Showing posts with label Teacher Layoffs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Teacher Layoffs. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Emery Instructional Aide Layoffs To Harm ESL Students
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Superintendent Of Schools Says More Teacher Lay-Offs May Be Coming
Emery Unified School District's Superintendent raised the specter of another round of possible teacher lay-offs looming next year piled on top of large budget cuts, including lay-offs handed down in 2012. In a recent interview, Superintendent Debbra Lindo told the Tattler the beleaguered district may have to resort to lay-offs to "allay structural deficit problems." If the district did indeed resort to another round of lay-offs, it would come on top of teacher cuts already made by the district last summer.
In spite of the distressing news, the Superintendent noted she's hopeful about the District's long term economic health even though cuts may be inevitable in the short term, "When a school district is striving to address its structural deficit, there are several options that a [School] Board may consider. Furlough days, a shortened school year, reductions in teacher hours and/or lay-offs are all options that must be considered. That being said, because of all the tough work we did last year and the passage of Proposition 30, we're in much better shape than we had anticipated. We're hopeful there will be minimal impacts to the classrooms" she said.
Superintendent Lindo has been the target of ire from virtually the entire staff of teachers at the school district since she was hired by the Board of Trustees in June 2011. The teachers released a 'Teachers Resolution' excoriating Ms Lindo last June that was answered by the Board in a letter of full support of the Superintendent. Since the impasse, Ms Lindo told the Tattler she has been working to restore the trust and respect of the teachers, "We've fixed that. Things are much better" she said of the teacher's enmity revealed by the Teachers Resolution.
A District official said it would be some months before any teacher furloughs or lay-offs would be imposed and only then not until the public has been apprised and allowed to weigh in.
 |
| Superintendent Debbra Lindo |
Superintendent Lindo has been the target of ire from virtually the entire staff of teachers at the school district since she was hired by the Board of Trustees in June 2011. The teachers released a 'Teachers Resolution' excoriating Ms Lindo last June that was answered by the Board in a letter of full support of the Superintendent. Since the impasse, Ms Lindo told the Tattler she has been working to restore the trust and respect of the teachers, "We've fixed that. Things are much better" she said of the teacher's enmity revealed by the Teachers Resolution.
A District official said it would be some months before any teacher furloughs or lay-offs would be imposed and only then not until the public has been apprised and allowed to weigh in.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Teachers Union "Bumping Rights" Challenged
The Teachers Union Should Be Supported
Opinion/ News Analysis
Living as we do, in an America carefully crafted over 35 years by right wing think tanks, sometimes the pervasive propaganda seems as if it were some collective a priori knowledge, even perhaps simply our own common sense. The 'frame' of the public policy debate has been seized long ago by these right wing interest groups to such an extent that it now seems perfectly reasonable to large numbers of non-wealthy people that labor unions work against the common good, that they are greedy and controlled by "bosses". The Teachers Union has been especially vilified by anti-public education interests, pilloried in the public square for their "greed" and their "standing in the way of children's education".
As our own School Board votes to cut the budget and lay off teachers, right wing derived memes are rising up in the public debate even here in Emeryville. Some parents are using the budget crisis to assail the Teachers Union for the use of "bumping rights", the union's policy of protecting their senior members as they're hit with lay-offs.
These parents say that teachers should not behave in a protectionist manner and instead simply concern themselves with educating the children. The "bad" teachers should be layed off, not the least senior they say. It's only common sense after all. They're only interested in the welfare of the children, these parents sanctimoniously state.
This kind of talk enables the anti-public education meme and pushes down reasoned education policy debate.
In fact real common sense tells us that teachers do care about educating children. They're the ones in the educational trenches as it were. Teachers should be deferred to. They have the ability and the motive through the Union to rid their ranks of any "bad" ones among them, all the hyperbolic right wing claims to the contrary.
"Bumping should be seen as
a necessary thing to
protect the profession
for professional teachers"
The anti-bumping crowd gets it all wrong. The teaching profession needs to be valued. Teachers need to be better paid with better job security to attract the best and the brightest to the profession. It's not rational to continue relying on "do gooders" to fill out the ranks of teachers, as is often the case, if we really want to provide our children with the best educational prospects. Teaching is a profession and should be treated as such with at least as much deference as management administrators receive.
