PALs - Parents Advocate League
What Parents Are Talking About
Parents are talking about the opportunity to meet with the search firm seeking candidates for a new CUSD superintendent.
February 17, 2010
Dear Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates,
Parents Advocate League is made up of a group of parents and teachers mostly from Capistrano Unified School District. This organization was started in 2007 to help inform parents of decisions made at the district level. We are involved and care deeply for our children and the teachers that educate them.
It is our hope that you do not view choosing our next superintendent as just another consulting job. Our school district is diverse, vast, and truly wonderful. It is filled with the most amazing teachers and students that love them. However, our large community is experiencing great political and financial turmoil that is affecting our district. As parents in this district, we expect our next leader to appreciate all the positive and unique aspects about our district with a willingness to unite our community with a renewed focus on the education of the students.
Parents Advocate League would like you to consider the following aspects when it comes to choosing candidates for superintendent of CUSD.
- Communication is a key factor. Parents expect open, honest, and transparent discussion with the superintendent, district staff, and the board as well as accessibility to all.
- Creating a partnership with parents so we can help be a viable and positive component of the success of CUSD is significant.
- We want a candidate to be strong, firm, and not succumb to particular groups and do what is best for educating the students.
- The candidate should have a strong financial background with business experience. Ideally the candidate should have experience teaching in a classroom dealing with the challenges that affect teachers and students. However, an administrative credential or background is not necessary as we do not want a superintendent that has an administrative focus or agenda. Likewise, the candidate should focus on education not on political advancement.
- They need to be creative thinkers that think outside the box when faced with unexpected or negative challenges.
- There has to be a new culture of respect that the candidate must foster throughout our district.
- Finally, the candidate should be willing to accept a salary that is reflective of the current downward economic climate challenging public education. Excessive perks included in his/her contract should not be considered.
On behalf of Parents Advocate League, we thank you for your diligence in finding a candidate that best suits Capistrano Unified School District.
Sincerely,
Julie Collier
Executive Director
Parents Advocate League
Parents are talking about the teachers of CUSD taking a pay cut.
Parents are concerned that the teachers that teach their children might have to get a salary reduction. We feel horrible for them. At the same time, we, as parents, are also feeling the same pain (and have been for some time). Some of us are finding it harder to make ends meet due to painful salary cuts we are experiencing ourselves. In a letter sent to many people in the CUSD community a parent explains her frustration:
For release to all local media- Please provide your readers with a more objective coverage of the CUSD budget cut issues and the Collective Bargaining negotiations.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
As a parent of a student in CUSD, who has attended most of the CUSD Board Meetings and Budget Workshops over the past two years, I felt compelled to write this letter. Not every parent has time to attend meetings and workshops. Those of us who do; need to start sharing our knowledge with other parents; so that any letters that are written to influence the Board and/or Administrators are based on fact, and are “intelligent”, “thoughtful” letters, that truly reflect what we as parents feel “is in the best interest of our children”.
I was really angry, and disgusted, to see teachers at my child’s school standing outside the campus Friday morning… wearing black… handing out flyers. The flyers were asking parents to contact Ellen Addonizio, the President of the Capistrano School Board, and tell her to start working with teachers during contract negotiations in a "reasonable and responsible way".
What happened Friday was a staged event by the CUEA. The CUEA stands for the Capistrano Unified Education Association and is the professional association (teachers’ union) for the non-supervisory certificated employees in the Capistrano Unified School District. The flyer that was being passed out by teachers can be viewed at the CUEA web site:
In the top right hand corner you will see a box that says "School Board Not the Best" Get a flyer to pass out here.
I do not appreciate the CUEA bringing their politics onto my child’s campus. Putting children in the position of having to worry about whether or not their teacher will have a job next year is not beneficial to children, especially when many parents have already lost their own jobs. It is very insensitive to the many families that are suffering during these economically difficult times.
I also want to say how disappointed I have been with the press coverage of the CUSD Budget issues. I attended the Tuesday, October 13th, CUSD Board Meeting. The Orange County Register article entitled:
“Capistrano district identifies $9.3 million in possible cuts
Officials have a long way to go to close an anticipated $25.1 million deficit.”
did not even begin to provide parents with the full flavor of what is at stake in the next round of cuts that the District will be forced to make to avoid insolvency.
The full article can be found at:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-district-budget-2606475-million-cuts.
This is going to be a very difficult year financially for everyone in California. CUSD needs to identify $25 million in cuts to their budget by December. The $25 million in cuts is based on the Budget that the State of California passed this summer. The anticipated revenues that were projected in the State budget are already wrong. The California economy is not “recovering” as anticipated. The $ 25 million in cuts that need to be identified by December; will most likely be the first of a series of additional cuts that CUSD will need to make to its budget this year.
At the October 13, 2009 CUSD Board Meeting, Ron Lebs, Deputy Superintendent, Business Support Services stated very clearly that:
"… 85% of the Districts budget goes to salaries, pensions and benefits."
