Board Passes Classified Staff Layoffs on Second Try at Rushed Special Meeting

The Contra Costa Community College District Board of Trustees approved a modified resolution to eliminate 8.5 full-time equivalent classified positions at a tense Friday special meeting — called with roughly 24 hours' notice after the same measure failed two days earlier. Approximately 14 speakers, including union representatives, students, faculty, and long-tenured employees, lined up to oppose the cuts, but Trustee John Marquez flipped his vote from abstention to yes, giving the board the three votes it needed before a March 15 statutory deadline.

• Board approves layoffs of 8.5 FTE classified positions across Contra Costa College and Diablo Valley College, triggering notices to approximately 118 employees

• Trustee Marquez flips vote from abstention to yes after the district removed one undocumented students program coordinator from the layoff list

• Workers, union leaders, and students deliver emotional testimony contrasting classified cuts with recently approved 8% management raises

• Student Trustee Sophie Curry blasts process, revealing the person who would absorb the cut coordinator role is leaving on a one-year leave of absence

• Procedural challenge under Robert's Rules rejected by board president, who rules the modified resolution is a different motion