Re “Message to the School Board: Reduce Salaries of the Top Managers”
In his comments of last Thursday about cutting the salaries of administrators in the School District, Robert Gray should have been more careful in what he demanded in District management cuts.
Because, if management is cut first, it will set a very strong precedent, percentage-wise, and clearly open the door for the teachers to be cut likewise in the future.
It seems Mr. Gray is more fixated on the imagery and symbolism of whose salary and how much to cut it than on the actual savings it would achieve.
District management salaries act as a bellwether for the teachers. The remaining teachers should take some solace in the fact that as long as the administration salaries are left uncut, they are a just little bit further from the chopping block.
Mathematically, there is no denying that a much smaller percentage cut has a lesser impact on an individual in a larger group of employees, say, the 300-plus members of the Teachers Union.
Such a cut would have more impact on the School District's bottom line than the much larger cut Mr. Gray is proposing for a much smaller group of administrators.
Since the teachers are the largest employee group and if more cuts are necessary in the future, they ultimately would have to involve the teachers in giving back some percentage.
In the future, if no previous cuts were made in management salaries, and if it still would be necessary to make deeper, more drastic cuts in the District's budget, the Teachers Union then could argue, quite rightfully, that the administration also should be considered and included in the School Board's cost-cutting measures.
This would give the Teachers Union some sway over lessening the percentage of their cuts being considered by the Board.
I wish Mr. Gray luck in trying to explain his reasoning behind the timing of his premature call to cut District management salaries 5 percent to10 percent.
Mr. Laase, a Culver City parent, may be contacted at Gmlaase@aol.com
