Second of two parts
Re “School District: Is It Cheap or Just Plain Frugal?”
If the column showing the “Average Years in the District” is an indication of teacher retention, it would seem the CCUSD, at 11.8 years, is quite in the norm among the 10 other Westside/South Bay school districts that are highlighted in pink.
The CCUSD’s figures of 19 and 16 among the first- and second-year teachers (12 percent) shocked me into thinking that maybe the union was right, that our teachers actually were leaving the School District due to a perceived lack of compensation.
That is, until I saw that the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District figure of 10.6 percent. Santa Monica Malibu is noted as one of the better-paying districts in L.A. County. It is 10th on the list, with an average teacher salary of $72,360. This is almost $9,000 more than Culver City. That is when I noticed that Santa Monica Malibu District teachers had just received a salary increase of 4.1 percent in 2011-12 (last column). That suggests the reason for their teachers leaving was not due to lack of salary, but that they just felt it was time for them to retire.
Incentives Should Not Be Needed
It would appear the CCUSD has no flight of teachers on its hands. Our District should not have to offer our teachers any type of salary- or pension-related incentives to retire. There are enough teachers in our District close to the state’s average age of retirement, 61 years old, to give the District its much sought-after payroll savings.
With major changes coming in the curriculum, teachers nearing retirement probably will not want to learn the new pedagogy being instituted with the Common Core Standards by 2015-16. They won’t want to leave their “instructional comfort zone” so late in their careers. They will choose to get out while the getting is good, before pension reform passes and without incentive from the District.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
