LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Yuba Community College District has not gone forward with filing an appeal of an administrative law judge’s July ruling that the district violated labor law and workers’ rights in its negotiations with district faculty.

The district’s failure to file the appeal means the decision by the Public Employment Relations Board, or PERB, stands.

Chancellor Dr. Shouan Pan had indicated that the district was looking at an appeal, but it was required to have been filed by Sept. 16.

Pan told Lake County News in an email that the district decided not to appeal the administrative law judge’s decision.

“This means that we are in negotiations with the Faculty Union on a new agreement on this issue for the new contract,” Pan wrote.

Dr. Travis Smith, president of the Faculty Association of the Yuba Community College District, said the district’s decision to not appeal is not a concession.

“Everyone knows, even district leadership, that the district overreached and acted illegally when it tried to unilaterally do away with the full-time faculty’s right of first refusal, a right we have held for around 30 years,” Smith said in an email response to questions from Lake County News about the district not pursuing the appeal.

“An appeal would have generated the same result: The district wasting more money on lawyers and delaying the ratification of a fair contract. I’ll add that the right of first refusal is good for the colleges and students, something the District is having a hard time comprehending,” Smith said.

PERB found that the district violated the Educational Employment Relations Act by eliminating the right of first refusal.

In doing so, PERB said the district changed the procedure for assigning classes to full-time faculty without affording the Faculty Association of the Yuba Community College District adequate notice and opportunity to bargain the decision or effects of the change, as Lake County News has reported.

PERB ordered the district to take corrective actions including ceasing its existing procedures for course assignments and interfering with the association’s representation rights.

The district also was supposed to rescind its Sept. 1, 2022, elimination of the right of first refusal and reinstate previous procedures within 30 days of the ruling; bargain in good faith with the association over the relevant articles of the collective bargaining agreement; and compensate the association and affected employees for any losses incurred as a result of the violations, with interest.

Smith said the district was late in complying with a portion of the PERB ruling.

“The district was required to post both physically and digitally public statements sharing with the YCCD community the District’s obligations after losing the case,” Smith said.

The postings were supposed to be made by Sept. 16. However, Smith said the district did not post them until this week.

“Our hope is that the district will adhere to the other legal remedies expressed in the PERB ruling without delay,” Smith said.

As the situation between the district and faculty continues to unfold, the union is planning a public protest on Thursday, Oct. 10, at the cafeteria at the Yuba College campus, located at 2088 N. Beale Road in Marysville, to demand a fair contract from the district.

The faculty union said its members — among the lowest-paid community college educators in the state — have waited for a new contract for nearly three years as their health care costs have nearly doubled and class sizes have risen while the district has “wasted an egregious amount of money on failed litigation” to strip union faculty of long-held rights and delay contract negotiations.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.