PENDLETON — The Blue Mountain Community College Board of Education has voted not to renew a contract the college held with the Oregon Department of Corrections, resulting in layoffs for 13 faculty and four classified positions.

The decision came April 12, in a special meeting at the college in Pendleton. The contract was to provide noncredit GED and adult basic education to inmates at three state prisons in Eastern Oregon. Following an extended period of public discussion, the board voted unanimously save for the sole “nay” vote of Kim Puzey.

Blue Mountain now will seek to apply to be eligible for Pell grants for inmates to provide for-credit courses that are more in line with what the college provides, BMCC President Mark Browning said.

Pell grants previously were available to inmates until part of The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 prohibited inmates from applying for or benefiting from them.

“We’re looking at our opportunities moving forward, we would like to put forth an application with the Department of Corrections and get approved by the federal government to offer for-credit courses in our regional correctional institutions,” Browning said. “As part of that, our recommendation is that we allow the existing contract to expire and that the college shifts its focus to credit instruction.”

The decision not to seek renewal of the contract has put 17 jobs in a position to be retrenched or reduced, and although Browning hopes he can find ways to recall some of the lost employees, most will have to find work elsewhere.

“There is a process by which we can have people considered for options positions and try to absorb lost employees into instructional positions,” he said, explaining that BMCC is hiring a chemistry and a mathematics instructor.

“Those positions are open to those that worked at the correction facility,” he said. “If they’re qualified, we would welcome them to apply and be considered for one of these positions.”

The faculty perspective

Several members of the faculty facing the layoff were invited to speak at the meeting, and although each voiced a set of varying concerns, they all agreed they had not been sufficiently forewarned of the day’s discussion and hadn’t had time to formalize a response to the proposed decision.

“When we discussed in February, as far as we knew, we were continuing forward and going to look at what we had to do to negotiate and keep this contract,” Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution instructor Jeanine Youncs said. “We’ve had this hanging over our head for the last couple of years and we’ve asked repeatedly to get it figured out and negotiated ahead of time.”

Peter Hernberg, a math and computer science instructor, described the decision as a “shocking change” and said the faculty association also had not been given advanced notice to prepare a response.

“As recently as yesterday, the faculty association leadership was under the impression that this board meeting was simply a normal budget, normal renewal of the corrections contract that faculty members are used to receiving every two years when the contract renews,” he said.

Other faculty members echoed a question that Puzey initially raised, wondering why BMCC would not consider the option of providing GED and adult basic education alongside Pell Grant-funded for-credit programs.

“Is there a way that we can remodel our programs so that we can keep both and be cost-effective to the school?” EOCI GED examiner Rebecca Furstenberg said, “That way we’d have GED flowing straight into college courses for our students, we know from talking to our students that’s what they really want.”

‘Dollars and cents’

Blue Mountain could pursue continuing its GED and ABE education programs and seek Pell grants to provide for-credit classes to inmates, Browning said, but indications had been that faculty members would not accept terms the Oregon Department of Corrections would offer when the existing contract expires June 30.

Previously, BMCC was in what Browning described as a “unique situation in Oregon” where the Legislature provided the college with a premium to help sustain GED and ABE for inmates in its jurisdiction. That stipend has been eliminated.

“We’re talking about a $600,000 difference in a premium that was provided by the Legislature, which amounts to 20 to 30 thousand dollars a year cut for each instructor,” he said. “Our folks have indicated that they would not provide the same level of service from that amount. In fact, services have already been reduced from January to now. Our folks are providing fewer contact hours and courses and the Department of Corrections made it very on (April 10) in a call with them that is unacceptable.”

Board member Jane Hill said the board’s decision was about “dollars and cents” and made with a heavy heart.

“This is a difficult subject,” she said. “I just want to point out that there’s kind of a false equivalency here that our interest in these courses being provided has diminished, and that’s why there’s a consideration of the program going away. I don’t think that is the case at all. I think this is purely a dollars and cents discussion. This board has been through a number of painful votes and discussions about retrenchment, the elimination of programs about not being able to do things the way we’ve done before and it’s never because we don’t want to provide services to people who need education.”

The board’s decision to end GED and ABE services through the state corrections department doesn’t mean that service will disappear, Browning said, but that another organization is likely to be able to administer it more efficiently.

“I’m told that there are a number of different entities throughout the state that provide GED and ABE services and there is some interest in coming and providing that here,” he said. “The Department of Corrections has indicated that they don’t anticipate any real stoppage of availability of courses for adult education and GED. It’s too early to say which entity it will be, but there is a number that has already expressed interest.”

“We’re looking at our opportunities moving forward. We would like to put forth an application with the Department of Corrections and get approved by the federal government to offer for-credit courses in our regional correctional institutions.”

Mark Browning, president Blue Mountain Community College

“We’ve had this hanging over our head for the last couple of years and we’ve asked repeatedly to get it figured out and negotiated ahead of time.”

Jeanine Youncs, Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution instructor