Students in the Culver City Unified School District are being penalized with fewer days of learning.
Some of their teachers and other district employees have received more pay this year, and they will receive even more pay next year for working fewer days.
I don’t think I have to explain who is getting cheated here.
It’s pretty plain to see who got the short end of the stick: The kids.
Deferred State Funding
Yes, district employees need to be adequately compensated for their work. But the funds paying their salaries are being affected by the state legislature’s deferred funding to school districts. This leaves local school boards and their employee unions to work out the details.
Watching Out for Students
The state legislature continues to defer a significant part of this district’s annual funding to “balance” its own budget. Did the School Board, while negotiating its union contract, really keep the students’ best interests in mind? Or did the Board just serve the interests of most of its district employees, as this and last year’s negotiated settlements suggest?
Choices Made
This Board had multiple scenarios in making its needed budget cuts:
• A mix between layoffs of employees,
• Asking unions for furlough days (fewer school days) and
• An option of “freezing or deferring” all district employees’ step-and- column.
It chose to balance its budget by cutting the total days employees worked and so it also cut the number of days students were in class learning. But it also allowed the annual step-and-column increases to pass through to its employees. Why didn’t the Board defer or freeze the district’s employees’ step-and- column in response to the state’s continued deferring of the district’s much-needed funding?
Not All Teachers in Program
Some teachers are now and will be making less next year. Tenured teachers who have worked beyond the 10th step in the last two columns (4 and 5 of the step-and-column) receive only a $600 or $750 annual increase, respectively. But the amounts shown for the fiscal year ‘09-‘10 in the district’s certificated step- and-column costs shows a “freeze” could have saved the district over $375K in certificated salary costs.
Is Step-and-Column ‘Fat’?
The Board chose to accept a reduction of classtime for students instead of actually cutting all teacher compensation across the board! Does the Board see the employee step-and-column program as being “fat” or as a non-negotiable right?
Questions Need to be Asked
Maybe the employees can explain why they decided to penalize their students with fewer days of learning instead of actually having everyone take a cut in salary by agreeing to a freeze in his or her step-and-column increases?
Now that district budget negotiations are over, this question should be put to each sitting Board member and to each candidate who is running for the Board in November:
Why, especially during a severe state budget crisis, would anyone agree to pay someone more to work fewer days?
Is the CCUSD here to enrich the students’ lives with an education or here to enrich the adults who serve them?
Mr. Laase may be contacted at gmlaase@aol.com
