Pierce College will receive $1.9 million from the state for new hires and instructional equipment, Pierce College President Kathleen Burke said at the Academic Senate Meeting on Monday, Oct. 6.
New custodians and an additional custodial supervisor will be paid for with $1 million while maintenance and instructional equipment will use the remaining $900,000.
“This money has been given to us and we want to spend it now because we don’t want it to go away,” Pierce College President Kathleen Burke said.
The custodial staff has seen a lot of turnover in recent years, according to Burke.
“When we go into that budget downturn, that is the population that does not get replaced,” Burke said. “And that’s how our custodian ranks get quite thin.”
Burke already approved new hires because of the incoming money. Five will be custodians, and one will be a custodial supervisor, Burke said.
“I’m glad it’s happening,” Custodial Supervisor Charles Carter said. “It’s well overdue.”
Other colleges in the LACCD have a larger custodial staff than Pierce, and they are better able to deal with campus upkeep, Carter said.
“It is a problem when you don’t have enough people,” Carter said.
With a lot of ground to cover, Pierce supervisors need to prioritize what areas on campus get taken care of.
“Restrooms are priority,” Carter said.
It’s been a long time since Pierce hired new custodial staff, Carter said. It will interview for the new custodial positions beginning Friday, Oct. 10.
In other news, Admissions and Records will hire more staff to process the upcoming wave of new-student applications.
“Now it is time to start bringing the number of people in Admissions and Records back up,” Burke said. “They’ve got more applications to process and more students to process.”
Members of the senate expressed hope that new hires in Admissions and Records would speed up its various services.
But Pierce’s Wi-Fi needs immediate attention, according to Instructor of Computer Applications and Office Technologies Joe Perret.
“It just sucks,” Perret said. “It’s just so bad.”
