Adult Ed Summer Classes Cut

Re: Arellano's comment: "the school should be safe from having to cut any courses from its fall, winter, or spring catalogues. ... more free courses would be converted in the coming months to a fee-based system." Converting to fee based is essentially cutting classes in some cases. When seniors are asked to shell out approximately $50/month and close to $100 a class, that will kill many classes. From what I hear from staff and faculty, the environment is toxic at CE right now. Between micromanaging to incompetence, no one is happy there.
Go to the Board Meeting on Thursday!

I agree. Most of the classes converted by the Board in Spring failed and were cancelled because the fees were too high for seniors on limited incomes and the minimum class size could not be reached. The administration won't even listen to alternatives. The list of classes that Serban and Arellano want to cut (or convert then cut) for fall at Adult Ed is growing daily. Older Adult Movement classes to improve and maintain heath, music and choral classes, Parent Child Workshops, Art Talks, literature and Arellano said she is still looking at more arts and crafts classes. Soon they will eliminate all the senior and parent child classes and just keep the higher reimbursement classes for ESL, GED,and certificates. And don't believe "the Chancellor made me do it" - it isn't true. Other community colleges administrations are supporting their Adult Ed programs and working to keep their classes in place and fully reimbursed by the state. SBCC has a surplus of almost $6 M from last year alone and over $22M in reserves and they are cutting more classes in credit and non-credit summer and next year.

Thanks, Ethan, for keeping this issue in the public eye. the 2 previous comments are right on target. As a teacher myself (not at SBCC), I have friends in 2 other colleges who have administrators that SUPPORT the teachers and programs. I suggest a thorough, in depth article about SBCC as a whole since Serban took over. Misappropriation of funds, denying health care to adjuncts, cutting courses in credit and noncredit while having a surplus, hiring new administrators .... And do you remember that she demanded to have a ceremony ($$$) when she took over?

Just a slight correction: the CE Consultation Council (not advisory committee) was created in the spirit of sharred governance, to be meetng through out the year. It was canceled after 4 meetngs in 5 weeks, just after Arellano got what she set out for: a reccomendation to cut summer. it was a sham to make people think they were beiing iincluded in the decisionmaking process.

I have a friend who teaches the ESL and he has to beg the mostly illegal immigrants to come to class so that the class will continue. He even asks them to bring family members to keep the numbers up. He said students come sporadically and won't work very hard at learning the language. If the class cost money would they be more serious about coming?

On the other hand, a have another friend who teaches the senior water aerobics and there is a huge waiting list for people wanting to take the class. She said this class gives seniors the mobility they don't have any other time in their lives and really helps them exercise their muscles in a way they can't do otherwise. On top of that, for many of them, the class is the highlight of their week and they cry when they can't get into the class. This class costs quite a bit of money for many of them, but they sacrifice to take it.

What seems so unfair to me is that the seniors pay property taxes (and have most of their lives) for schools, yet they are can't take classes. On the other hand, illegal immigrants get to take free classes, but do not pay taxes to support the educational system.

"sunnyday" I have a similar experience!!

I have a friend who teachs ESL too! And she has a class with perfect attendance, and a tired but anxious immigrant population eager to learn, and so grateful for the opportunity.

On the other hand, my OTHER friend is tired of her Senior Water Aerobics class filled with old folks complaining about how cold the water is, how their bowels have moved too little or too late, constantly missing classes or trying to sneak in without paying.

What seems unfair to me is that the immigrants are working sometimes two or three jobs of hard labor, and still putting in solid work on their ESL classes in an effort to make a better life in their new country. On the other hand, all the Prop.13-enabled-tax-shirkers spend their golden years whining about excess taxation and the high cost of SBCC extension courses.

That's so weird.

I imagine that both the stories of binky and sunnyday could be true but it's more likely they are using the stories to make a point.
Either way, the approach administration is taking towards cutting affordable classes for seniors is unacceptable. What happened to the 'community' in community college?

Oh ... my story is definitely true!

It's on the Internet, fergawdsake.

It is true because it is onthe internet! come on!

Check the waiting list for the water exercise class. I think you can find out how many people are waiting on the list (it's around 50).

Pop into any ESL class (around the 3rd class) and see how many people are really there. It's suppose to be 15, but you'll see it really to be about 7-8.

Rather than wiping out the entire Adult Ed program all at once, the SBCC Board and Administrators are dismantling our wonderful classes piece-by-piece.

It’s happening in slow motion so that no one will suspect or complain very much.

The Board is ultimately responsible for all this. Note that several Board members are up for re-election in November.

Why don’t we connect the dots and elect NEW Board members who will nurture Adult Ed instead of destroying it…!?

The steamroller will continue to flatten our beloved program, unless we act.