Group Gathers To Boost Spirit, Hone Message And Create Awareness Before Addressing School Board — Negotiations With District Continue As Of Wednesday
By Larry Freeman
“The community is a lovely place to live. I love our students, our staff; I love what I teach. I don’t know too many other places in the Bay Area where I could teach those digital media classes. You know, this place has got it all. I’m raising my own kids here,” said sixteen year teaching veteran John Dalton, one of Alameda High’s faculty, about his view, shared by many AUSD teachers and staff about the bond between community and our schools.
That said, an Alameda Education Association (AEA) rally in front of City Hall on Tuesday, showed another teacher perspective — one based more on current differences than harmony — as about seventy people rallied to take their case for better teacher salaries before presenting their appeals and stories to the Alameda School Board.
Ongoing negotiations continue, with AUSD and AEA bargaining unit members hashing things out today in closed session negotiations.
The heart of the deliberations involves a call for an increase of as much as 15%, which the teacher union claims is justified to put Alameda teachers back on par compared to neighboring districts.
The latest offer from the district, according to AEA members, is 6%, well shy of that amount, but the district says it can only go so far in any boost due to its projections of deficit spending in upcoming fiscal years.
AUSD also has to maintain substantial budget reserves required by the State and County Of Alameda.
In a way, teachers see the money through a ‘here and now’ lens, while AUSD officials have to live in that realm and consider fiscal uncertainties that may lie ahead given the ups and downs of State funding.
Another constraint on salary and benefits expenses is that Alameda County requires a minimum of 3% of a district’s overall budget to be held in reserve, according to Dublin Unified School District Assistant Business Superintendent Chris Hobbs in an online post.
Districts have the discretion, however, to direct up to 10% to add to that minimum according to California State Education Code which says, in part, that “a school district’s adopted or revised budget pursuant to EC Section 42127 shall not contain a combined assigned or unassigned ending general fund balance of more than 10 percent of those funds.”
AEA asserts that AUSD has “an extra $10 million dollars” at its disposal and said that the union wants “them to give us some of that money now,” even though, by Dalton’s own admission, the district would need to find ways “three years from now, to continue to make itself solvent.”
Whether that figure aligns with AUSD’s numbers and whether that amount derives, in part, from the district deciding not to add more than the required reserve minimum is not known at this time.
Key district financial officials were not available to provide that information at press time due to their participation in today’s negotiations.
According to an interview with Nancy Read Co-President of AEA and AHS Computer Science and Multi-Media teacher, AEA did not know whether or not the district would offer anything above the 6% that they had previously put on the table, or whether AUSD would offer any increased support for teacher benefits as health care.
“The district hasn’t passed that back to us, and we are bargaining tomorrow and we expecting a number,” she said, adding that their salary and benefits are “just not enough.”
We have teachers that can just go across the bridge to San Leandro, and they’re doing it,” she said regarding the turnover situation.
Every time a teacher leaves, for whatever reason, AUSD must find, interview, train and acclimate a replacement which impacts a school’s stability as well as faculty and community familiarity.
But when it come to the bottom line, fiscal responsibility and solvency for AUSD rests with district leadership and, ultimately, the school board, which has to oversee budgets and maintain sound financial footing in the face of ever-present unpredictability for school funding in years to come.
AUSD’s Senior Manager For Community Affairs said in a statement provided to ANN on Wednesday afternoon that “we are going to decline to comment today, due to the fact that the two teams are in a negotiations session today, and we want to avoid any appearance of bargaining in public.
I can also add, however, that AUSD is deeply committed to coming to an agreement that is both fair to our professional educators and fiscally responsible.”
Whatever a settlement might be in the final outcome and whenever it might be reached, one key goal, from the AEA perspective, is what they see as pay parity and the broad concept of working conditions that need improvement.
“We looked at data around the different districts in our area, that are comparable in size and that we are below average, and we are not as attractive as far as salary goes. Working conditions are also another thing that is on the table.
We want to make sure that this district is comparable, at least, and also a desirable one to work in because that will result in better staff retention and be better for students,” said Matthew Giles AEA’s Vice President and a School Psychologist for AUSD citing an equation often asserted by teacher unions.
By the end of the day, as the rally transformed into an upcoming presentation before the school board, and members of the union and the public walked up the City Hall stairs, high hopes were tempered by uncertainty as to what, if anything, would result in terms of what AEA seeks and what the district would offer back.
“They need to give yesterday’s money and today’s money that should be spent on students right now. Maybe they’ll figure it out. Maybe they’ll have to be pushed to make decisions that they haven’t made so far,” she said.
