Foothill and De Anza Colleges will hire 17 new faculty members to meet a state mandated full time obligation requirement.

The district will fill eight vacant full-time Foothill faculty positions and create or recreate nine De Anza full-time positions, as advised by their respective Instructional Budget and Planning Teams.

State Assembly Bill 1725 states that 75 percent of teaching hours must be done by full-time faculty members.

The hiring will occur amid layoffs and budget cuts, however, the state will give money to Foothill and De Anza for new faculty hires, but not for filling classified positions. The IPBT makes their decisions based on what will bring in more money.

“We have to cut the budget without losing money,” said Cynthia Lee-Klawender, co-chair of the Instructional Planning and Budget Team and vice president of the Academic Senate.

Only two of the eight full-time positions have been filled at Foothill thus far, through reorganizing, and the remaining areas where positions remain vacant include the psychology department, mathematics department and the sociology department.

Most of the positions to be filled are replacing vacant positions and are not taking place of laid off employees, Lee-Klawender said. The Faculty Association positions that were terminated include two adaptive learning instructors in the Special Education and Disabled Student Services division at De Anza.

Of the approximately 500 full-time faculty members that the Faculty Association represents, 21 of those are counseling positions at Foothill, which have been redirected, according to President of the Association of Classified Employees Blanche Monary, in a letter sent out to ACE General Membership on Feb. 14. The redirection of positions means that employees receive their payment from excess funds.

The Measure C bond has additional money that can be used to compensate staff instead of laying them off. Fund 15, which includes funding for the Bookstore, Print Shop and Cafeteria, also provides wages for faculty members during years of increased profits.

The IPBT has decided to reduce its benefits in a vote last year that will take effect this July. As a result, there must be cuts made to either programs or staff.

“If there is no class offered, there is no work,” Rich Hansen of the FA said. “We’ve been downsizing for a while, and have gotten rid of a lot of part time positions.”

“We try to keep what is closer to the student as much as possible,” Lee-Klawender said about the IPBTs decision to make additional cuts in staff rather than in programs. However, programs like Cooperative Education were eliminated, with other programs still at risk for being cut.

Other options for the IPBT include the reduction of staff salaries. However, “it’s a union issue, and a last resort,” Lee-Klawender said. The team aims to avoid options that involve union involvement due to the fact that the negotiation process is not conducive to any kind of budget agreement.

“It won’t save money, that’s the bottom line,” Lee-Klawender said.