A would be great teacher is less likely to enter a field where there's low pay and low job security. The Teachers Union should be supported by parents as allies in the work to educate their children.
Emeryville parents should not take the right wing bait. They should see bumping as a necessary thing to protect the profession for professional teachers, to snatch them away from other higher paid careers. Teachers shouldn't have to go through what our society puts them through to assuage their desires to teach children. They should be afforded at least a modicum of job security.
As the Emery School Board goes on its budget cutting spree, we need to realize the Union is critical to providing what it takes for education to happen here. Instead of turning on the Teachers Union, we should fight the lay-offs. We should fully support the teachers.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
School District Budget Crisis
Another contentious meeting:
The Emery School Board was inundated again last night with parents, teachers and citizens demanding that budget cuts not come in the form of teacher lay-offs.
It was all budget talks at an overfilled Emery Theater that featured Alameda County School Superintendent Sheila Jordan advising the Board how it could engage in arcane money shifting tactics to stop the 'short horizon' cash hemorrhaging brought on by funding loss due to plunging student enrollment among other reasons. In addition to laying off teachers, the Board indicated that the School District is facing a looming $1.6 million shortfall beginning next year. The loss of income from the falling enrollments the District was highlighted as a major contributing factor in the budget crisis as was the fact that the District has stopped collecting money it had gathered by renting out Emery's Ralph Hawley Middle School to Piedmont Unified School District for two years, softening the ill effects of the ongoing cuts coming from Sacramento.
Teacher Lay-Offs at Center Of Looming Budget Shortfall
The Emery School Board was inundated again last night with parents, teachers and citizens demanding that budget cuts not come in the form of teacher lay-offs.
It was all budget talks at an overfilled Emery Theater that featured Alameda County School Superintendent Sheila Jordan advising the Board how it could engage in arcane money shifting tactics to stop the 'short horizon' cash hemorrhaging brought on by funding loss due to plunging student enrollment among other reasons. In addition to laying off teachers, the Board indicated that the School District is facing a looming $1.6 million shortfall beginning next year. The loss of income from the falling enrollments the District was highlighted as a major contributing factor in the budget crisis as was the fact that the District has stopped collecting money it had gathered by renting out Emery's Ralph Hawley Middle School to Piedmont Unified School District for two years, softening the ill effects of the ongoing cuts coming from Sacramento.
Some 14 people spoke, mostly imploring Board members to not cut the budget at the expense of the actual classrooms by laying off teachers. Executives from the Emeryville based alternative bio-fuels company, Amyris spoke on behalf of a science teacher they have mentored that has received a pink slip from the District, one of several.
School Board member Josh Simon said the Board is ready to listen to the citizen's ideas for balancing the budget, "We're looking forward to the creativity of the community" he said.
Last night's crowd at the regularly scheduled School Board meeting came on the heels of the March 12th meeting, which also drew an angry crowd of parents, teachers, et al.
Last night's crowd at the regularly scheduled School Board meeting came on the heels of the March 12th meeting, which also drew an angry crowd of parents, teachers, et al.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Irony: Teacher Lay-Offs While Building New School
We're Building A New School While We Lay Off Teachers
Opinion
Parents and Emeryville citizens have begun to stir; the recent spate of Emery School District teacher lay-offs is causing a whisper campaign about how the lay-offs and the building of the new school and recreation center known as the Emeryville Center of Community Life are conflated. City Hall and the School District officials for their part, are showing signs they're worried about this kind of thinking taking hold. They're trying to take the offensive on this issue, forwarding a new meme.
The way they're spinning it, the building of the new school /rec center is totally unrelated to the laying off of teachers. A March 22nd e-mail to concerned parents from Emeryville City Manager Pat O'Keeffe put it bluntly, "The Center of Community Life is not causing teacher lay offs" he categorically states.
Mr O'Keeffe and the School District are together in this meme.
They note that the Measure J bonds voters passed in 2010 explicitly forbids spending the money on school operational expenses, including paying teachers. It only authorizes the building of the facilities that will comprise the Center of Community Life. They are also explaining how $25 million in city money the council voted to give to the project is also earmarked exclusively for the building of facilities. This is due to the arcane esoterica of Redevelopment Agency funding mandated by the State.