Only 15% of the District’s budget goes to “other expenses”… expenses such as books and supplies, CSR (Class Size Reduction), Block Music, AAA GATE etc.
The fact is that CUSD can only make unilateral cuts to 15% of the entire CUSD budget. Any cuts to the other 85% of the budget must be negotiated through collective bargaining with the three employee unions in CUSD. The three unions are CUEA representing the teachers "Certificated Employees", CSEA representing support staff "Classified Employees”, and the Teamsters representing the bus drivers etc.
I encourage every parent to go to the District web site and click on <Departments<Business & Support Services and then under the second heading "CUSD Budgets as Approved" click on the following link.
2008/2009 Unaudited Actuals and 2009/2010 Revised Final Budget
Go to Exhibit B "Expenditures" (page 12) you will see the following:
Expenditures:
Total Expenditures per year 2009-2010 $381,716,882
Salaries:
Certificated Employees 2009-2010 $193,507,709
Classified Employees 2009-2010 $ 57,262,822
Employee Benefits 2009-2010 $ 72,388,03
Total Salaries, pensions and benefits $323,158,586
$ 323,158,586 of the total $ 381,716.882 spent at CUSD goes to Salaries, Pensions and Benefits.
84.66% of CUSD’s budget goes to Salaries, Pensions and Benefits.
The reality is that if the District is not successful in negotiating some cuts to salaries, pensions and benefits then all of the cuts will come from the 15% of the budget that goes directly to our children.
The sad truth is that even if every one of the cuts listed below were made it would only total $ 9.3 million dollars.
The cuts that are being proposed are as follows:
$1.66 million: Eliminate funding for all extra-curricular activities, and all stipends for department chairs
From one parent to another- I ask you, what is in the best interest of our children?
1. Preserving currently scheduled increases to salaries, pensions, and benefits?
or
2. Preserving class sizes, sports programs, Block Music, and all the programs that materially affect the quality of education that our children receive?
Is preserving current projected increases to salaries, pensions, and benefits more important than maintaining our public school buildings? We already have many over-crowded classrooms where the number of children exceed the number of desks in the classroom; and the number of children in the class exceeds City fire and safety codes.
I volunteer hundreds of hours of my personal time to my child's school. I donate hundreds of dollars in time and money for school fundraisers. When my child’s teacher needs supplies, I personally pay for and donate, paper, pencils, pens, etc (the list grows larger every year).
Next time the CUEA asks your teacher to stand outside of school and pass out a flyer asking for you to write a letter encouraging the Board to work with teachers during contract negotiations in a "reasonable and responsible way" remember one important thing.
Parents are the only Advocate children have.
The CUEA is a union. It is a Union's job to negotiate the best labor contract for their union members. Union's do not represent our children. In economically difficult times such as these if we as parents write letters in support of the Unions efforts to maintain scheduled increases to salaries, pensions and benefits, then we must also understand that means we support making the necessary cuts to the 15% of the budget that goes directly to our children.
Another issue that has not been covered by the press, but should have some bearing on what is the "reasonable and responsible” is the following:
The CUSD final Budget that passed on June 22, 2009 contained automatic step and column salary increases and projected health and welfare benefit premium increases.
That means that to date, CUEA members are still getting salary increases!
I encourage every parent to go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under September 15, 2009 click on “Budget Summary Recap” and you will see that
Salaries and Benefits are scheduled to increase for 2009/2010 by
Certificated Employees 2009-2010 $4,225,298
Classified Employees 2009-2010 $1,804,487
Employee Benefits 2009-2010 $4,154,316
Go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under September 15, 2009 click on “Budget Reduction Up-date”
The District saved $ 9.7 million dollars by increasing class sizes this year. If the Unions had agreed not to take their projected salary increases this year, the District could have saved CSR for every student in K – 3.
Cumulative increases in Salaries, pensions and benefits are projected to total over $ 44.7 million dollars over the next five years.
Go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under June 8, 2009 click on “Budget Workshop Presentation” page 8 and you will see the following:
Salary & Benefits
09/10 $ 8.1 million dollars
10/11 $ 8.5 million dollars
11/12 $ 8.9 million dollars
12/13 $ 9.4 million dollars
13/14 $ 9.8 million dollars
There is currently no "new" contract between CUSD and the CUEA, which means that the old contract is still enforce. While most people across the nation have taken at least a 10% reduction in pay, the CUEA has not agreed to a single cut in salaries, pensions and benefits, and are in fact still receiving projected salary increases.
What is the "reasonable and responsible way" to cut $25 million from the CUSD budget? Should the children be the only ones to bear the burden of these cuts?
Dawn Urbanek
CUSD Parent, and Advocate for my child.
*If you have something to add to this section, please contact julie@parentsadvocateleague.org
If you have comments, a response, questions, or concerns please contact us julie@parentsadvocteleague.org
