Teachers will receive a raise this summer, which is causing concern among classified staffers whose jobs are on the line.

“I don’t see the logic of giving anybody a raise, when anybody is getting reduced in their salary or getting laid off,” said Mike Noland, labor relations representative for the classified staff union.

Dr. Sandra Serrano, Bakersfield College president, was expected to make her recommendation on proposed cuts in classified staffers at the Thursday Board of Trustees meeting.

Noland said the classified employees are being treated differently than faculty and administrators in respect to cuts. Classified employees include custodial, maintenance and secretarial staff, among many others, who make up the infrastructure of school employees.

“Laying off classified employees with a 30-day notice makes them much more expendable. The process is less difficult than others,” Noland said. “If in fact people are going to be cutting into particular areas of budget, I would want to make sure that those cuts are done equitably in proportion to that particular area’s share of the budget.”

The faculty raises total around $2.4 million in July, according to Noland. He doesn’t see the reasons for raises in these financially troubled times.

“I don’t think the community that we serve would support giving raises to people in one hand and eliminating jobs on the other … $2.4 million in regard to classified employees, that’s maybe a hundred jobs.”

But faculty union President Steve Eso, a BC psychology professor, sees inherent problems in foregoing the salary increases, which were already contracted between the faculty and trustees on Dec. 12.

“We gave up certain things in our contract to get the raises, so to now defer, delay or reduce them has the ultimate result of punishing the faculty in a way that seems really unfair,” Eso said.

“The people that it affects inequitably are senior faculty that have been underpaid for the last 10 to 15 years … and now you’re saying, ‘Sorry, wait a couple years,’ it just doesn’t seem fair.”

Faculty and classified employees are both worried about the imminent cuts andtheir effect, and whether or not the cuts will be proportional. The administration will decide on faculty layoffs and reductions by May 15.

Eso estimated 30 teachers received layoff notices and 83 will be forced to take pay cuts by working fewer days.

Noland urges the importance of dealing with these cuts together as a college to support the community it serves, explaining the district has a responsibility to allocate money fairly.

Eso responded that it’s natural for groups to try to save themselves during budget cuts.

“Groups tend to dig in a bit. I think it’s unfortunate, but it’s a natural thing. I think what we need to do is look at all the information and all the data, and make the best decision possible as a district.”

Chancellor Dr. Walter Packard, who will leave in May to accept a job in Illinois, agreed, calling the staffers’ criticism “premature.”

“Our reality is we’re dealing with some pretty draconian cuts from the state,” he said. But he thinks things may work out when a budget finally is adopted.

“I’m a perpetual optimist, so I think we’ll get through it,” he said.

– Editor in Chief Jarrod M. Graham contributed to this story.