Even though they'd like to pay teachers more and stop the lay offs, their hands are tied they tell us.
False Narrative
All this is just a bunch of hooey. It's a false narrative meant to divert attention from an uncomfortable truth. What Mr O'Keeffe and the School District is not acknowledging is that in fact the building of the Center of Community Life is directly responsible for the teacher lay offs.
The only way the School District can increase the operating budget for the schools, including teacher pay, is if the voters of Emeryville vote themselves another tax increase in the form of a parcel tax. And there's the rub. The passage of the $95 million Measure J bonding for the Center of Community Life has almost certainly tapped out the voters good will towards the schools.
"The Center of Community
Life is responsible for
teacher lay offs."
The last few years has seen the passage of two parcel taxes for the schools in Emeryville in addition to the Center of Community Life. The voters here have shown great generosity towards the schools; the Center of Community Life alone will cost taxpayers some $400 million by the time the interest on the bonds has been paid (and that's only possible if the city starts to grow its assessed valuation like we did before the recession).
The voters have thus far been generous but their generosity is not infinite. The fact that we've come up hard against the market realities of Emeryville's plunging Assessed Valuation and its attendant reel back of Emeryville's bonding capacity will help sink any nascent drive to push another parcel tax.
The voters have thus far been generous but their generosity is not infinite. The fact that we've come up hard against the market realities of Emeryville's plunging Assessed Valuation and its attendant reel back of Emeryville's bonding capacity will help sink any nascent drive to push another parcel tax.
The Center of Community Life is going to be it as far as any extra school spending from more taxes is concerned we're afraid to say. Perhaps voters will be in a more giving mood after the economy picks up and the middle class in America is restored and the Measure J bonds are paid off..... In other words, it's going to be a while.
And that leaves us facing teacher lay offs and other cut backs at our schools.
It could actually get worse. Schools are funded by student enrollment and our enrollment at Emery Unified is dropping. The more it drops, the more funding dries up and the more cut backs and teacher lay offs we face causing more enrollment drop. It's a spiraling negative feedback loop and we're already in the loop so to speak.
Perhaps we can call back some of the $95 million dollar Center of Community Life bonds, build a more modest facility by saving Anna Yates Elementary School and find some way to appeal to the voters that a new parcel tax could be swapped for the scaling back of the school building project. It could be couched in terms of being revenue neutral...perhaps voters could see the wisdom in this and vote themselves another parcel tax.
What's needed is a new path for our schools, a different approach, and it should start with real transparency coming from the School District and City Hall. We can't just obliviously build the whole Center of Community Life and hope for the best for its operating budget. Let's start by first spelling out where we really are and not just throwing up our hands as Mr O'Keeffe and the School District is doing.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
School Board Calls For A "Conversation" On Teacher Lay-offs
Teacher Lay-Offs:
Opinion
Facing angry parents and teachers at a regularly scheduled February 27th School Board meeting, School Board member Josh Simon tried to calm them; we're not laying off teachers, he said, "we're having a conversation" (about teacher lay-offs). The culmination of the "conversation" was that the Board, including Mr Simon, voted to lay-off the teachers anyway.
The parents that showed up at that fateful meeting may have known teacher lay offs were on the agenda or maybe not. The parents learned at the meeting that the Board saw fit to call the lay-offs "PKS Reductions" for the sake of the publicized agenda. The Board arrogantly noted the crowd wasn't very large that night, an attempt to de-legitimize the pleas from the parents to not engage in the PKS Reductions.
This is how the Emery Unified School District and its Board has a "conversation" with the public.
The word "conversation" implies two way communication coupled with good faith action. That's certainly not what's been going on here.
Ever since the School Board glommed onto the ironically titled Center of Community Life, this is how it's been. And it's the Center of Community Life that's driving the teacher lay-offs...not that you'd know that from listening to the School District. The Center of Community Life, with it's former $400 million price tag (now something lower) has certainly used up Emeryville voters' good will towards the schools. To keep teachers at the District, Emeryville residents would need to vote themselves another parcel tax, now rendered an unlikely prospect. This expensive new school building project is forcing the laying off of teachers; not a part of the Board's "conversation" it should be noted.
