Former DTA President Calls For Concessions

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schoolLast week the Davis school board acknowledged that it was dealing with another 3.5 million dollar deficit which will likely result in further cuts to programs, possibly a shorter school year, despite the fact that Measure C is on the ballot.

This is not a huge surprise, given that Measure C only renews what the taxpayers are currently paying. It does not produce any new revenues, despite claims from opponents of the ballot measure.

School Board Member Richard Harris told the board, as quoted in the Enterprise, “As good as Measure C is, we’ve still got this huge, huge problem.”

Bruce Colby, the Associate Superintendent who runs the business portion of the district, said that even before state budget cuts kicked in, the district was operating with an ongoing $1 million structural deficit, and over the last few years they have utilized a number of one-time fixes to get through.

These include the use of federal stimulus funds, contributions from the Davis Schools foundation and employee concessions as an alternative to layoffs.

Ingrid Salim was at one point the President of DTA, and she wrote to the Davis Enterprise this week, “The district has faced this deficit for a number of years, and each time, as was delineated, other one-time monies were used to offset the need for layoffs and keep programs intact.”

The time for one-time monies is running out.  And the state budget crisis is not disappearing.  While the governor has proposed new revenues to support the restoration of funding to school districts, the soonest that relief would arrive would be after the November ballot.

“The strategy (we’ve pursued as a district) could work if the state gets their act together and they start buying back their deferrals (of funding to K-12 school districts),” Mr. Colby told the school board, as reported by the Enterprise.

But that hasn’t happened yet, and now “all the short-term local and federal money, and the state fixes, are gone. There’s nothing else left but us making reductions at the local level,” Mr. Colby added.

Ingrid Salim writes, “This year, the options for such one-time monies are limited, and therefore the threat of layoffs, increase in class sizes and reduction in programs is the greatest it’s been in years.”

She argued: “Certainly, in this time of economic uncertainty, this is one way to have compassion for our colleagues: districts across the state are having to make similar decisions, and finding another job will not be easy for those laid off. In addition to helping our colleagues, many of us teaching know that once positions and programs are lost, it is very difficult to get them back again.”

She goes further and calls on her fellow teachers to step up.

“I urge the Davis Teachers Association leadership to poll their members to gauge interest in a shortened school year and other concessions in order to mitigate those layoffs. We did this once before, a few years ago, and were able to save many employees’ jobs, keep class sizes reasonable and keep programs intact,” she argued.

Ingrid Salim concluded: “If DTA were to direct our Negotiations Committee to do something similar this year, pink slips to compensate for the deficit might be avoided altogether, reducing the anxiety so many face each year in these uncertain times.”

While the school board views Measure C as critical – without which the district might be looking at a $10 million shortfall (Measure C funds $6.5 million and the deficit will be $3.5 million even with Measure C), which would be catastrophic to the district, it is not going to fund that last $3.5 million.

Ingrid Salim is exactly correct. Having the teachers step forward would make a tremendous statement and ease the way for Measure C to pass, to at least keep the district from falling off into the abyss.

The district can handle a $3.5 million deficit, but a $10 million deficit would be a huge problem.

Earlier this week, the statewide CTA announced that they were backing the governor’s tax plan.

“Educators know that California cannot continue to cut its way out of ongoing budget problems. We also know that not everyone in California is paying their fair share, and that’s why we are supporting the governor’s tax proposal, which taxes the wealthiest Californians in order to bring additional revenue to our schools, colleges and other essential public services,” Dean Vogel, president of the CTA and a Davis resident said in a statement on Sunday.

“The governor’s initiative is the only initiative that provides additional revenues for our classrooms and closes the state budget deficit, and guarantees local communities will receive funds to pay for the realignment of local health and public safety services that the Legislature approved last year,” he continued. “It’s time to put California back on track and this initiative is the best way to do that.  It’s the right choice for our students and their families, our communities and our state.”

While many may have considered this a mere formality, in fact, there was a heated discussion as to whether or not support this tax measure, or the more risky Millionaire’s Tax that more progressive elements in the state are supporting.

In the end, the CTA decided to back the governor’s measure as the best way to get immediate general fund relief.

We can see the impact of the state budget on the school district.  The structural deficit is created entirely by the fact that the district is not receiving COLA and not receiving any increase in money to fund step and column increases.

They have managed to get by the last few years, but the gap is growing even without additional funding cuts to the district.

