Re “Mielke’s Teachers Union Wins a Good Deal in a Tough Year”
Open letter to School Board members:
It was good to hear that there is a tentative agreement with the Teachers Union.
But in reading President David Mielke's letter to his members, it seems the restoration of the furlough days, somehow, is not being characterized as a raise.
In the years when furlough days were taken, were they not publicly described as the teachers taking a cut in salary?
Ajay Mohindra, consultant for business services for the School District, stated at Tuesday night's School Board meeting that if voters pass the tax increase initiative in November, the governor says that California school districts can continue to count on receiving “flat funding” from the state: the same amount of state funding as this year.
This fiscal year there was a broad consensus on the need for taking four furlough days. Will that need magically vanish next school year?
The District has been “deficit spending” for at least the last two years, with no apparent end in sight. Where is this extra money coming from to pay for the 1 percent bonus of $200K-plus and $540K-plus needed to restore furlough days?
I was taught growing up that when you find that you are digging yourself deeper into debt, the first thing you're supposed to do is to stop digging!
Where is this extra money coming from to pay the almost $750K, if the state, at best, “flat funds” our District?
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
