MBUTANOW.org

ADVISORY! THE MANHATTAN BEACH UNIFIED TEACHERS ASSOCIATION IS SUSPENDING ALL DISTRICT-WIDE ACTIONS EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY, PENDING THE OUTCOME OF RATIFICATION  OF THE TENTATIVE AGREEMENT BY THE MBUTA MEMBERSHIP AND MBUSD BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

On Thursday, September 6, 2012 MBUTA reached a tentative two-year agreement with MBUSD in impasse mediation proceedings. The terms of this agreement stipulate a three percent (3%) salary schedule increase for 2012-13, retroactive to July 1, 2012, which will stay on the schedule unless there is a drastic reduction in the funded base revenue limit. In addition, the conditions of our current health and welfare benefits package will be maintained. Extra duty pay has been increased by 19.4 percent from $31.83 to $38.00 per hour. The parties agreed to reopen negotiations for 2013-2014 on the subjects of salary, health and welfare benefits, elementary teacher preparation time, school calendar for 2014-15, and one additional item by each party.

MBUTA and the District agreed to continue in impasse mediation to discuss changes in the certificated evaluation process for 2013-14. Please click the link for specifics of the Tentative Agreement .

Recently, the teachers at Mira Costa High School overwhelmingly endorsed suspending writing letters of recommendation for college pending a comprehensive contract agreement.  There are those in the community who are angry.  We understand that.  Your anger is misdirected.

For 10 years teachers in MBUSD have received no salary adjustment that overcomes the effects of inflation.  For five years, teachers have received no salary adjustment, at all.  In that time, this community has supported a massive expansion of technology and a tax measure for buildings.  You have elected officials that have offered administrators raises that meet COLA and then offer 3% on top of that.  That compensation is in addition to the range of perks that your elected officials have offered in compensation packages to those administrators.   Yet, to the people that most affect your child’s future, the teachers, you have been silent in the face of the erosion of their compensation.  You haven’t spoken out on our behalf.  You haven’t advocated for us.   While we have tried to educate, we have been met with silence, at best, hostility, at worst.  You have chosen to endorse administrators who have nothing but a marginal direct effect on the educational development of your child.  You have elected board members who, using their finance experience to the hilt, have sought to drive down labor costs while improving the quality of the “product” that labor produces.

During the last ten years, teachers have been repeatedly asked to sacrifice our family’s financial health while various boards and administrators have sought to correct the errors of their predecessors always with the promise that if we did that, the board would make it right.   We believed the financial numbers we were given at the table at previous negotiations only to be told by the current administrative team that we were deceived.  Unprecedented reserves were built up on our backs for 5 years through budget trickery that over budgeted expenses and under budgeted income leading to a claimed deficit.  Then, in the quiet of summer, 1.5 million to 3 million dollar surpluses would be moved into the reserves.  Then, as negotiations approached, the board and administration took over half of those reserves and moved them into accounts that supposedly kept them from being used to begin to right a decade long wrong perpetrated against its teachers.  This year, we’ve seen COPs (Certificates of Participation) removed as a general fund obligation to the tune of 1.7 million dollars per year.  We were promised by a previous administration and board that once that was done, that would free up general funds for long overdue teacher pay adjustments.  Today, we’ve been told that there is no reason the current board and administration feels compelled to honor that commitment.

We are angry and we aren’t going to accept the status quo any more.  Teachers with over 15 years of experience have taken nearly a 20% pay cut over this decade.   While test scores have skyrocketed and your sons and daughters have received admission in the finest colleges, as AP scores have saved you scores of dollars in college costs and made your kids competitive in the college market, as our sports teams have excelled offering opportunities to many and our extra-curricular programs from MUN (Model United Nations) to choir have become national leaders, the community has allowed your leaders to treat the teachers responsible for this success as mere commodities.

You are angry.  We are angry.   We are angry that our kids in our families, thanks to the decisions you have allowed to happen over ten years, will not even reach the stage of having to ask for a recommendation for college.  For them, thanks to the shortsighted and cruel manipulations of this board, college is quickly becoming simply a dream that financially can’t come true.  Rather than be angry about us choosing not to offer a voluntary service that we have in the past, a service you have grown to rely on and feel entitled to, your anger should be directed at the individuals who have unnecessarily driven the financial situation of some of the finest professional educators in California into the ground.  We plead with you to speak out loudly and clearly to your elected representatives that teachers are important.  They are a priority.  They deserve to have their salary adjusted to begin to right a terrible decade-long wrong.  It can be done.  The financial means are there to get it done.  Teachers want to get it done soon.  The real question is, do you?

