Board of Trustees Meeting - AFT President Report - November 18, 2025
AFT Local 4254 - Delivered by Scott Haddock, AFT Local 4254 President
Good evening, Trustees. I appreciate the opportunity to share a brief report on an engagement effort AFT Local 4254 has conducted throughout the fall quarter, and to bring forward the voices of faculty, students, and other stakeholders who chose to participate.
But first, I’d like to congratulate Ruth and the two remarkable Engineering students on their achievements in rocket science. I have no question that your careers are going to take off, and I am so proud that your launch happened right here at Edmonds College. I’d like to acknowledge Will Hamp for his leadership and vision for his work with the students on rockets, including the Texas competition last spring. I know that Jeremy Juetten, the Monroe Hall lab Manager, and several others contributed to your success. The STEM faculty, staff, administrators, and students at Edmonds College are truly remarkable, and I’d like to ask anyone involved with Edmonds College STEM to please stand. You absolutely do transform lives.
Each week, our union has hosted open engagement tables in Hazel Miller Hall and in Mountlake Terrace Hall. These sessions are led by our Vice President for Action and Advocacy, Chuck Mueller, with a rotating group of faculty volunteers. The tables are open to everyone and have become a consistent, welcoming space where faculty, students, and staff can ask questions, raise concerns, and discuss issues affecting instruction and campus life.
At these tables, participants were invited to write anonymous postcards to the President’s Office. To make participation easy, the union provided a red postcard template. The front displayed the phrase “HANDS OFF HIGH DEMAND,” referring to the state-funded High Demand Salary Allocation that the Legislature intentionally earmarked to support salary increases for faculty teaching in designated high-demand instructional areas. The reverse side was blank for handwritten messages.
Over the course of the quarter, dozens of completed postcards were delivered to the President’s Office. Many of those who wrote them are unsure whether their messages were reviewed or shared with senior leadership. To ensure their voices are heard, I will share representative quotations from the cards themselves.
Several postcards raised concerns about delayed bonuses and recurring payroll errors. One faculty member wrote:
“Please support faculty who have not received their bonuses and support the faculty and staff who are not getting paid correctly.”
Others reflected the strain employees are experiencing. One card read:
“You wanna do this in this economy, please have a heart.”
Many postcards focused squarely on the threatened movement of high-demand salary funds away from their legislatively intended purpose. Writers were clear and precise about the implications. Representative statements included:
“The funds were intended to support high-demand faculty salary increases, not to supplement administrative budgets.”
“Moving two hundred thirty-three thousand from teachers violates the purpose of the funding and creates a clear mismatch.”
“This not only undermines faculty morale and trust but also directly harms students by reducing teaching quality and stability.”
And “I stand with the Edmonds College faculty in calling for full transparent allocation of the WEIA funds to educators.”
Students participated actively, and their comments were equally pointed. One postcard read:
“Professors deserve their pay. Hands off high-demand. Edmonds College is nothing without our professors.”
Another wrote, “Supporting your teachers is supporting students.”
Students also connected compensation decisions to their education and future careers. Examples include:
“A quality education requires quality instructors. To get and retain high-quality staff, we need to pay them what they deserve.”
“Our future depends on it, and so does yours. Pay our staff.”
This clear understanding of the importance of fair compensation from our students is a powerful endorsement of our faculty's value.
Some postcards described the long-term impact Edmonds faculty have had on students. One student wrote:
“The time I had in my Chem 121 class almost ten years ago still stands out as one of the best experiences I had here. It encouraged me to come back to pursue a STEM degree.”
This emotional connection is a testament to the profound impact our faculty has on our students.
Others emphasized the broader implications for the college’s stability and reputation. Representative comments included:
"Our faculty are not just educators; they are the basis of the quality of instruction, mentorship, student success, and even the college’s reputation. Their role is pivotal, and any decision that affects their morale and trust has a direct impact on the college's standing."
“Denying fair compensation jeopardizes the college’s ability to attract and retain qualified educators and staff.”
These postcards remain the heart of this report, but it is also important to briefly contextualize the issue they address.
Our Collective Bargaining Agreement already includes a specific nursing salary provision that recognizes the unique credentialing and competitive pressures in nursing education. Nursing faculty must hold active RN licenses and meet state regulatory requirements, which is why the CBA provides a structural mechanism to ensure competitive salaries for this essential program.
Alongside that, the college and the union have entered into two separate MOUs governing earmarked salary funds. The Nursing High Demand MOU ensures that the special nurse educator earmark provided by the Legislature is used strictly for nurse educator salaries in accordance with statutory intent.
The Regular High Demand MOU provides similar protections for high-demand funding that supports non-nursing instructional areas. It specifies which academic fields qualify, the amounts to be allocated, and the requirement that all funds be kept in a separate accounting structure and used exclusively for high-demand compensation.
The Legislature’s intent for both earmarked funds could not be clearer. These allocations exist to support the recruitment and retention of faculty in fields where Washington employers urgently need graduates. They were never intended to supplement general operating budgets or cover unrelated administrative costs. The postcards submitted this fall reflect campus stakeholders’ understanding of that purpose and their desire to preserve those allocations.
Taken together, these messages illustrate a deep support for faculty and a strong desire to protect the instructional excellence that defines Edmonds College. They also reflect a reasonable expectation for transparency and acknowledgment when stakeholders take the time to provide written feedback.
Our request today is simple. We ask the Board to confirm that the postcards delivered this fall have been reviewed and that future submissions through our AFT engagement tables will be acknowledged so that faculty, students, and staff know their voices are being heard.
Thank you for your time and attention.