Where Are We Now?

 It always seems like someone throws a wrench in the gears when we are starting to make progress. That wrench this year is the Governor’s bad for public education budget proposals. Before the proposals distracted the District, your bargaining team had made gains in obtaining a return to district provided medical and addressing our pathetic total compensation package that is hindering our ability to recruit and retain the teachers we need to serve our students.

In fact, your bargaining team and the district have jointly constructed a medical survey to help determine the possible cost of our medical proposal. By doing this it will be easier to come to a possible settlement. Please complete the survey and answer the questions honestly. We need to know at what level of medical funding, would you join the district’s medical plan.

Your bargaining team believes that we will be successful in settling a contract this year. If we don’t, our problems will only get worse and our schools will suffer. A settled contract is not an obstacle to serving our students and strengthening our schools and community; it is the foundation for future progress. We cannot be deterred from doing what we can to get a settlement by the current budget situation.

Our inabilities to recruit and retain quality teachers have not gone away because we are facing budget difficulties. In fact the uncertainty exacerbates the problem because it can force many of our teachers to leave the district and profession because of the pessimistic outlook for the economy. The doom and gloom can cause people closer to retirement to retire earlier because they don’t see a reason to stay. We can’t let the budget problems overshadow the crisis that Mt. Diablo faces in being unable to provide our students with quality teachers. If students are the number one priority, then the focus needs to be on what is going on in the classroom. Teachers are The Program!

I want to remind our members to stay focused on our bargaining priorities. These priorities were developed by you with the goal of addressing the issues that can get our district on the road to being the best it can be for our students and schools. Our priority is not about getting as much as we can, but about solving a problem that is adversely affecting everyone in the district.

The district is currently making cuts to meet the possible shortfall they may face next year. Before the budget crisis they were cutting to help generate enough money to settle our employee contracts. They are now using that money to address the projected shortfall instead of contracts. We can’t accept that solution. The district needs to make enough cuts to address both problems. Now is the time to make enough cuts to solve our problems. The community is accepting the fact that cuts need to be made.

The environment is right to do the job now. Our district is feeling the pain as we go through this process now, we might as well fix our biggest problem while we’re on the operating table.

Last year when the district was upgrading positions and committing millions to new projects and positions, we tired to get the Board to hold off on these expenditures until after they settled their employee contracts. This advice fell on deaf ears. Now we are cutting again. Why couldn’t the Supt. and Board see the wisdom in taking care of their most valuable assets, their employees, before adding new program and support systems? Doesn’t it make more sense to strengthen the relationship amongst all your crucial stakeholders than to neglect them? Imagine if all of the employees had worked together towards the acquisition of a parcel tax. I think the result would have been different. When the core of your organization is people, then those people should be the priority. Teachers are the Program, not the information system, new curriculum programs, or more supports that try to make up for the talents and experience we are losing annually. We need to keep our energies on helping settle a contract.

Before the budget crisis we knew that the district was going to have to change their priorities and make cuts. We suggested areas in the budget where they could shift money. They oftened citied that mandates prevented them from doing that. As I look over the recent cuts, the cuts came out of these same categories. You see it wasn’t that they couldn’t shift the money; it was that it wasn’t their priority to do so. Our surveys of our members made it clear that total compensation is our number one priority, even over positions and programs. Budget cuts are a necessary evil if we are to solve the recruitment and retention problem. We will not be able to keep everything we currently have, but once this problem is addressed we will have a strong foundation to build the relationships that are needed to work together and transform our district. I predict that we will be able to pass a parcel tax to address the programs and supports our community values and wants for our schools. For many years, when our members didn’t have to focus on just surviving, we had the energy and time to enhance our practice and relationships with our students.

I’m asking you to be ready to engage and participate in our efforts to achieve a settlement. We need to think in terms of “us”, we, and “our”, instead of MDEA’s goals. The power to bargain is not found at the table, but comes from you. There is no reason we cannot reach at least a one-year agreement. We need to take that first step this year. Don’t let the district use the budget crisis as an excuse to not bargain. The board needs to hear from you that settling a contract should still be their top priority.