URGENT ADVISORY! THE MANHATTAN BEACH UNIFIED TEACHERS ASSOCIATION HAS IMPLEMENTED THE FOLLOWING INITIAL ACTION PLAN EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY:

MIRA COSTA HIGH SCHOOL

1. Teachers shall not commit to letters of recommendation until further notice.
2. Teachers shall not advise, sponsor, or host any clubs during lunch, or before school and after school.
3. Classrooms shall be closed to students during snack and lunch.
4. Teachers shall refrain from arriving at school significantly before 7:45 a.m. and avoid leaving campus significantly after 3:15 p.m., except where teacher is assigned a zero period class or
teacher is actively coaching an athletic team.
5. Teachers shall not volunteer for extracurricular duties.
6. Teachers shall not volunteer to provide coverage during preparation period for others called to IEP meetings.
7. Teachers shall wear MBUTA shirts on September 6, 2012 in a show of unity and support for a bargained settlement.

MANHATTAN BEACH MIDDLE SCHOOL

1. Teachers shall not advise, sponsor, or host any clubs during lunch, or before school and after school.
2. Teachers shall close classroom doors during non-instructional time.
3. Teachers shall not volunteer for adjunct duties, but shall comply with assignments by site administration according to Article 7 of the expired (2009-2012) collective bargaining agreement.
4. Teachers shall not volunteer to provide coverage during preparation period for others called to IEP meetings.
5. Teachers shall wear MBUTA shirts on September 6, 2012 in a show of unity and support for a bargained settlement.

GRAND VIEW, MEADOWS, PACIFIC, PENNEKAMP, AND ROBINSON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

1. Teachers shall mandate that students leave the classrooms for snack, lunch, and recess.
2. Teachers shall not volunteer for adjunct duties, but shall comply with assignments by site administration according to Article 7 of the expired (2009-2012) collective bargaining agreement.
3. Teachers shall wear MBUTA shirts on September 6, 2012 in a show of unity and support for a bargained settlement.

RE: Letters of Recommendation

Dear Mira Costa Faculty,

We stand at a pivotal moment in our lives as professional educators and at a critical
juncture in our history as a faculty. We face a District that has declared impasse after a
refusal to offer us anything but a paltry one-time salary bonus tied to the prospect of
consistently higher fees for medical benefits.

We have generously given our expertise, our passion, and our time to a district that has
depended on us to forego salary increases in order to restore its reserves after they were
undermined by the gross negligence and misconduct of a former board and administration
more than a decade ago.

In our careers at Mira Costa we have devoted ourselves to providing students with an
exemplary education. We are a faculty who has continually and freely given an
extraordinary number of hours to activities that, if not given, would have resulted in an
extremely barren learning landscape. We have given so much because we believe in the
power of learning, the profound beauty of our subject matter, and the precious potential
of our students.

Yet, here we are, looking at the reality of a district that does not value or respect our
enormous contributions enough to offer us a fair wage increase on the salary schedule.

We must stand together and illustrate the countless things we do for free by not doing
them until we have resolved our labor contract.

Commitments to write letters of recommendation will be one of the first things to be
postponed until a contract settlement has been reached. Clearly, this is difficult. And
make no mistake about it, we will be blamed for “hurting kids”. But, remember, it is the
district that is hurting students by placing us in a position in which we have no other
recourse but to withhold many of the things we so dearly love to give. (On Tuesday,
August 28, the union will pass out notices regarding letters of recommendation for
teachers to post in their classrooms.)

We must support each other through this decisive time. If we don’t, we face the prospect
of a district that will continue to give us nothing, nothing, and more nothing because they
know that we will accept it.

Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association

Dating back to 1995 and 2000, a series of district wide modernization efforts, particularly the high school, were financed by a convoluted mixture of bonds (Measure A and M) and COPs (Certificates of Participation). This modernization was plagued by cost overruns that exceeded 50 percent. The initial COP which provided bridge financing could not be repaid with bond proceeds and other COPs had to be issued to finish construction of the administration building and a two-story general education building, due to the cost overruns. Setting aside money from the general fund (where your pay comes from) for interest and repayment of debt has been encroaching on “ongoing” revenues for more than a decade. This has denied teachers of cost-of-living adjustments for the better part of the last fifteen years, during which time the salary schedule has slipped from top 25th percentile to bottom 30th in Los Angeles County. Teachers and their families have quietly financed the completion of those structures with their own pay.

An explicitly stated objective of Measure BB, passed in November 2008, was to transfer the remaining portion of the COP obligations to general obligation bonds, paid for by property taxes. In 2012, the district has finally retired the COPs. This financial transaction freed an estimated $1.7 million in annual payments from the general fund. This represents an ongoing reduction in district outlays that can easily be re-purposed to cover a long-overdue adjustment in teacher compensation.

A few months ago MBUTA requested a copy of the MBUSD employment contracts with Superintendent Matthews and Deputy Rick Bagley. We are angry. Both of their salaries are guaranteed to rise by 3% each year. Their negotiated agreement with the district includes the maintenance of purchasing power even though they each make in excess of $150,000 per year.

Bagely routinely talks about “total compensation”, makes arguments on the MBUSD website and via email sent to staff about the poor state of the economy in California to argue against an adjustment to the 10 year erosion of your salary, yet his own salary of $158,000 (not including a range of perks), awarded by the school board, the same school board that has denied you of the same consideration for 10 years , will increase by $4740 after this year and by $4882 after the next year. That is an increase of $9622 in “total compensation” over the course of just two years.

But a close look at Bagley’s contract reveals that all management employees are granted a yearly COLA percentage adjustment in addition to the guaranteed 3% RAISE .

Matthews’ compensation was set at $190,000 when he was hired. Today he earns an additional $5700, and will increase his earning by at least $5871 next year. That is an increase of $10,571 dollars in just two short years. Remember, this is in addition to guaranteed COLA increases.

So, while our most experienced teachers have seen declining paychecks and purchasing power over the course of a decade, our least experienced administration has been granted generous and increasing compensation packages by the same Board that offered you zero “on-the schedule” salary adjustment for the next three years.  Unfortunately, for many of us with 10 years of experience, it will take 20 years, not 2 years to see increases of that magnitude; and those with more years may never get there.  Where is the equity? When will you become the priority?

(Letter printed in The Beach Reporter on March 28, 2012)

I have been a first-grade teacher for 16 years, 12 of which were served in MBUSD. My gross salary is $70,100. The district would like to state that my salary is competitive because I have great benefits.

Guess what? I do not take benefits.

In the coming months, there will be district personnel and opinionated Manhattan Beach citizens who would like to paint a slanderous picture of me because I am asking for a small token of compensation for the tireless work I do.

As a teacher and parent in the MBUSD, I have donated more than my share of money and time for the students of this district. My contracted work hours are from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. If I only worked within that time frame, there would be no report cards, no parent conferences, no plays, no parent communication, no graded papers, no bulletin boards, no smartboard lessons, no writing portfolios, no evening parent meetings, no open house displays, no projects, no copies, no homework, and no collaboration with colleagues.

With the declining funds from the state, I no longer have an assistant, I have a larger class size, no longer have a daily prep period, yet I have maintained the high standards and send off 23 eager readers, writers, public speakers, scientists, artists, and mathematicians each June.

I, too, have three of my own children that I will one day soon need to put through college. Think long and hard before you pass judgment.

Gelane Cameron

by Dennis Hong

http://www.musingsonlifeandlove.com/2010/09/13/the-hardest-job-everyone-thinks-they-can-do/

At the end of 2011, Forbes researched the best school districts in the United States according to median housing prices and ranked Manhattan Beach Unified as one of its “Best School Districts for your Housing Buck.” The article mentions 40 distinguished districts. We called all of them one by one and concluded that Manhattan Beach Unified stands out from the others for one unfortunate reason: we are one of only two districts without elementary P.E. teachers. However, the other district in question recently restored those teachers for next year making us the one and only district that asks its classroom teachers to teach P.E.

