Offer of free teacher OKd

Orange Coast College is set to receive an instructor in the coming months to increase the size of its respiratory care program, as the Coast Community College District board of trustees voted Tuesday to sign a contract with the MemorialCare hospital group.

At a special meeting in the district boardroom, the board voted, 4-1, to approve the agreement, which had become a center of contention with the district’s teachers union. The trustees amended the language of the contract to clarify that although the union would represent the work done by the faculty member on loan, the instructor would not be obligated to join the union.

With the agreement set, OCC will receive a respiratory care specialist from MemorialCare. The specialist will function as a typical faculty member while having salary and benefits covered by the hospital. Byron Schweigert, the chief education and government affairs officer for MemorialCare, called it a win-win situation for his hospital and the district.

“One of our difficulties in healthcare is to find new instructors, and this is a way for people who have worked for us for years to function as instructors without losing their seniority, salary and benefits,” he said.

The board voted on the MemorialCare agreement at its last regular meeting but split, 2-2, with one member absent. The Coast Federation of Educators, led by President Dean Mancina, had opposed the idea of bringing an outside faculty member without union representation on campus.

The contract on which the board agreed referred to the MemorialCare specialist as an “affiliated faculty member” — a distinction that was fine with Mancina.

“I’m still a little bit confused, but I’m hoping the intent of this was to recognize that the union has the right to represent these faculty members, whatever they want to call them,” he said.

The only board member voting against the agreement was the recently elected Jim Moreno, who approved of the contract but said the board had taken far too long to resolve the matter. The deal with MemorialCare, proposed last fall, was originally intended to start on with the first day of the spring semester, which began Monday.

“We have students starting classes this week,” Moreno said. “It’s almost retroactive. We could do a real disservice if we don’t find a better way of doing business.”