Have San Leandro schools solved their money problems?

I'm glad to see that the school district is financially sound. I haven't looked at a spread sheet recently, but the actions of school administration sure make it look like there's no money problem in the district.

Why else would the principal at Garfield Elementary have rejected a gift made by teachers to support the school crossing guard program? That's right, she returned the donation. San Leandro Teachers' Association, the Union representing San Leandro's 500 teachers, made a contribution to each of the elementary schools in the district to support the financially endangered school crossing guard programs. Most of the schools graciously accepted the gift, but apparently the Garfield Principal determined that the school has no need for the money.

At least I'd like to think that the contribution was rejected because of an improving district budget, because it's past time for teachers' salaries (among the lowest in Alameda County) to catch up with our neighbors. Although, I admit, the district has been sending out mixed messages. After all, teacher salaries were reduced last year by cutting a staff development day from the school calendar. And then, the district offered Muir teachers the opportunity to work that day for only 25% to 35% of their normal salary. (District to teachers: We want you to do the work, we just don't want to pay you for it.)

I guess it leaves me wondering, if the contribution weren't rejected because of the district's improving financial situation, then why would the contribution to Garfield be rejected? Could it be that the district now views teachers as social pariahs? You know, so despicable that they are unworthy of making charitable contributions? Akin to tobacco companies and alcohol companies? That doesn't seem like a strong basis for good staff relations and positive school climate.

I just can't believe that would be the truth. That would be a bit insulting. I'd much rather believe that a big offer for a pay raise to catch San Leandro teachers up with their neighbors is just around the corner.

We are all bystanders

Like everyone else, I have been shocked by the story of the Richmond High School girl who was gang raped for two hours on campus during the homecoming dance. The more I read, the more angry I feel.

I can’t, nor do I want to, imagine the mindset of the attackers. As troubling are the reports of up to 20 bystanders who witnessed the attack, but did nothing to stop it. While those twenty people may very well be tormented with the knowledge that they should have acted to stop this terrorization, the story doesn’t end with them.

Ultimately, we (our communities, our leaders, and we citizens) could have stopped this attack. Stories about a decaying community and crumbling schools in Richmond, and countless communities in California, often the poorest and most diverse communities, have been in the newspaper for 15 years. But the politics of marginalization and denial have allowed us to simply watch while these communities fall apart. And desperate people do desperate things.

Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Kevin Fagan describes the Richmond attackers as a collection of drop-outs, former students and “mediocre students at best,” who were in the middle of an on-campus drinking binge. He wrote about the cultural environment that made their rage possible, including “the poverty-driven frustrations of inner-city Richmond,” the 9^th most dangerous city in America where 18 percent of families live below poverty level.

This attack could have been prevented. The conditions that allowed for this attack were recognizable, and could have been corrected. If schools in “marginalized neighborhoods” were given appropriate resources, this attack may have not happened. During this era of slash-and-burn state budgets, there should at least be a re-direction of resources to support these most marginalized communities.

In a very real way, this attack was fueled by an under-funded budget. Our school communities at most risk should get more resources during challenging economic times, even if that means at the expense of better-off communities. But, instead, the budget gets cut. If they had more counselors, lower class sizes, more interventions, more security, or perhaps if they had just built a god-damned fence around the place and installed lights, this girl might not have been attacked.

According to all of the stories, the teachers at Richmond High are doing an extraordinary job helping students to pick up the pieces. Yet while I write this, West Contra Costa teachers are in the middle of an ugly contract fight. They already make $9,000 a year below the state average, and the district is asking for more cutbacks. Fagan’s article reported that one of the attackers had once thrown a flaming paper ball at a teacher in the classroom. Why would anyone want to teach in Richmond?

Are we really willing to stand by and watch districts like Richmond, Oakland, Compton and (name your community) blow up?

At some point during the next few months, we’ll start hearing about massive shortfalls in the state budget. Progressives will call for more revenue. Republicans will go hide in a cave, blocked by a sign that reads, “wake us up when the knives are sharp.” Democratic leaders will shrug their shoulders, and give in to another year of massive cuts, even though there are billions of dollars of potential tax revenue available. More communities will be destroyed. More lives will be shattered. More Richmonds.