Despite being less affluent than MBUSD, these districts value their elementary physical education programs more than ours does by providing the schools with one, sometimes two P.E. teachers.  These specialists in turn give the classroom teachers much needed planning time and give the students a professional with focus and expertise on the subject matter.

Maybe because our district is affluent, MBUSD values iPads. Technology that becomes obsolete in just a few months. Since the implementation of the pilot program less than a year ago, a new iPad has hit the market and the expansion of the program will now require the purchase of the newer devices. Although there are not too many differences between the second and third iterations, there are significant differences between the first and the second or third. This effectively illustrates that a student with a new iPad entering the third grade in 2012 will likely have an obsolete device by the time they enter middle school, if not sooner. As the devices become obsolete so will the corresponding lesson plans which will have to be redesigned every couple of years. From every perspective, this is a resource intensive implementation with no end in sight, yet the district likes to remind us every step of the way that there is no money.

When our school board eliminated the elementary P.E. program and laid off five teachers, the stated reason was a lack of funds.  Now two or three years later, iPads are being purchased for all teachers and students in the elementary/middle schools, alternative physical activity programs (i.e. dance groups, etc.) have been outsourced, new administrative positions have been created, and overall seventy new hires were brought on, some due to attrition, but not all.  MBUSD will also be adding 2 more positions next year; a near full time athletic director at the high school and a counselor at the middle school. The district added a vice principal position a few years ago when it eliminated a teacher in the athletic director position. A few years later, the district is adding back the athletic director, but is also maintaining the vice principal position.

It is no secret the district is waiting for the state mandated 39 months to pass since the P.E. teachers were let go so they can legally replace them with volunteers or classified employees. No credentials will be needed, and the five certificated positions will be gone forever.

Under ideal circumstances we would not have to make arguments against iPads or anything else that could potentially benefit education, but the economics of opportunity cost is painfully obvious in this instance. With limited resources we have to make choices. With limited resources we must choose what has worked. What has worked in education for centuries is the teacher. Many parents, teachers, and students have been vocal in their fight to get the P.E. program back. With a high monetary reserve and strong community demand, the school board should reinstate elementary physical education, returning five teachers to their schools, and giving the students and teachers support in continuing our great success.

Scholar Quiz is a true tradition at Mira Costa High School. It is another one of those activities founded and developed by teachers to improve the school experience for the kids of Manhattan Beach. Despite the fact that the PTSA has taken over much of the organizing, teachers still play an integral role in this competition. It is teachers that develop the questions, organize them and separate them for use in each round, taking nearly thirty hours of their own time in the process. It is teachers that volunteer their rooms, give up their lunch to read the questions, score and judge the matches.

Scholar Quiz serves as only one example of what teachers will do for the students of this community when the teachers feel respected and valued. Every day teachers generously and voluntarily give of their own time to elevate the scholarship and enhance the school experience for the students of Manhattan Beach. Lately, though, this Board of Education has sent a clear message that our efforts are expected and not appreciated. Rather than begin to meaningfully address the erosion of teacher compensation over 10 years, this Board has proposed to accelerate that erosion by offering no raise and an implementation of a hard cap on benefits. While crying poor, they sit on one of the largest reserves in the State (reserves that were built up to a large degree by NOT giving raises to teachers for the last five years) and are prepared to spend over 3 million dollars on gadgetry that would be meaningless and ineffective without teacher support. While they provide for no raise for teachers, they have increased the budget for supplies by 123%, appropriating an extra 1.89 million dollars for each of the next three years, an amount that is virtually identical to what we have asked them to devote to an increase in teacher salaries. This Board’s priorities are clear. They think gadgets and “things” are more important to the continued educational excellence of this community’s children than our efforts in the classroom.

If teachers feel valued and respected, they will bleed for their students. When expectations and a sense of entitlement have replaced appreciation for our efforts, we begin to question whether we should continue what the Board has come to expect. The Board and their actions make it impossible, then, for us to voluntarily give of our time for Scholar Quiz. There are those in the community who will blame us for this action. Their anger is misdirected. They should be angry at a School Board that has devalued the efforts of its teachers and has insulted their certificated staff by making them the lowest budgetary priority. Make no mistake about it, we have not decided to stop participation in Scholar Quiz…the Board has made that decision for us.

Bill Fauver-Founder of Scholar Quiz

Steve Singiser-Scholar Quiz Director (1999-2009)

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