MOMS UNITE by Victoria Rierdan Hurley

A New Rumor About Teacher Layoffs

Today I heard a rumor that just started floating around the schoolyards in town. A parent told me that all teachers with less than five years seniority will be laid off. She had heard this from a teacher who had heard it from someone else, etc. Before everyone panics unnecessarily, I think it’s important to understand the truth.

The timing was good because I was at LAUSD headquarters this afternoon to work on a project and was able to ask one of the top decision makers in the Superintendent’s office. I got a completely blank look from him. He then told me that the District hasn’t even done those calculations yet and absolutely no decisions have been made. What it will come down to is what kind of agreement can be made with UTLA. Cuts will have to be made somewhere, but exactly where and how deep will depend on the union. Ironically, traced back, the rumor may actually have come from UTLA.

The genesis could be that LAUSD is required by law to send out preliminary notices advising of possible layoffs. In these days of uncertain and dwindling education budgets, we shouldn’t be surprised. You may recall that last year, 8,846 notices went out and only 337 people were actually laid off. Yes, teachers will probably receive notices (and many may actually lose their jobs) but in the vast majority of cases, it’s only a formality mandated by law.

It’s easy to be freaked out by rumors like this but it pays to remember that there are a lot of players here and they all have different agendas. Sadly, providing a top-notch education for every child in Los Angeles is not necessarily part of everyone’s agenda. As a parent group we need to remember that our priority is our children and not allow ourselves to be manipulated by propaganda – regardless of where it comes from.

I also heard some good news while I was there (as opposed to not bad news). Current thinking at Beaudry is that no secondary teachers will be cut. This means that no one who teaches middle school or high school will be laid off. Now, what does that mean for elementary schools? I’m not entirely sure, but I was specifically told that the Superintendent absolutely does not want to go to 29:1 in the lower grades and will do whatever he can to prevent it. Again, a lot of this comes down to what UTLA and the District can agree to. As this point no one knows. I think that’s worth repeating - no one knows.

Victoria

***** MOMS UNITE is a grassroots parent advocacy group devoted to improving public education in California.
To join, please send your contact information to join@moms-unite.org and follow us on Twitter @MOMSUNITE.

CA Takes More Money from Schools - More Bad News for LAUSD

You have probably heard talk of more layoffs, pay cuts and furlough days for LAUSD staff.  I wish I could say that it’s not true, but I can’t. Over the summer, the State government took an additional $225 million dollars out of the budget for education throughout California. The money that was originally designated for next school year now must be used to cover this year, which leaves us with a serious shortfall for next year and the year after.  Frankly, it’s probably for the foreseeable future unless something pretty amazing happens.

Keep in mind that nothing has been decided yet. The LAUSD proposal to the unions asks for four furlough days between now and the end of the school year to avoid layoffs.  These days are designed to be taken when the students are not at school so that they don’t miss any instruction.  For example, the staff gets three weeks paid time off for winter break and a week in the spring.  The proposal suggests that some of those days be without pay.  The proposal for next year includes a 12% pay cut. The unions can opt to take some of these as furlough days and some as salary reduction. It’s horrible. And no matter how you slice it, students will suffer and so will teachers. And at the end of the day, California will suffer.

There is a tiny spark of good news.  The arts programs will not be cut.  Some of the instructors may be laid off, but the programs will somehow survive and all talk of cutting them has been taken off the table.  For now at least.

Here’s the thing. The District cannot impose furlough days but they can issue layoffs.  It’s really up to the unions to decide what they will accept. SEIU, which represents much of the support staff on campuses, has already agreed to vote on a compromise to save jobs.  UTLA, which represents the teachers, has not. That particular union has historically been adverse to compromise – even to the detriment of its members. It is not yet clear what will happen.  According to a spokesperson for LAUSD, if UTLA will not accept some sort of compromise made up of furlough days and pay cuts, over 7,000 jobs could be lost.

And as long as I’m giving bad news, I may as well add that class size for grades K – 3 will also be going up next year.  We’ve gone from 20:1 to 24:1 and next year it is scheduled to be 29:1. Grades 4 -5 will not be increased.

It’s an untenable situation – for the teachers and for us as parents.  The bottom line is that decisions are being made regarding the education of our children and the employment of our beloved teachers that we are not a part of.  There are two culprits here. One is our state legislature and the other is UTLA. Sure, we have options. We can consider private education, we can move out of state or we can try to make our voices heard.

I urge you to make calls and send email to not just your state representative, but to all of them. Insist that education be made a priority. Explain that if they think we have economic problems in California now, just wait until we have a whole population of under-educated people and unemployed teachers. 

Victoria

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MOMS UNITE is a grassroots parent advocacy group devoted to improving public education in California.

To join, please send your contact information to join@moms-unite.org and follow us on Twitter @MOMSUNITE.

