Why This Petition Exists

Trustees of City College of San Francisco have voted to layoff at least 50 full-time faculty and many part-timers.

In January 2022, Chancellor David Martin laid off 59 staff members, 98% of whom are women and people of color. In March, Chancellor Martin issued 58 layoff notices to full-time faculty, which in turn necessitates defacto layoffs for hundreds of part-time faculty and even deeper cuts to class offerings. To be clear, this is not a funding issue: CCSF’s current budget does not mandate layoffs.

Affecting Our Students & Programs

The pink slips delivered in March 2022 affects our current students and future of our CCSF Floristry & Horticulture Department. This is the second time our Floristry faculty is being subjected to the layoffs and we fought last year to rescind, but we need to do it again! It's cruel for the school's administration to subject students, faculty, and staff to this.

Our Floristry Department cannot survive with 1 remaining full time teacher as it is impossible to one person to teach more than 3-4 courses a semester. Students who would receive vocational training, earn certificates will be delayed, and ability to get well paying jobs will be drastically delayed. Students have put their lives on hold to pursue training. Jenny Tabarracci, AIFD (and tenured faculty) has dedicated over 22 years to our department, trained our national award winning student design team, instructed countless newcomers to our industry, and helped many people start their businesses. Our program has trained countless working professionals who are employed by the San Francisco Flower Mart or in the countless flower shops in the Bay Area. During the pandemic, our industry was able to pivot and many students were able to support themselves with skills learned in our classes. We are the only program of its kind and depth in Northern California; we are among a small group of extensive degreed Floristry programs left in the United States.

We have the support of the SF Flower Mart, our Department Chair Steven Brown, and our professional guild AIFD as well as countless floral professionals and alumni.

We have students that won't be able to complete their certificates or degrees if the CCSF Trustees don't rescind the layoffs by May 15th!

The certificates we offer in Floristry are: Floristry, Ikebana Activities Instructor, and Event Planner. The Degree is for Floristry. ALL will be affected.

City College of San Francisco is at a breaking point. The Trustees must reconsider their flawed budget proposals. They must reject proposed class cuts and layoffs that will lead to a downward spiral in enrollment. Tragically, the College is rapidly losing its ability to provide necessary classes and job training to support the City’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s time to rebuild City College of San Francisco into the thriving school it once was that has served all San Franciscans for decades.

The San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee has recently passed a Resolution demanding the CCSF Board of Trustees refuse to enact the proposed layoffs and further cuts to the College. They further urge the Board of Trustees to work with staff, faculty, students, organized labor, community members and elected officials to work on a plan to bring necessary revenue to City College. We support this Resolution.

Additional Actions

Please consider:

• Joining the CCSF Student Coalition and @CCSFFloristry
• Follow @CCSFStudentSays on Twitter and Instagram
• Sign the AFT 2121 Teacher's Union Petition: CCSF's budget does not mandate layoffs.
• Signing this petition to save affordable education while reducing the exorbitant Chancellor's salary of $315,000 a year.