The Teacher’s issued this statement just about an hour ago which changes the whole situation for CUSD.
ALISO VIEJO – Challenging the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Education to back up vague offers to “entertain discussion” related to bargaining, the 2,200 members of the Capistrano Unified Education Association invite the board back to the bargaining table to negotiate, based upon the following proposals:
The board will reverse the permanent nature of salary and benefits cuts they imposed March 31 by making them temporary; There will be no increase in class size; The board will restore salary, unpaid work days, and benefits cuts if unforeseen funds are received; The board will implement already agreed to contract language that deals with working conditions, transfer of teachers, and leaves as stipulated to in the fact finding hearing. “It has never been the goal of Capistrano teachers to strike,” said CUEA President Vicki Soderberg. “We have always been willing to bargain in good faith, and we immediately accepted the neutral fact finder’s settlement recommendation. Although the CUSD school board’s unilateral imposition forced us into voting a strike authorization, we much prefer to settle our differences through bargaining.”
“In recent media reports and direct communications to teachers, the CUSD Board of Education has implied that they are willing to bargain with the teachers, but the board has yet to make a formal, direct proposal to CUEA. We want our members, our students, the public, and the board to be perfectly clear that we do not want to strike and that we want to reach a negotiated settlement. We challenge the board to live up to their recent statements and accept our proposal for an agreement,” said Soderberg
Over Thursday and Friday of last week, Capistrano Unified School District teachers took a vote on whether to strike due to the total break down in communications with their Board of Trustees over contract negotiations.
The vote was pretty overwhelming for the teachers to strike and the continued obfuscation by the BOT astounds me as I read the local papers take on the back and forth. The Orange County Register is the paper of record for local residents, it’s where we get information and although it’s their job to report, not decide it disheartens me to see the board continue to misrepresent their position and that of the Teacher’s union.
Follow me…
According to the OC Register almost 87% of the teachers who voted support a strike. And still the board insists that the Teacher’s Union has negotiated in bad faith even though they agreed to all the terms of the fact finding group, all of which would be temporary.
This is one of the big sticking points for the parents and the teachers, the BOT is asking for those to be permanent even though many of us hope this economic downturn will be temporary in nature. And another of the issues has to the do with a clause in the contract that would allow the BOT to make further cuts if necessary without having to go back to the negotiating table.
So this is how the OC Register paints the following scenario by the quotes printed by Lopez-Moddox, one of the Board of Trustees and also a target of a new recall effort led by area parents unhappy with the direction the new board is taking.
Lopez-Maddox said it would be impractical to “begin an entire year’s worth of negotiations over now” and emphasized that the school board has tried to be responsive to teachers, despite the imposed pay cut.
Well, obviously this is misleading because they wouldn’t have to start all over, it wouldn’t be a year’s worth of negotiations. They would be sitting down and starting with the fact finders proposal which the Teacher’s union has already accepted, it solves the fiscal impasse that the district is facing and is the whole point of such a uninvolved party taking place in negotiations. There would be no reason to start over unless you aren’t willing to talk at all and you would prefer to make it seem like that’s the only solution.
Just hours before approving the imposition, the school district removed a clause that was generating considerable angst among teachers, Lopez-Maddox noted. The clause stated that Capistrano Unified “reserves the right to implement further reductions, consistent with its pre-impasse offers, should the district’s fiscal outlook deteriorate beyond current budget projections.”
Just an hour prior to the Board of Trustees meeting during a closed door session. Just hours before. Yes, they really are kind of doing things last minute and creating a great deal of chaos in the process for teachers and parents, creating chaos and worry, their own little fiefdom of shock doctrine.
Also, trustees on Wednesday expressed a willingness to meet with union leaders to discuss whether the pay cut will become temporary – via a non-bargaining route known as a memorandum of understanding – although they said they would not reopen contract negotiations.
Okay, so how is this being cooperative when everything in this statement says they want to go via a “non-bargaining” route and they “would not reopen contract negotiations”? If they had merely sat down before they had voted their own contract this wouldn’t be an issue. And the question is, what’s the point if it’s not even binding? This is something that I’ve read elsewhere, that this MOU is not binding in cases of salary negotiations.
“We can never make them happy no matter what we try to do,” Lopez-Maddox said. “Every time the teachers union comes to the board and asks for X, we say OK. Then they say, ‘That’s not good enough. We want you to do Y.’ They have a moving target.”