The district has used these one-time stop gap measures hoping the economy would eventually turn around.  But it hasn’t.

At some point, the district really needs to start planning for the possibility, at least, that funding will never be restored and figure out how it wants to eliminate that structural deficit.

But for now, the district will have to find a way to get by one more year and hope that state fortunes turn around.

—David M. Greenwald reporting

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About The Author

David Greenwald is the founder, editor, and executive director of the Davis Vanguard. He founded the Vanguard in 2006. David Greenwald moved to Davis in 1996 to attend Graduate School at UC Davis in Political Science. He lives in South Davis with his wife Cecilia Escamilla Greenwald and three children.

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7 thoughts on “Former DTA President Calls For Concessions”

  1. Dr. Wu

    [quote]shorter school year = less learning = very bad idea[/quote]

    California schools are bad enough

    I’d rather see larger class sizes (and yes I have a child in public school)

  2. rusty49

    Dr. Wu, I agree. Either larger class sizes or an across the board cut for all Davis teachers keeping the length of the school year the same. The teachers need to step up too just like the citizens who are paying more in school taxes.

  3. E Roberts Musser

    Agree w Dr. Wu’s point about larger class sizes rather than cutting school year. It is refreshing to see the teachers step up to the plate here. I suspect the school parcel tax measure to renew existing rate will pass handily…

  4. Rifkin

    [i]”Ingrid Salim [b]of Woodland[/b] was at one point the President of DTA, and she wrote to the Davis Enterprise this week, ‘The district has faced this deficit for a number of years, and each time, as was delineated, other one-time monies were used to offset the need for layoffs and keep programs intact.'[/i]

    I will add my name to those who agree with Dr. Wu and the rest.

    I don’t understand how anyone could say adding more furlough days is a concession by the DTA? If you think it is, then you think we have a public school system designed first and foremost to benefit district employees and not to educate students.

    A far better and clearly more reasonable answer for the sake of the children, when the funds from the state come up 5% short, is to reduce the salaries and benefits paid to employees (not just to teachers, but admins, staff, etc.) by that same 5 percent.

    Ms. Salim’s solution harms education. It is unquestionably bad for kids. It is especially bad for kids who are testing below grade level. A third grader who is reading at a first grade level needs more days in the school year, not fewer. Yet the DTA “concession” would shutter all classrooms for a longer period, disemploying teachers and failing to educate students. Rather than demonstrating some kind of moderation among the DTA, I think Ms. Salim’s proposal exposes just how ridiculous her union’s positions have been ever since 2008.

  5. Rifkin

    [i]”‘Educators know that California cannot continue to cut its way out of ongoing budget problems. We also know that not everyone in California is paying their[/i] (sic) [i]fair share, and [u]that’s why[/u] we are supporting the governor’s tax proposal, which taxes the wealthiest Californians in order to bring additional revenue to our schools, colleges and other essential public services,’ Dean Vogel, president of the CTA and a Davis resident said in a statement on Sunday.”[/i]

    Mr. Vogel has every right to express his views and his union’s views on the tax increase proposed by Gov. Brown. But get real: He is not calling for this increase in taxes on the highest earners in our state because those folks are not “paying their fair share.” He is supporting a tax increase on them because it will mean more money for members of his union. That is what is motivating the CTA to pour millions of dollars into this campaign.

    If all of the tax increase were directed to higher education, the CTA would probably work against it. The CTA is all about the CTA. And there is really no problem with that, as long as they would be honest about it and stop pretending they are really about doing good for the public. They are about doing good for themselves.

  6. medwoman

    “The CTA is all about the CTA. And there is really no problem with that, as long as they would be honest about it and stop pretending they are really about doing good for the public. They are about doing good for themselves.”

    I don’t think this is quite as black and white as you portray it. I suspect that most of the members of the CTA have dual interests. Like all of us, they have their own well being and that of their families to ensure but unlike those who work exclusively in the private sector, they also have a direct responsibility to the public. I believe that most public union members take both responsibilities seriously. If we, as a society, have an interest in maintaining public institutions, which I believe we do, then we need to be willing to provide reasonable compensation to those who choose a career supporting those institutions. Since our society favors an adversarial model and competition over a collaborative approach, we have made it necessary for individuals and groups to take adversarial positions to protect their well being. This does not mean that they do not also care about their contribution to the public good.

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