Dear editor,
Last week, Culver City Unified School District’s (CCUSD) school board, in response to a projected $3.5 million budget shortfall, voted to eliminate 17.8 teaching positions. And in the spirit of shared sacrifice, they voted to eliminate zero administrative positions.
In California, teachers and administrators must be notified by March 15 if they are going to be laid off for the following school year. If CCUSD sends you a March 15 letter, it means that they have the right to lay you off and are doing so. If they don’t, you’re coming back to work in September.
Many school districts routinely send out these pink slips to any staff member who might be considered for layoff. The word districts use here is “flexibility.” Districts want maximum flexibility in terms of staffing, especially in these hard times, so they generally send out more notices than they will need.
Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) sends out these notices each year to all of its administrators. Former CCUSD board member Barbara Honig, now an administrator in LAUSD, gets a March 15 letter every year. Those of us in the education world understand that districts need this kind of flexibility. CCUSD, though, marches to a different tune. Rather than sending out pink slips to all of its administrators, they send out none.
Unless our board acts in the next two weeks, we are committed to retaining all of our current administrative staff. For example, if we wanted to combine the administration of our adult school and our small continuation school, Culver Park, into one position, we wouldn’t be able to do it. Or, if we wanted to reduce some administrators from a 12-month schedule to an 11- or 10-month schedule, we wouldn’t be able to do that either.
Could we save some money by having security guards report to the site principals, rather than reporting to a director of security? Maybe. But unless we notice that administrator, we won’t be able to do that.
Many districts have replaced expensive assistant principals with less-expensive academic deans (paid on the lower teacher salary schedule), but unless we notice those employees, we won’t be able to do that.
CCUSD is about to embark on a tour of our schools and community groups, asking for suggestions for cuts. But they’ve already taken the big-ticket items off of the table. By protecting every single administrative position, cuts will necessarily fall closer to the classroom.
One of the things I teach in my sociology class at Culver City High School is that “If you don’t fight it, you’re going along with it.”
Culver City: If you don’t voice your opposition to this protect our administrators policy of our current school board, you’re agreeing that the cuts will have to come from somewhere else.
David Mielke,
President Culver City Federation of Teachers
