

think we’d still like to go higher. Our target is to be competitive with

other community college districts in the county.”

The latest increase is combined with Gov. Gray Davis’ 4.17%

cost-of-living increase approved earlier this month.

Part-time faculty members are not included in the latest pay boost but

most likely will become eligible when negotiations for their 2000-01

contract begins, Patterson said.

If approved, the increase goes into effect this fall.

“The teachers have worked really hard to contribute to the growth of

this district,” said Tina Bruning, teachers union president. “This

illustrates our hard work.”The district, which this year had 30,396

full-time students -- those taking at least 15 units -- has not

participated in the growth fund since 1994.

The district had 28,846 full-time students during 1998-99.