In a recent story, the President of the Teachers Union said he nearly tumbled from his chair when the Superintendent of the School District openly – not under anyone’s breath – agreed with him that Culver City teachers are underpaid.
He had a chance to fall to the floor again last evening.
The statement was repeated at a School Board budget workshop session that attracted a non-turnaway crowd of three parents and thousands of absentees to the Board Room.
So sparse was the gathering that David Mielke, the union president, and David LaRose, the Super, had more witnesses a few seasons ago when they proposed to their wives.
The spirit of the evening – since everybody knew everyone else in the room – was more like a rideshare day, a cohort of co-workers all going to the office in the same car, bantering but never truly disagreeing with each other.
Mike Reynolds, the new assistant superintendent for business services, sat in the main chair – four tables in a squared circle – devoting an hour to describing shrinking government funding and belt-tightening methods, all underpinned by tentative proposals whose outcomes will not be known for months.
Mostly, in-the-weeds talks.
Mr. LaRose said the workshop was about transparency. “This is about instilling a sense of trust rather than a sense of doubt,” he said as his words fell on six ears, two per person.
It is news when the leader of the School District makes such an assertion because this has not happened in modern times, not in this century.
These are new times. In the seventh month of his first year, Mr. LaRose long since has made it established policy that he is here to heal pre-LaRose wounds, briefly and sincerely, and then to gallop into the future, unfettered.
Agreeing on Sub-standard Pay
The cumulative sympathy Mr. Mielke has elicited over the years from the District when he has complained about his members being among the County’s most modestly paid – near the bottom – would not have taxed Billy Barty’s baby thimble.
The new mood of collegiality should not, by this time, be a surprise to Culver City.
Mr. LaRose has been a quietly overt healer since his first hour on the job last summer when he plunged into the discouraging messiness that was Culver Park High School. He cleaned it up and was having dinner with his wife Mindi before parents knew he was in town.
Can the same happen with the Teachers Union, a mountain-tall challenge?
Based on their chatting and chattering last evening, Mr. Mielke may be able to walk away feeling fulfilled on Closing Day – not because Mr. LaRose turned out to be a cookie but because after hours of stern-faced negotiations, they reached a gentlemen’s agreement/compromise.
Evidently, the annual dog-and-pony show that is Teachers Union bargaining talks may, this spring, for the first time in memory, be deprived of its well-worn drama.
