George Laase

According to the figures in last year’s CCFT/CCUSD bargaining agreement, certificated salaries in 2011-12 were $24.84M. This year they will be around $26.13M, an increase of $1.29M. That is a pretty good annual increase without even having to negotiate a raise.

The careers of our aging baby-boomer educators in California are coming to a close, and now they have an eye fixed on their retirement. The local unions are trying to find ways to legally increase (spike) their membership’s upcoming pensions. One of the latest bargaining proposals brought by the Culver City Federation of Teachers suggests that the District develop “a salary increase formula designed to bring the CCUSD salaries to the median in L.A. County within five years.” It looks like the union has...

Ironically, in order to protect the students, some folks are calling for more gun control. Wanting to take guns off the streets, they may, instead, find themselves supporting laws putting them in the schools.

In his previous pre-bargaining presentations, Teachers Union President David Mielke has referenced the L.A. County Office of Education’s overview and ranking of the salaries offered by the other 49 unified school districts. He again pointed out numerous times that the salaries offered by the CCUSD in various categories were much lower than those of other local school districts. He suggested that if the CCUSD was not willing to offer competitive wages to its employees, it might not be able to...

Curiously, the almost $200K in the onetime furlough, now deferral, day, reimbursement to teachers was not exactly voted on or even directly approved by our local School Board. Oh, Board members passed it, all right. As in, they passed the buck. It seems our School Board members, elected by our community to make local School District decisions, thought this issue was too hot for them to handle.

Third in a series - In a recent release, the Los Angeles County Office of Education was telling school districts not to expect an increase in their anticipated state funding. Their explanation...

Second in a series -This year, in addition to the double-digit Step-and-Column increases accumulated by the majority of teachers, the School District also restored the last of the four furlough days to the school schedule. By doing so, all teachers received a 2.17 percent gain in salary, adding $430,000 over what they received last year.

I have read some of the weekend announcements sent out by our own School District and by others in the South Bay concerning the tragic Sandy Hook shooting.

A furlough day, by definition, is a mutually agreed upon uncompensated, non-work day.