Dear Editor,
I would like to point out that along with our fine teachers and classified employees hurting from the budget cuts, substitute teachers have also been making sacrifices. Before I ran for Culver City School Board, I was working four to five days a week as a substitute teacher.
Do you know how many days I was called to work for in April? Two. Thank God I have some alternative sources of income; otherwise, it would be disastrous. However, there have been some substitute teachers that have had to rely solely on substitute work and they aren’t getting it.
I find it reprehensible that full-time teachers, substitutes and classified employees are making sacrifices and administrators are not. Do we really need some of these people working 12 months a year?
Instead of cutting teachers and classified employees, I think the board should look into creative means of raising money for the school system. I have previously mentioned that the school district could raise $10 million on a lease-back of the natatorium, which has been a blight for the past 18 years. The board has been to slow to act on saving electricity costs of $600,000 a year by not installing solar panels. There was a proposal a year and a half ago that would have had working solar panels installed last year. As a consequence of delay, the district has spent the $600,000, which could have been used to better our schools.
I reiterate: Laying off teachers and classified staff, while administrators make no sacrifice is foolhardy.
Robert Zirgulis,
Culver City
