FMEA members, May 9th, 2012

I have good news to bring you on this 30th anniversary Day Of The Teacher: Today in bargaining the District and FMEA signed an MOU (Memorandum Of Understanding) stating that class size will remain the same in all grades next year unless a subsequent agreement is reached. The matter is still technically being bargained, and neither side is locked into this agreement, but realistically the issue is settled. Furthermore, the district is redoing its enrollment assumptions for next year, so many schools will have more students than originally expected. All of this means less excess staff and hopefully less combination classes. It also means teachers won't be getting next year's assignments on the last days of school or over summer break as has happened in recent years. 

Thank you to everyone who helped hand out flyers to parents and  came to the board meeting last night. Our turnout was decent, and the School Board went in to closed session in the middle of the evening to discuss bargaining. That is extremely unusual, and I believe our actions played no small role in compelling a timely conclusion on the issue of next year's class size.

Bargaining will continue as we still have to address the issue of furloughs and many other topics. The Governor will release his May Revise next week which will shed some light on the direction things are likely to go from here. Then we can hope the legislature passes a timely budget in June as they did last year. In the end we probably won't know the extent of cuts or furloughs, if any, until the November tax initiative vote. With some luck we will settle our contract negotiations long before then, but we aren't out of the woods yet.  

Thanks again to all those who helped out, and please keep wearing your FMEA shirts every Thursday!

 

 

!! CALL TO ACTION- Please attend Board Meetings on May 22nd. Wear your FMEA shirts on Thursdays !!

It's time again to sound the battle cry and spring into action. In an all too familiar pattern, Spring is here and with it are proposals from the district that insist on massive concessions from FMEA. Our district is under funded, but administration is refusing to take a reasonable and fair approach to the situation.

California school funding has been slashed because of the  financial downturn of the last several years. However our district has actually managed to increase its reserve during these years by cutting programs, and personnel, and getting huge concessions from FMEA (primarily the past agreement to raise K-3 classes from 20 to current levels). This year the district began with a $6.7M reserve, larger than it has been in years, and it is projected to dip only slightly to $6.5M by the end of this year. Current California education funding is by no means adequate or fair, but we cannot yield to opportunistic attacks that seek to use this downturn as an excuse to obliterate the most important components of our contract!

While class size increases and furloughs are the last thing any teacher's union wants,  FMEA has seen the need to be reasonable and has made gut-wrenching concessions over the last several years, agreeing to class size increases and contingency language that would put furloughs in place if the worst-case scenarios of massive cuts became a reality. We are once again in a best-case/ worst-case situation. Much will hinge on whether Governor Brown's tax increases pass in November. If they do not, our district may be cut by as much as $3.5M.  FMEA is once again willing to work on contingency language to deal with that worst-case scenario. The problem is that the district is demanding a huge class size increase now,  before we know if there will be any cuts at all! They are adamant that students and teachers must suffer a huge increase to class size even if there are no cuts. Also, their demand for fifteen furlough days is completely out of line with the  agreements we have had regarding furloughs in the past.

If cuts must be made, the district reserve, consultants and district office management are the obvious targets. We certainly don't want to see further cuts to our Classified colleagues, who in many ways form the backbone of  our schools.  We do not control the district purse strings and cannot dictate  how administration balances their budget, but their demands are clearly unreasonable. Their cries that they are  going broke have gone stale; we have heard it before and can see  again and again that the financial  estimates of management are overly conservative. Despite what we have been told, the sky is not falling. Yes, some cuts and concessions have been needed, but in a fair and reasonable amount. We cannot allow administration to balance its budget on the backs of the employees and students of the district.

Frustrating as this is, I'm optimistic that, as we have in previous years, FMEA and the district will reach a reasonable agreement on these issues. While it is my belief that we will find that middle ground, I'm not convinced that the district will move there on its own.  It will take strong statements from teachers, parents and the community that increasing classes and shortening the school year by three weeks are unreasonable demands.  We must make our presence known and our voices heard.  I hope you will join me in rallying our fellow teachers, parents and community to this struggle.

In solidarity,
Scott Shulimson

Scott Shulimson

FMEA President

Office: 408-272-0601 EXT. 214