Dissenting views about the Center of Community Life are scoffed at by this District. Citizens advocating for a real conversation are given their state mandated three minutes but the Board disinterestedly watches the seconds tick away, casts aside any critiques with blinders firmly intact and proceeds forthwith towards its Center of Community Life heedless of the dangers ahead.
The ignorance of parents over the impending closure of the popular Anna Yates Elementary School, necessitated by the Board's interpretation of the building of the Center of Community Life, is testament of the failure to have a proper conversation. Ask around, you'll notice that most parents don't know that the Board intends to close the newly remodeled Anna Yates School, the gem of the School District. The District, it would appear is content with the parental ignorance, all the well publicized "community engagement" notwithstanding.
The School Board effectively tricked the public with its "PKS Reductions" mumbo-jumbo on February 27th. The overflow angry crowd at the next meeting, last Monday, is further testament to that. There was no way the Board could play down the sheer number of citizens in the Emery Theater Monday night. The people were angry at having been deceived previously. The Board responded by quieting down the crush of peeved parents by holding back information about how they've already decided on teacher lay-offs, a further deception, even while parents pleaded to be appraised.
There's no way any of this can be construed as a "conversation". What it is, is deception.
What Kind Of "Conversation" Is This?
Opinion
Facing angry parents and teachers at a regularly scheduled February 27th School Board meeting, School Board member Josh Simon tried to calm them; we're not laying off teachers, he said, "we're having a conversation" (about teacher lay-offs). The culmination of the "conversation" was that the Board, including Mr Simon, voted to lay-off the teachers anyway.
The parents that showed up at that fateful meeting may have known teacher lay offs were on the agenda or maybe not. The parents learned at the meeting that the Board saw fit to call the lay-offs "PKS Reductions" for the sake of the publicized agenda. The Board arrogantly noted the crowd wasn't very large that night, an attempt to de-legitimize the pleas from the parents to not engage in the PKS Reductions.
This is how the Emery Unified School District and its Board has a "conversation" with the public.
The word "conversation" implies two way communication coupled with good faith action. That's certainly not what's been going on here.
Ever since the School Board glommed onto the ironically titled Center of Community Life, this is how it's been. And it's the Center of Community Life that's driving the teacher lay-offs...not that you'd know that from listening to the School District. The Center of Community Life, with it's former $400 million price tag (now something lower) has certainly used up Emeryville voters' good will towards the schools. To keep teachers at the District, Emeryville residents would need to vote themselves another parcel tax, now rendered an unlikely prospect. This expensive new school building project is forcing the laying off of teachers; not a part of the Board's "conversation" it should be noted.
Dissenting views about the Center of Community Life are scoffed at by this District. Citizens advocating for a real conversation are given their state mandated three minutes but the Board disinterestedly watches the seconds tick away, casts aside any critiques with blinders firmly intact and proceeds forthwith towards its Center of Community Life heedless of the dangers ahead.
The ignorance of parents over the impending closure of the popular Anna Yates Elementary School, necessitated by the Board's interpretation of the building of the Center of Community Life, is testament of the failure to have a proper conversation. Ask around, you'll notice that most parents don't know that the Board intends to close the newly remodeled Anna Yates School, the gem of the School District. The District, it would appear is content with the parental ignorance, all the well publicized "community engagement" notwithstanding.
The School Board effectively tricked the public with its "PKS Reductions" mumbo-jumbo on February 27th. The overflow angry crowd at the next meeting, last Monday, is further testament to that. There was no way the Board could play down the sheer number of citizens in the Emery Theater Monday night. The people were angry at having been deceived previously. The Board responded by quieting down the crush of peeved parents by holding back information about how they've already decided on teacher lay-offs, a further deception, even while parents pleaded to be appraised.
There's no way any of this can be construed as a "conversation". What it is, is deception.
School Board Tables Oversight Committee Bylaws Change
School Board Faces Angry Crowd, Tables Bylaw Change
On Monday night, the School Board faced an overflow crowd of angry parents, and refused a vote on proposed bylaw changes to the Measure J generated Citizens' Oversight Committee. The boisterous crowd, mostly there to voice opposition to earlier announced teacher lay-offs, a topic not on the agenda, instead heard the Board table a controversial vote to reel in prerogatives of the Oversight Committee.
