Every late spring about this time, the President of the Teachers Union steps forward to announce a new one-year agreement with the School District, but this morning’s interview was seasoned with shards of broken glass.
Terms tentatively were reached yesterday afternoon (see nearby story), and after ratification by union members and the School Board, it will become official.
To the question of whether this year’s round of negotiating was tougher than others, Union President David Mielke eagerly fired back “Sure.”
Turning eastward, toward the School District offices on Irving Place — site of tonight’s 7 o’clock School Board meeting — Mr. Mielke explained:
“Somebody over there (at the District office) doesn’t quite understand bargaining. They made regressive proposal after regressive proposal, even right down to the last couple of weeks.
“They had offered us something on the ‘snapback’ language. Initially, it was all about ‘How can we buy back a furlough day?’
“But suddenly the District wanted to change the language to say ‘If the money comes in, you can buy back a day, but if money gets worse, you automatically take a seventh furlough day next year.’
“You can start a proposal with that, but it came down after a proposal that was not that bad.
“The sense I have is the School Board is micromanaging bargaining. Rather than giving the team parameters, they are kind of involved in every little step of the process.”
Said School Board President Scott Zeidman, succinctly: “Our No. 1 duty is to make sure the District is fiscally sound.”
A Key Player
Mr. Mielke suggested that one of the toughest negotiating mountains to scale was Steve Andelson, longtime attorney for the District. “He is very skilled and well-known as a management guy,” the union leader said. “He is with an expensive firm, and he understands regressive bargaining.
“It is a little bit of a mystery why you would see these kinds of proposals all over the place when you have an experienced guy like Andelson at the table. The only answer I have is, the Board’s involved. You want the Board involved, but this was very difficult.
“We have an activist Board. You want your Board to be actively involved, but I really get the sense that individual Board members said that ‘we need to propose this’ and ‘we need to propose that.’ The District team then would go ahead and do that, even when the proposals were regressive.”
In a moment of exasperation, Mr. Mielke exhaled. “Who knows how things operate over there?
“Negotiations would go more smoothly if they would sit down beforehand and make sure everybody understands the process. Otherwise, it is disrespectful to us and to collective bargaining, which people died for. Employers just did not (voluntarily) give this up. People fought for it.
“For me, as a union guy, to have my employer just act as if these laws mean nothing, that is not right.
“For next year, Steve Andelson or the Superintendent, somebody, needs to sit down with the Board and say, ‘There are laws regarding how you can make proposals. We are going to follow them.’
“We, as a union, would certainly appreciate that.
“The big problem with this year’s talks is that once again the District is dealing with the crunch with one solution:
“Cut school days.
Culver City Is Different
“Every other school district is trying to avoid that. And they are saying, ‘What can we do to trim, to streamline administration? What can we do? Do we really need 12 months of work from our administrators in the district office? Can we afford paid vacations for administrators?’
“There is a crisis when they should be saying ‘What can we cut?’ That is not happening. Their solution is, ‘We are in a crisis. All we can do is shorten days.’
“I am waiting for parents to say, ‘I want my kid in school. Find someone else to cut.’
“I don’t know where the parents are. Maybe they don’t seem to mind that their kid will lose six days next year.
“I will say this: Teachers talk about what we have to furlough from our curriculum. In department meetings, they were talking about ‘What are we going to furlough from the Civil War? From the civil rights movement.’
“If we have six fewer days to work, the kids are going to have six fewer days of learning.
“I am waiting for parents to come to a Board meeting and say ‘We want you to cut something else, not my kid’s education.’
“My daughter is a senior, and she’s graduating. But as a parent, I want her to have more days in school, not fewer.”
