SAN MARCOS — Palomar College’s Council of Classified Employees (CCE) held a rally on Oct. 7 at the Clocktower Plaza, gathering staff, students and faculty to call attention to an ongoing cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) dispute with the district.
About 200 people gathered for the protest, which began with speeches at the Palomar Clocktower followed by a march led by Jena Kruhmin through the Student Union to the Learning Resource Center. Organizers passed out cans of cola with custom koozies to help raise awareness for COLA issues, as call and response chants of “respect our work, respect the contract, pay the COLA,” echoed through the Student Union. Students paused to watch union members waving signs reading, “Honor the contract, honor the COLA.”
At the center of the conflict is a dispute over the language of Article 12 of CCE’s Collective Bargaining Agreement. CCE stands firm that the intent was for any COLA under 3% to pass through automatically, while the district has countered that the specific language doesn’t require a pass-through, according to both sides of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) complaint CCE submitted on Aug. 18. The COLA for the 2025-26 is 2.3%.
A more detailed breakdown of the dispute so far and Article 12 language can be found in The Telescope’s earlier coverage.
The rally started with speeches from CCE leaders and members beneath the Clocktower.
“When we win COLA, we all win COLA,” CCE President Anel Gonzalez said.
While CCE is the union that is directly affected, the Palomar Faculty Federation (PFF) also attended and offered remarks as a show of solidarity.
“2.3% is not extreme. It’s fair. It’s more than fair. It’s a bargain,” said PFF Co-President William Dalrymple. “Our classified professionals, they keep this college running — they open our classrooms, they fix our computers, they process our paychecks.”
The PFF has been standing with CCE since the dispute began with Co-Presidents Dalrymple and Lawrence Lawson expressing support in the August and September governing board constituent reports, a support that continued as the march began.
“Seven hundred thousand dollars is what it would take to fulfill their financial obligation and the district has been hoarding money over the years, to the tune of what is fifty million dollars in reserves,” Lawson said.
Student Grace Heffner joined the rally as a show of support for her mother, Angie Heffner, who works in Student Enrollment Services.
“She’s a lot more stressed, work was something she was very positive about, and now it’s like there’s a lot more negative things happening to the people that work here,” Grace Heffner said.
The contributing issues expand beyond just the COLA issue. CCE has been vocal about alleged understaffing issues at many governing board meetings over the last year. The denial of COLA for classified employees further amplifies the growing dissatisfaction.
“I think that the morale is kind of low. Honestly, we’ve been in this downward spiral for a long time with short staffing, and you know, sometimes the district doesn’t want to honor our contract, or they want to apply an interpretation that isn’t to the intent of the contract that is harmful to staff.” CCE Communications Officer Krista Lough said in a previous interview with the Telescope.
With the PERB case pending and the union and the district at odds, CCE members said they will continue to press for a resolution that sees all classified employees get a COLA increase this year, as they believe is their contractual right.
“We want to make sure that the district respects the contract that we negotiated together,” said Aaron Hudson, a technical services administrator.
“More than anything this is about having the contract respected,” said Melissa Grant, a division assistant.
Supporters at the rally said the fight for COLA isn’t just about pay — it’s about stability for everyone on campus. When classified staff are overworked or underpaid, vital student services slow down and burnout rises. Union leaders argue that fair compensation helps protect both employees and the students who rely on them every day.
“Students would benefit from the district spending that money to hire more people, to increase people’s pay so that they can retain more people so they can help students succeed,” Lawson said.
Oct. 7, 2025 @ 10:57 p.m. — a correction has been made to this story, this is the most current version.
