Why City College is in the red

From the SF Examiner:

City College of San Francisco’s likely new chancellor will make tens of thousands more a year than his predecessors at the fiscally troubled college if his contract is approved Thursday at the Board of Trustees.

Mark Rocha, a New York bureaucrat who has a long and at times controversial history of leading community colleges in Southern California, will earn $310,500 annually before benefits — about $45,000 more than Interim Chancellor Susan Lamb and $21,000 more than the last permanent chancellor, Art Tyler.

The news comes as City College continues to reduce its class schedule by 5 percent a year because of a $35 million loss in state funding this fiscal year, when stability funding meant to offset the decline in student enrollment ends.

Rocha will likely have the votes needed to become chancellor Thursday despite an outcry against the decision from the faculty union, according to trustees who spoke on and off the record with the San Francisco Examiner.

“There will be a lot of people testifying against him and for him,” said Trustee John Rizzo, who plans to vote in favor of Rocha because he was the “best” of four finalists for the job. “I just don’t see the board reversing its decision.”

The American Federation of Teachers Local 2121 is concerned that faculty at Pasadena City College voted no confidence in Rocha when he was president in 2013.

“This is not a person we want to be the chancellor of our school,” said AFT 2121 President Tim Killikelly, who heard “disturbing” reports from faculty at colleges where Rocha previously worked.

Trustee Rafael Mandelman, who did not support Rocha’s selection as the top candidate for the job, is also concerned with Rocha’s past and said he will not vote in favor of the contract...

“The record speaks for itself, and I think at this moment in City College’s history we need a healer,” he said. “It is absolutely my hope that Rocha will be that healer and nothing will make me happier than to have been wrong.”

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