And we’ll all be bystanders. Watching the attack but not doing anything to stop it. Again.

School Board President Mike Katz Responds

On Oct 22, 2009, at 9:23 PM, Thomas Morse wrote:

> So I have two questions. Is the Superintendent still surprised
> because teachers don’t feel valued? And, does the School Board know
> about this?

The School Board became aware of the ticketing at the high school
sometime after it started. It is my understanding that the ticketing
has stopped at this time in order to review a variety of issues.

Mike Katz-Lacabe
in my capacity as President of the San Leandro School Board

Parking scandal at San Leandro High School

After teaching long days at San Leandro High School, many of our school district’s valued teachers have been surprised to find school-district issued parking tickets on their car windows.

Apparently, the school district has cut a deal with a parking ticket vendor to administer a shakedown of people who park at the high school. The district has agreed to a cut of the revenue in exchange for this service. Tickets are $40, and if you don’t pay, the violations get turned over to the DMV. What’s even more surprising is that the parking tickets are being written by one of the assistant principals.

In other words, the school district is paying an administrator’s salary to an assistant principal whose job is to harass teachers by ticketing their cars. So, even after taking a salary cut, teachers are being fleeced further in this new parking ticket scam, and district resources are being wasted to make it happen.

So I have two questions. Is the Superintendent still surprised because teachers don’t feel valued? And, does the School Board know about this?

Thank You, Kathy Crummey

The title on the program for Hayward Education Association President Kathy Crummey’s memorial service celebrated “A Life Well Led.” What an understatement.

Kathy picked up a picket sign as a strike leader in her first year of teaching back in 1974, and remained an integral part of HEA for her entire career. Alongside her husband, Dayton Crummey, the pair served as the core of a vibrant local, and as a strong voice for CTA in Northern California.

During the celebration, I couldn’t help but reflect on the dozens of ways that leaders in the teachers’ unions across the state and country serve the community. People like Kathy all over the state are community treasures because of their commitment to quality public education, and their persistence in assuring that our schools and students get every resource available. And while Kathy was a very visible leader, the truth is that most of what a Union leader does in not out in the open.

Of course, we hear the voices of our Union leaders most clearly when they are at school board meetings reminding elected officials to make a commitment to the classroom. We see the local Union president at rallies, and if someone from the media needs an interview.

But we don’t often see the hard work of Unionizing. Unions are the most democratic organizations in the country, and being truly democratic requires an enormous amount of communication. You’ll see the Union leader at countless meetings with multiple groups of people about the same issue. She’ll also write memos about tedious, yet important details, and create newsletters to explain the deliberations. He always has to keep in mind that anyone with an issue feels like they are being heard and involved.

Union leaders are hand-holders, sitting with teachers at their times of greatest vulnerability. Mediators during meetings with angry parents or unreasonable principals. Arbitrators during sit-downs between colleagues who are less than collegial. Clarifyers when the terms of employment suddenly change.

Because it’s often politically popular to attack Unions, the Union leader has to stand up and be the voice of reason when most others are being unreasonable. A Union leader always knows that someone is indeed looking over her shoulder, so every “I” must be dotted and every “t” must be crossed. The income and the outgo better match up, also.

We in CTA and other teachers unions have a special responsibility to defend our nation’s greatest treasure, quality public education which reaches all of our children, especially the most vulnerable. With the passing of Kathy Crummey, we have lost a giant.

How could a public health option be worse than what we have now?

The right wing is right about health care. A government run program could never compete with the insurance companies. The insurance companies can deny coverage, preside over more “death panels,” and chase far more people into bankruptcy than the government could imagine. They already are.

In all of the right wing’s “sky is falling” predictions about health care, the main point is missing. What we have right now simply isn’t working. Premiums are going up at more than a double-digit inflation rate. Insured people are putting off care because insurance companies aren’t covering the extent of the needed care. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Monday that most people who are in debt from medical bills are insured. Their insurance just isn’t actually covering health care. The insurance companies will gladly take your money as long as you’re healthy. But the minute you get sick – deny, deny, deny. Sounds like a death panel to me.

I’m wondering, what exactly is the right wing scared of, more of the same?