Which of course is not true, there is no moving target, the teachers were clear from the start what was at issue with the Board of Trustee’s contract. They have been the ones to negotiate via the media, piecemeal and only half-heartedly. This is not how you take contract negotiations seriously. This is not how you bargain with a group of professionals and expect a positive outcome.
And the reaction from the board via press release was also rather disappointing as well.
PRESIDENT BRYSON RESPONDS TO STRIKE AUTHORIZATION“We are very disappointed that teachers in our district have authorized their union leaders to call a strike. A teacher walkout will be a political statement by the union that will not change the fiscal reality we face as a school district or the need to move forward with the level of concessions required in the CUEA contract. Individual teachers will be asked to pay the price in lost wages for that union decision. The Board of Education has made it clear that we are ready to meet with CUEA to discuss a memorandum of understanding about the temporary nature of these cuts should our fiscal situation improve. The union has rejected this sincere offer and is demanding that we resume the same unproductive talks that led us to this point. We simply cannot do that.
It is time to move on for the benefit of our students and our community. Should CUEA notify the district that they will, in fact, strike, we will take appropriate steps to notify our community and continue to move forward with the important job of educating our students.”
Anna Bryson, President
CUSD Board of Education
What unproductive talks, there have been no talks!
And this is priceless, “Individual teachers will be asked to pay the price in lost wages for that union decision.” No, teachers voted overwhelmingly to vote for this strike, 1,600 hundred of them did, 87% of those who showed up to vote, voted to strike. This blatant attempt to make it sound like the Union is forcing all these poor helpless teachers to strike against their will is bunk.
We understand that the budget process in Sacramento has been to cut K-12 and hold the budget hostage, but that’s not the Teacher’s fault, that’s the fault of our local State legislators who refuse to do anything to protect education funding (Despite laws that are in place to protect K-12). Orange County Republicans are the legislative minority who signed a no new taxes pledge before the bottom fell out of our economy and had to stick to that while vying to retain their seats or win higher office in 2008. But here in the OC they don’t really have to do much to win, the overwhelming voter registration is in their favor, they merely have to put their name on the ballot and in the case of a primary challenge, they are anointed post-primary as the winner of the general election before one vote is cast.
Ultimately the issue comes to this, the Board of Trustees does not understand the bargaining process and does not understand how to run a school district, especially one that is so large. As I’ve written in another important Diary this has a lot more to do with dismantling public education than it does with bargaining and the improvement of my child’s education. MY CHILD.
Education Alliance and Pacific Research Institute are behind this mess and the current Board of Trustees are merely stand ins for the experiment. Let me share some photos from the Capo Recall 2010 to illustrate my point.
And I want to leave with this, with a message from the Teacher’s union, who have been ravaged by this board and supported by parents like me. You can decide for yourself about the tone and the professionalism of each party. Aliso Viejo is where I bought my home and decided to raise my daughter, it’s where I chose to make my life.
ALISO VIEJO – “Capistrano teachers have drawn a line to protect our schools and our profession, and sometimes that line is a picket line,” said Capistrano Unified Education Association President Vicki Soderberg, announcing the overwhelming 87 percent thumb’s up from Capistrano Unified School District’s 2,200 teachers in the April 15-16 vote.
With 85 percent of eligible teachers casting ballots, 1,600 CUEA members voted “yes” and 248 voted “no.” The vote does not compel an immediate strike. Instead, it authorizes CUEA’s Executive Board to initiate one if the CUSD Board of Education refuses to revoke its unilaterally imposed contract of permanent, over-the-top cuts in wages and benefits totaling more than ten percent.
“A strike has never been what teachers wanted,” said Soderberg, “but this thundering strike authorization vote – with teachers at many school sites voting 100 percent in favor – shows just how fed up we are with this board’s harsh, dictatorial behavior and duplicitous tactics.” The Capistrano board’s permanent cuts go well beyond the mutually-selected neutral fact finder’s reasonable settlement recommendation. They also exceed those in settlements agreed to by teacher groups and school boards throughout Orange County.
“We are so grateful that Capistrano’s parents and students understand that a short-term disruption of school is worth the fight for long-term stability in the district,” said Soderberg. As reported April 15 on the Capistrano Unified School District’s website, approximately 10,000 students – or about one out of every five – boycotted school attendance on April 13 in a parent-led protest of school board actions. “How can we teach our students to stand up to unfair, bullying behavior, if we’re not willing to walk the walk ourselves? There are life lessons that can’t be taught by a test. It is so heartwarming to know that parents and students understand the school board is forcing this action upon us and them.”
to support the teachers?