The staff had proposed limiting the power of the Oversight Committee to form subcommittees and also to the content of the Committee's annual report to the public.
Too Late For Lay-Offs
The crowd waited for almost an hour while the Board was in executive session, to hear news on the February 27th Board decision to start teacher lay-offs at the schools but the only employee action the Board took was to rearrange two executive administrator positions; temporarily eliminating the Dean's position at the High School while the school constricts during the looming Center of Community Life building project. The Board took no action on the teacher lay-off process, started on February 27th. On that date, the School Board voted to reduce teacher staffing by 6.4 "Full Time Equivalent" positions which will result in four total lay-offs and three partial lay-offs. The lay-offs are still in action and will be effective in June barring some intervention.
The proposal to limit the power of the Oversight Committee is postponed until the Board has a chance to engage the Committee on the issue at a later date, it was decided.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Letter To The Tattler: Ronald Henry
Emeryville parent Ron Henry sent the Tattler the following letter in response to the School District's recent decision to begin teacher lay-offs at Anna Yates Elementary School. Many parents are beginning to question the wisdom, fiscal and otherwise, of the School Board's decision to close down the recently remodeled Anna Yates School in favor of having one new campus, at the Center of Community Life, with Kindergarten through 12th grade.
Here then is Mr Henry's letter:
Dear School Board Members and members of the School District and Center of Community Life community-
My daughter Fiona is in Mrs Shoshanna Walker's class and we consider her one of the best teachers at Anna Yates. We received information that she was given a layoff notice. This is not going to sit well with our family and my wife and I are both going to become VERY vocal in opposition to this. You will see us at the school board meetings from now on. We currently have two daughters attending Anna Yates and have experienced both questionable teachers and great teachers there. The difference is striking and not at all hard to see. My oldest daughter Ciara, now in the 3rd grade, struggled with two former teachers in Kindergarten and 1st grade. These teachers are no longer at Anna Yates. Last year she started in Mrs Emily Brunick's class. Emily is an awesome teacher, and while Ciara struggled to catch up the first year, she has blossomed and excelled under her (and Mr Walker's, no relation to Ms Walker) tutelage. Letting go your quality teachers is an obvious mistake.
I was also told that the science teacher at the secondary school, Mrs Edwards, also received a layoff notice. I am not sure if you knew but Amyris was supporting her directly with supplies, tutors, and knowledge resources. The scientists at [Emeryville based bio-fuel research firm] Amyris were impressed with Mrs Edwards so much that they decided to support her. I am pretty confident that Amyris is qualified in determining who are competent scientists and science teachers. In talking to the public liaison representative at Amyris, Lexi Brayton, she informed me that they were very disappointed in the decision and were going to attend the school board meeting to voice their concern and opposition to this decision.
What is going on here? You are definitely getting the attendance up at the meetings but under the wrong pretense I am afraid.
We are very disappointed with these decisions and have to wonder what is happening to Anna Yates and the school district as a whole, as I see the school district seriously declining in quality and focus. I also have to wonder to what extent the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) factors into this. It is becoming apparent to me that the School Board's focus on the ECCL project is at the expense of running the schools' day-to-day business and they are suffering because of it. If we find that these cutbacks are due to the district looking for money to fund the ECCL, then I am afraid we can no longer support the project, and in fact will become outspoken opponents of the project in its entirety. When I first became a supporter of the ECCL, we were told that it was fully funded. Now that that funding has evaporated from $90 million to $40 million I see no proportionate change in the plans for the ECCL. What I do see is a decline in the Emery Unified School District as a whole as the district forges ahead with an overly ambitious plan. This will not stand in this community.
I realize that these layoff decisions may not directly be tied to ECCL but I do feel the overall focus of the district's attention is affected and so I feel it is a factor at least in-directly. Please consider this in moving forward with your decisions and plans for the cutbacks, layoffs, expansions and build-outs. As I said before, the Henry Family will be present and vocal at the future Board meetings.
Sincerely, Ronald and Marie Henry
Here then is Mr Henry's letter:
. . . .
