Seattle College District Petition of No Confidence

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Seattle College District Petition of No Confidence

Louise Chernin, Board Chair; Colleen Echohawk, Board Vice Chair; Jamie Lee, Board Trustee; Shannon Braddock, Board Trustee; Rosa Peralta, Board Trustee

Since last year, classified staff at the Seattle Colleges have faced cuts, layoffs, and furloughs to rectify a budget deficit that we did not create. One year later we learned that despite these sacrifices, the deficit is worse than ever. How is it possible that the deficit grew after frontline staff took pay cuts, layoffs, and we were all forced to do more with less? Where did the money go? Our union has asked this question for months. Since the February Board of Trustees meeting our union has repeatedly made our position clear: we demand financial transparency in the form of line-item accounting for how overspending occurred, and what the funds were used for. Chancellor Rimando-Chareunsap responded with union-busting by chilling union speech with divide and conquer tactics and no real answers. It is impossible for the Washington Federation of State Employees to keep faith that this chancellor’s continued leadership will better our college system.

Inasmuch, the Washington Federation of State Employees makes a call of “No Confidence” in Chancellor Rimando-Chareunsap’s leadership.

Sponsored by

Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE)

Olympia, WA

To: Louise Chernin, Board Chair; Colleen Echohawk, Board Vice Chair; Jamie Lee, Board Trustee; Shannon Braddock, Board Trustee; Rosa Peralta, Board Trustee
From: [Your Name]

We, The Washington Federation of State Employees Local 304, representing Classified staff across our district, prepared this statement and have now come together to deliver it.

Since the February Board of Trustees meeting our union has repeatedly made our position clear: we demand financial transparency in the form of line-item accounting for how overspending occurred, and what the funds were used on.

To date, our union has received no satisfactory response. We’ve instead been met with deflections and character attacks. Worse still, a stubborn refusal by this administration to take accountability for any part of the predicament we are in.

From a Seattle Times article dated October 22, 2022: Newly named Interim Chancellor Rosie Rimando-Chareunsap said in a statement that the discrepancy shows a need for new leadership, as well as stronger fiscal practices and systems.

We are nearly four years removed from the quoted statement and the chancellor has not delivered. The Seattle Colleges administration has clearly not strengthened our fiscal practices and systems, and we are now looking at two consecutive years of massive cuts.

It is perfectly reasonable for labor at our colleges to be angered and frustrated by the damage done to us by these administrative blunders, which we have no role in. We’ve lost dozens of student-facing Classified positions in the last year alone. The surviving Classified staff have seen their workloads double and triple. We’re presently toiling in a state of total uncertainty. This working environment is devastating to morale.

The infamous furloughs represent a 4.3% wage cut to Classified staff; a segment of the workforce already earning well below the regional median. These brutal cost-saving measures endured only for the Colleges to be somehow worse off than we were last year. Adding insult to injury, Classified staff watched executives award themselves “equity raises” during the same span of time as the district was again overspending its revenue.

In the absence of these results Chancellor Rimando-Chareunsap promised in press statements and when interviewing for the chancellor position, the double standard of promising results but being unaccountable for the lack thereof, and in the face of the Chancellor’s engagement in union-busting by chilling union speech with divide and conquer tactics, it is impossible for The Washington Federation of State Employees to keep faith that this chancellor’s continued leadership will better our college system.

Inasmuch, The Washington Federation of State Employees makes a call of “no confidence” in Chancellor Rimando-Chareunsap’s leadership. Four years is ample time for new leadership to determine why the Colleges are in this state but instead our situation grew more desperate. Through these four years, there has been no accountability of any kind- only blame and diversion.

We call on the Board of Trustees to serve the public trust placed in them by the Governor of Washington and find the Colleges leadership that will finally right our ship.

This statement is endorsed by all the WFSE signers to it, along with solidarity signers from across our district.