[Editor’s Note: An update from the Teachers Union President to his 350 members.]
Friends –
As you know, your union's Executive Board's monthly meetings move from school to school so that teachers throughout the District can attend our meetings and get more involved in the work of the union.
Our February meeting will be held at the La Ballona School on Tuesday at 3:45. I will send out a reminder with the exact room location. The tentative agenda is:
1. La Ballona concerns.
2. Millionaire's Tax: Our initiative for the November ballot.
3. Bargaining Update.
4. Contract Enforcement.
5. CFT Convention: San Jose.
6. District-wide issues.
7. New business.
8. March meeting.
Let me also give a quick update on Tuesday night's School Board meeting. Aside from the unexpected retirement announcement from Patti Jaffe (which was a complete surprise to me), two issues dominated: Elementary instructional aides and the relocation of Culver Park High School.
At some of our elementary sites, parents have done a great job of fundraising to hire aides. Aside from the concern that some elementary sites have activist parent groups, which have been able to raise funds – and other sites don't – there is the question of whether these aides should remain employees of the parent groups or whether they should be employees of CCUSD.
Instructional aides, historically, have been employees of the District (which supervises them), and they have been represented by ACE, the union that represents classified employees. Parent and volunteer programs have grown, though, to the point where many individuals are now paid by these parent groups to work in our classrooms on a regular basis.
You can only applaud the parents for stepping up as the state has continued to underfund our schools. And teachers tell us they need the support these aides provide. But if they're employees, for whom do they work? Who supervises them? Who evaluates them? Who determines their rate of pay? Who is responsible if problems arise?
I'm not sure why the District has not stepped in to clarify their status. If these people are working in our classrooms on a regular basis, it seems clear to me that they need to be CCUSD employees.
There's been some anti-union rhetoric surrounding this issue, and that's unfortunate. No one wants to take these services away from our kids.
ACE is not the villain here. It is CCUSD which needs to step in and address the issue.
Finally, three Culver Park teachers (and I) shared concerns about the future of our continuation school.
As El Marino is expanding with a full-day kindergarten program, they need some of the classrooms at Culver Park.
Culver Park has shared the site with El Marino for about 30 years, but CCUSD plans to move them out this summer.
The problem: There's nowhere for them to go.
The previous Board, to its credit, decided to spend several millions of dollars that were languishing in a restricted building fund for a number of important capital projects. New athletic fields and a much-needed renovation of Robert Frost Auditorium are part of the plan. Unfortunately, a new home for Culver Park was not part of those discussions.
The current “plan” is to fence in some of those old bungalows on the blacktop behind Culver City Middle School. The teachers from Culver Park made impassioned pleas to the Board to find an appropriate new home for their school and their students.
We are behind them 100 percent. While we have no quarrel with any of the other capital improvements-– they're all good projects –shouldn't some of those dollars go toward providing a real campus for our students?
We'll keep you posted. Dave.
Mr. Mielke may be contacted at davidmielke@ccusd.org