Dear School Board Members and members of the School District and Center of Community Life community-
My daughter Fiona is in Mrs Shoshanna Walker's class and we consider her one of the best teachers at Anna Yates. We received information that she was given a layoff notice. This is not going to sit well with our family and my wife and I are both going to become VERY vocal in opposition to this. You will see us at the school board meetings from now on. We currently have two daughters attending Anna Yates and have experienced both questionable teachers and great teachers there. The difference is striking and not at all hard to see. My oldest daughter Ciara, now in the 3rd grade, struggled with two former teachers in Kindergarten and 1st grade. These teachers are no longer at Anna Yates. Last year she started in Mrs Emily Brunick's class. Emily is an awesome teacher, and while Ciara struggled to catch up the first year, she has blossomed and excelled under her (and Mr Walker's, no relation to Ms Walker) tutelage. Letting go your quality teachers is an obvious mistake.
I was also told that the science teacher at the secondary school, Mrs Edwards, also received a layoff notice. I am not sure if you knew but Amyris was supporting her directly with supplies, tutors, and knowledge resources. The scientists at [Emeryville based bio-fuel research firm] Amyris were impressed with Mrs Edwards so much that they decided to support her. I am pretty confident that Amyris is qualified in determining who are competent scientists and science teachers. In talking to the public liaison representative at Amyris, Lexi Brayton, she informed me that they were very disappointed in the decision and were going to attend the school board meeting to voice their concern and opposition to this decision.
What is going on here? You are definitely getting the attendance up at the meetings but under the wrong pretense I am afraid.
We are very disappointed with these decisions and have to wonder what is happening to Anna Yates and the school district as a whole, as I see the school district seriously declining in quality and focus. I also have to wonder to what extent the Emeryville Center of Community Life (ECCL) factors into this. It is becoming apparent to me that the School Board's focus on the ECCL project is at the expense of running the schools' day-to-day business and they are suffering because of it. If we find that these cutbacks are due to the district looking for money to fund the ECCL, then I am afraid we can no longer support the project, and in fact will become outspoken opponents of the project in its entirety. When I first became a supporter of the ECCL, we were told that it was fully funded. Now that that funding has evaporated from $90 million to $40 million I see no proportionate change in the plans for the ECCL. What I do see is a decline in the Emery Unified School District as a whole as the district forges ahead with an overly ambitious plan. This will not stand in this community.
I realize that these layoff decisions may not directly be tied to ECCL but I do feel the overall focus of the district's attention is affected and so I feel it is a factor at least in-directly. Please consider this in moving forward with your decisions and plans for the cutbacks, layoffs, expansions and build-outs. As I said before, the Henry Family will be present and vocal at the future Board meetings.
Sincerely, Ronald and Marie Henry
Monday, February 27, 2012
School Board Votes To Lay Off Teachers
Board Makes First Move Towards
Teacher Layoffs
Tonight the Emery School Board voted to start a State mandated process to lay off teachers at Emery High School. The unanimous vote to fire at least six teacher positions came after the Board heard impassioned pleas against the action from several parents. The action initiated tonight will culminate in a March 12th finalization vote by the Board and the actual layoffs would happen in June according to School Superintendent Debbra Lindo. Teacher Layoffs
Board members inveighed against the negative fiscal effects of the cessation of a rental agreement with the Piedmont Unified School District for their use of Emery's middle school facilities, a major source of cash for Emery over the last couple of years.
The School District duly and legally noticed the agenda for tonight's meeting but some parents cried foul for the lack of notification for such an important issue. Indeed, the notification seemed to have been not enough for any of the parents in attendance; they railed against the lack of transparency and candor from the Board regarding the layoffs.
Board member Josh Simon, jarred by the rancor from the crowd tried to mollify the parents, "We're starting a conversation" he intoned. Board President Cheryl Webb highlighted that some of the layoffs are being done in response to "programmatic changes" prompted by the impending start-up of the Center of Community Life building project.
It's Not That Bad, It's Only A 'PKS Reduction'
The crowd, while larger than a typical School Board meeting, would likely have been larger still if parents knew ahead of time, the meaning of "Administrative PKS Reductions" listed in the official agenda made public for the meeting. To the uninitiated, "PKS Reductions" means 'Particular Kinds of Staff' Reductions; a euphemism for teacher layoffs.
The PKS gobbledygook may serve as a diversion from the job at hand tonight but it was noted at the meeting the District had satisfied the minimum legal posting requirements for a public meeting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)