I'm not going to present myself as an expert on this topic, but there are so many really obvious truths. First, In our system people can't even afford to pay the premiums. When I started teaching, a family premium was $500 each month. Now the rate has gone up to $1500. Every double-digit percentage January increase comes directly out of the pockets of enrolled teachers. Our salary structure hasn't kept up. So each January, teachers get an annual pay cut.

Secondly, those Canadiens sure aren't grumbling about their system. Third, why wouldn't any employer want to get into business without the added responsibility of finding and administering an insurance plan?

It seems to me that the only real beneficiaries of our current system are the health insurance companies. Their investors are making a lot of money, and they don't want to be put out of business. Neither did the folks in the auto industry or the ice industry, as far as that goes. But it's time.

Demand a public health care option now.

Hey CTA, Let's make this the year we fight back!

When it comes to the political fights, CTA has a well-oiled machine for getting a candidate elected or filling the radio with sound bites. But for the purposes of winning a state budget fight, our Union tends to leave its biggest tool in the box. During the last three big state budget battles, CTA hasn’t used its most powerful potential resource, a loud and righteously angry membership base that stretches to every corner of the state.

That's why we're losing. But we don't have to be. It's clear that any effort to shake the state legislature out of its standard operating procedure will require a year-long campaign that builds from the ground up. CTA may be the only organization that's big enough and organized enough to get the job done. We just have to change the way we do business.

Here’s the deal. We know already that the next budget battle could be as ugly as the last three. CTA has stepped aside and allowed devastating cuts to schools and vital services without much of a fight. Without real reform in the state government, further cuts are inevitable. Why can’t we insist that our “friends” in the legislature hold out for a budget with progressive revenues or elimination of the two-thirds mandates? Why can't the majority be as stubborn as the "no-taxes-on-our-rich-friends" crowd that has held the state hostage since the passage of Prop. 13?

Our locals know how to fight their own contract fights, and CTA staff up and down the state know how to guide its members in those local fights. What if we just take that know-how and energy, and apply it to the state budget fight? None of our locals are going to have a lot of success with their own contracts until we win real reform on the state level. So what are we waiting for?

Here’s what it might look like if CTA fought a year-long fight on the budget by organizing its most important tool -- its grassroots base:

September/October/December: Member education and public education, network building and local legislative relationships. Local chapters, with the guidance of CTA organizers, use site meetings to get buy-in from their members for a year-long effort, host house parties and public forums to educate the community on how the cuts have hurt schools in the immediate community. Highlight some progressive tax reforms that could be made in California. Prepare a handy education video. Invite local newspapers, bloggers, radio personalities, legislators and their staff to attend. Make the case to people in the local community. End each of the sessions by plugging community members into the fight. Letter-writing, phone calls, all the fixings. Get commitments from people to join the fight. These steps help locals build a capacity to fight and recruit leaders and allies.

November/December/January: Pressure building. Turn up the volume. Statewide media and targeted local media. Local fights around the state should intensify here. Insist on a sit-down with the local Assemblymember or Senator. Create a presence at town hall meetings hosted by state legislators. Picket at local offices of targeted legislators (any Republican who might budge or Democrat who might cave). Firm up message. Focus on “No more Cuts” and “Real Reform” messages (shorthand for raise taxes on corporations and get rid of two-thirds mandates). Highlight impact of cuts on students and services. Keep up pressure on targeted legislators until they make a public commitment to the campaign. Then trumpet that legislator as a “Friend of the Schools” and move campaign onto the next targeted legislator.

February/March/April/May: Lobby day actions focus on “No More Cuts” and “Real Reform.” Local rallies at legislative offices. Radio and newspaper ads continue in targeted communities, then culminate in regional and statewide actions. The impact of these actions is made more effective by the strength of all of the local actions. Make sure that each local keeps its members engaged even into summer vacation. Encourage legislators who have committed to "No More Cuts" and "Real Reform" message to hold out until something gives.

For the last three major budget fights, CTA’s members have been waiting for a real place to get involved. The people of California are desperately waiting for someone to step up and fight on behalf of the majority – in favor of a government that works. Let’s not miss another opportunity.