Last week in response to a projected $3.5 million budget shortfall, the School Board voted to eliminate 17.8 teaching positions. In the spirit of shared sacrifice, they voted to eliminate zero administrative positions.
In California, teachers and administrators must be notified by March 15 if they are going to be laid off for the following school year. If theCulver City Unified School District sends you a “March 15 letter,” it means they have the right to lay you off. If they don't, you're coming back to work in September.
Many school districts routinely send out these “pink slips” ( are they really pink? ) to any staff member who might be considered for layoff. The word districts use here is “flexibility.” Districts want maximum flexibility in terms of staffing, especially in these hard times. So they generally send out more notices than they will need.
LAUSD sends out these notices each year to all its administrators. Former CCUSD Board member Barbara Honig, now an administrator in LAUSD, gets a “March 15 letter” every year. Those of us in the education world understand that districts need this kind of flexibility.
CCUSD, though, marches to a different tune. Rather than sending out pink slips to all of its administrators, they send out none!
Unless our School Board acts in the next two weeks, we are committed to retaining all of our current administrative staff. If we wanted, for example, to combine the administration of our Adult School and our small continuation school, Culver Park, into one position, we won't be able to do it.
Or if we wanted to reduce some administrators from a 12-month schedule to an 11- or even 10-month schedule, we won't be able to do that, either.
Could we save some money by having security guards report to the site principals, rather than reporting to a Director of Security? Maybe. But unless we “notice” that administrator, we won't be able to do that.
Many districts have replaced expensive “Assistant Principals” with less-expensive “academic deans” (paid on the lower teacher salary schedule). But unless we notice those employees, we won't be able to do that.
CCUSD is about to embark on a tour of our schools and community groups, asking for suggestions for cuts. They already have taken the big-ticket items off the table. By protecting every single administrative position, cuts necessarily will fall closer to the classroom.
One of the things I teach in my Sociology class here at Culver City High School is this: “If you don't fight it, you are going along with it.”
Culver City: If you don't voice your opposition to this “protect-our-administrators” policy of our current School Board, you are agreeing that the cuts will have to come from somewhere else.
Your School Board members can be contacted at boardmembers@ccusd.org.
I can be contacted at davidmielke@ccusd.org.