LAUSD Breaks Ground on New High School – And How They are Paying for It

Tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning, a small groundbreaking ceremony will take place to celebrate the building of a new high school in the Central District of Los Angeles.  This school will eliminate over-crowding and involuntary bussing for the students in the Santee Education Complex.

 

If you’re wondering how the District can pay for a brand new school when it can’t pay teachers, here is another peek into the complexity of how it all works.  The money, which is part of LAUSD’s $12.5 Billion school construction program, comes from Bonds that were voted for in a City election.  It is illegal to use those funds for ANY OTHER purpose, no matter how dire the budget situation becomes.  It seems frustrating, I know. But that’s how the system works in California.

 

Before 2000, new schools hadn’t been built for decades.  The population of children in Los Angeles has greatly exceeded the capacity. So, over the past several years, Bonds were passed by voters that allow tax money to be used to build dozens of new facilities.  Santee Education Complex, for example, serves 3,500 students and runs multi-track years.  The new school will mean that that every child in that district has a seat in their local school.  And one hopes that this will save a little money in the end by reducing the need to drive kids in gasoline-inefficient busses all over town.

 

The new school may or may not impact you, but I thought that this is another good example of the value in understanding the context of spending decisions before getting upset.  The Los Angeles Unified School District is a huge, multi-headed beast and I think that sometimes they assume that the public understands things that we simply don’t.   Who remembers voting for (or even against) those Bond measures?  All we see now is that money is being spent to build new schools when we can’t even pay teachers to teach in them.

 

I’ve heard grumblings on the school yard about the money being spent on new construction. And, I have to admit that I wondered too.  What we didn’t understand is that there are many, many buckets of funding and most of them are tightly legislated so that the money can only be spent in the way it was specifically intended. Period. Fortunately, there are other buckets that are less stringently regulated – which is how Superintendent Cortines was able to push funds to the schools so that they could decided where it should be spent.  Many used the money to buy back some of their teachers.

 

I guess in the end, the good news is that new schools are being built where they are desperately needed.  Since there is nothing else we can do with the money, we should join the celebration.  Stay tuned for more developments.

 

Victoria

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MOMS UNITE is a grassroots parent advocacy group devoted to improving public education in California.  To join, please send your contact information to momsunitela@gmail.com, join our Facebook group and follow us on Twitter @MOMSUNITE.

 

 

 

More Budget News – Still Not Too Good

The Los Angeles Unified School District budget is more complicated than anything I’ve seen. First, it’s over 500 pages thick. One afternoon, Ginger Bower and I spread it out on the floor and spent hours poring over it to try to understand how and where the money is being spent.  Now, we consider ourselves to be intelligent women.  We both know how to read a budget. And we were both confused messes at the end of several hours.

 

Here’s what we didn’t know that day.  LAUSD is required to submit a three year budget to the Los Angeles County Office of Education – every year.  This means that the District is in constant forecast mode, regardless of their level of visibility into the State budget.   The State, on the other hand, only budgets for the next fiscal year.

 

And here’s the problem we’re facing right now. Apparently, some of the LAUSD Board of Education members seem to be under the impression that the District can either not submit a budget because the cuts are just too hard to make, or submit a totally unrealistic, out of balance budget. Neither is an option. The Board members need to somehow find the political courage to make the necessary cuts so that the District can protect as much of their instructional core program as possible.  I’m not criticizing the Board members.  They are tasked with a near impossible job. And I know that each one of them struggles with this every day. But, it’s a job that MUST be done.

 

If you’ve been following MOMS UNITE’s progress through the labyrinth of public education reform, you know that we absolutely do not support cuts that affect the classroom.  Unfortunately, the District is pretty much beyond that now. Superintendent Cortines himself showed us the reports.  

 

We’d be the first people in the Superintendant’s office calling him to task and even organizing protests if we thought that there was a way that it would make a difference.  The truth of the matter is that THERE IS NO MONEY. Right now, everyone needs to focus on protecting the framework of the educational system.  We can build back from there.

 

I truly believe that the whole contraption needs to be dismantled and put back together in a way that makes sense in today’s world. Have I said this before? Probably.  Much of what LAUSD is operating around today was put into effect years ago.  Class action suits, ballot initiatives, bond measures and well meaning (but not terribly well thought out) programs etc. have created a minefield of issues to navigate around. Again I say, be angry but channel that anger to become part of the solution.

 

Use this link to email and call your District representative.  Ask them to pass a budget that makes sense, even if it’s hard. http://laschoolboard.org/  Only when we know what we have to work with can we work to get ourselves out of this mess.

 

Victoria

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MOMS UNITE is a grassroots parent advocacy group devoted to improving public education in California.

To join, please send your contact information to momsunitela@gmail.com and follow us on Twitter @MOMSUNITE.