Culver City school leaders recently received a shout out from the president of one of the nation’s most powerful teachers unions for working in a collaborative fashion that both labor and management leaders say has reaped substantial rewards.
During an Oct. 22 discussion on how to improve public education at a West Coast Labor- Management Institute event, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten mentioned a few school districts that have embarked on plans to eliminate the often corrosive relations that exist between school management and teachers unions.
She named the Culver City Unified School District and the local teachers union as examples of one of the teams nationally that have largely set aside personal and professional squabbles in order to focus on student academic achievement and higher graduation rates.
“Prior to the [recent] partnership, the relationship [between union leaders and school district management] was adversarial and characterized by pervasive distrust. The district criticized the union regularly, even making personalized attacks on union leaders,” Weingarten told the audience in remarks published by the online education site L.A. School Report. “And now, the superintendent and the union have made a commitment to ‘not let each other fail.’ Morale is on the rise, the community is together, anti-union voices are quieting and the sense of shared mission is rippling out.”
CCUSD Superintendent David LaRose said a more collaborative partnership was forged two years ago between the administration and labor and has been on the upswing ever since.
“We attended the ABC Labor Management conference in 2012-13 and have been very intentional in our efforts to collaborate, build trust, define common goals, communicate as partners, share and review information together and model our belief that “success for all takes us all,” LaRose said explained in a recent email. “We meet regularly as a full team and I meet with [President of the Association of Classified Employees-Culver City] Debbie Hamme every other week and with [Culver City Federation of Teachers President] Dave Mielke every other week.
“I have been inspired by and grateful for the partnership/ our partners. The fundamental core of this work are our shared beliefs is one: all children are capable of learning at high levels – no exceptions and; two, all children will learn because of what we do (and how we do it and why we do it). We exist to serve children and ensure their success – this is our common bond and our common purpose,” LaRose added.
The ABC School District is in Cerritos and was hailed by Weingarten as another district that has taken the collaboration and cooperation route.
Culver City school leaders say their superintendent has proven to be exceptional in seeking to create an atmosphere where teachers and administration staff members feel they are working towards the same goal.
“This change in climate and tone regarding negotiations between labor and management is due to our phenomenal superintendent Dave LaRose,” said CCUSD Board President Laura Chardiet.
Mielke also gives LaRose credit but added that his union members have decided that cooperation can be mutually beneficial for all parties.
“I’ve worked with three superintendents and LaRose jumped in with both feet and embraced the partnership,” the union leaders said. “Our members also realize that working together is the best thing for the kids. But you need the players on both sides to buy into it in order to make it work.”
Weingarten criticized what she called a “top- down” style favored by some school boards and superintendents. She mentioned former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy, who resigned on Oct. 16, as one of those school leaders.
While Deasy was praised by charter operators and wealthy reform advocates many teachers and a number of Westside parents viewed him as adversarial to teachers.
He testified for the plaintiffs in a ground-breaking court case earlier this year that would eliminate teacher tenure and lost favor among the LAUSD school board after candidates that he backed lost the last three elections.
Deasy’s critics said he was thin-skinned and was a classic example of what Weingarten called a “my way- or the highway” approach, which she said is not conducive to collaborative relations between management and labor.
Weingarten’s earlier remarks regarding anti-union sentiment mirrored the political atmosphere during last year’s school board race in Culver City, when a group of residents opposing contenders supported by the local teachers union engaged in anti-union rhetoric and sought to diminish the union’s endorsements while at the same time claiming to support teachers. Many long-time political observers were surprised by the unseemly tone of the election, as many of those who were critical of the union’s candidates did not make similar claims when their candidates were supported by the union four years earlier.
Mielke said because of the new relations forged by his union and the school district management, that sort of campaign might not be as effective in the future. “Parents who want to sing that anti-union song are not going to find many people in the chorus,” he asserted.
Board member Nancy Goldberg said morale was on the uptick since the partnership has been embraced by all. “When partnerships function well, everyone in the relationship experiences a sensation of balance, of an even playing field, of relative comfort. The CCUSD partnership has produced all of those sensations for me. Over my many years with the district, I have never enjoyed such a deep sense of security between the district and its employees,” said Goldberg, a former Culver City High School teacher. “This new approach to labormanagement negotiations was an attitude change whose time had finally come.”
Mielke said that although relations are not always perfect, the improved discourse with the administration has set significant precedents. “We already have agreed on [teacher] salary increases for the next two years, and that’s never happened before,” he said.
Weingarten summed up the approach that school districts working in collaborationincluding Culver City- seem to be adopting: “Our job is to sustain and scale up these quiet successes and make sure they aren’t drowned out by the topdown, John Wayne approach that’s failing our kids,” she concluded. “We must commit to roll up our sleeves and sit down at the table together and engage in a way that everyone will feel great about and can be proud of.”
