As school districts around the state threatened to dismantle class size reduction and lay off teachers, CTA chapters mobilized their communities to help them keep school boards from making rash decisions that could cost schools dearly in the long run.
Angered that every teacher in the Alameda Unified School District has received a layoff notice, the Alameda Education Association held an all-member march to the district office March 20. Wearing layoff notices pinned to their shirts, the 635 teachers then headed en masse to their lawyer's office.
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Hacienda-La Puente TA President Sergio Martinez and fellow Orange County chapter leaders tell the news media about the impact cuts will have in their areas. |
"Every one of us, from our new teachers to our veterans, has received a reduction-in-force (RIF) notice. It's outrageous," says AEA Co-President Glenda McDowell. "How can we educate our students without any teachers? This is causing a lot of anxiety for our students and parents as well as our teachers."
A coalition of teacher leaders from 30 Orange County school districts held a news conference March 5 to provide a county-wide picture of the impact the state budget crisis is having on local schools. A panel of chapter presidents from Cypress, Capistrano, Hacienda/La Puente, Santa Ana and La Habra fielded questions while 15 other chapter presidents formed a backdrop.
"We stand to lose valuable services and funding," Hacienda-La Puente Teachers Association President Sergio Martinez told the media. He estimated that nearly 600 children, many of them poor and minority, will lose day care or after-school care. "Students who are disadvantaged need these services to close the achievement gap."
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CTA Board Member Tom Conry moderates as the news media questions 20 Orange County chapter presidents about cuts in their districts. |
The district has proposed the cuts even though it has between $17 million and $34 million in reserves, Martinez added. "They are going into the classroom first while they are building a little nest egg. It's really not fair."
"Our concern is not about jobs - it has to do with kids. What is happening is very short-sighted," said Tom Harrison, president of Santa Ana Educators Association. "I am very concerned when legislators talk about 'flexibility' for class size reduction. Flexibility is a slippery slope. Next year it may be 22 students; the next year 24 students. My daughter is in a sixth-grade class with 40 students. Nobody can tell me that it is anything similar to being in a class of 20."
In addition to participating in the news conference, Capistrano teachers took to the sidewalks to counter a message sent home to parents by the school district. The district was urging parents to lobby the Legislature for "flexibility" regarding class sizes, a proposal that teachers feel would lead to larger classes for many students.
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Bakersfield teachers and community members picket an ill-timed job fair sponsored by the district. |
Members of the Capistrano Unified Education Association felt so strongly about the learning advantages of smaller classes that they distributed fliers to parents before and after school March 4.
"Class size reduction is the best educational reform to appear in California," says CUEA president Frank Weirath. "I would hate to see us turn back the clock and have it dismantled."
In Livermore, where many of the citizens are employed by Lawrence Livermore Labs, parents and teachers held a news conference and rally March 4 to demand that the school board reconsider nearly $4 million in education cuts - including killing off its successful class size reduction program and issuing layoff notices to 114 teachers.
"This community will not stand for school board cuts that destroy proven education programs," says Livermore Education Association President Joyce Keeler. "Smaller classes are a proven school reform. To kill off that program - and many other education programs - without adequate public discussion is reckless."
In Alhambra, where the board was voting to eliminate class size reduction and lay off approximately 260 teachers, members of the Alhambra Teachers Association and community members packed a school board meeting to let the district know they want a voice in what gets cut. Setting "priorities in this year of budget shortfalls should be a collaborative process involving all stakeholders," says ATA President Gloria Tauson. "Education takes place primarily in the classroom and cuts must take place as far from the classroom as possible."
Marin County teachers and school districts cosponsored a town hall meeting March 6 to discuss the school budget crisis with California Secretary of Education Kerry Mazzoni.
Panelists and participants let her know how deep feelings are running on the subject of school budget cuts, cuts in class size and teacher layoffs.
Parents, teachers and students from Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Sacramento counties held a March for Education to end state budget cuts in California classrooms. More than 300 public education supporters attended the rally on the west steps of the state Capitol.
"We want lawmakers to know that our children's future is not the answer to the state deficit question," says march organizer Troy Gittings, a member of the Napa Valley Educators Association.
Fearing that the school board would vote to lay off 60 teachers and gut a successful class size reduction program, more than 1,000 South San Francisco teachers and community members staged a mock funeral Feb. 27. Dressed in black, they marched into the school board meeting with a casket labeled "quality public education" and offered a eulogy about the death of education excellence due to budget cuts.
"This district has no reason to be laying off teachers or increasing class sizes when other alternatives remain," says Steve Savage, president of the South San Francisco Classroom Teachers Association. "The state budget crisis is not an excuse to create another crisis in local schools."
When 1,600 RIF notices were sent to teachers in Santa Clara County, their chapters held a joint rally in downtown San Jose March 20. The event included a roll call of the 31 districts, with a representative from each coming forward to dump an appropriate number of mock RIF notices in a garbage can. A sign on the can read, "Don't trash our schools."
"We're working hard to make this the most teacher-friendly city in California," said San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales, addressing the 600 teachers at the rally. "Cutting teachers from our classrooms to balance the budget doesn't make sense."
Members of nine local associations in San Bernardino County held a rally in the city hall courtyard March 13 urging state lawmakers to protect public schools from proposed state budget cuts.
"These cuts will send the state into an education recession, and our students deserve better," says Bill Hedrick, president of the Rialto Education Association.
A coalition of teacher leaders from 14 school districts in San Diego County held a news conference Feb. 26 to announce their intention to alert parents to the damage the education funding cuts would inflict on the schools.
The 14 school districts had announced plans to eliminate several classroom programs and lay off more that 2,500 teachers.
"If the governor's education funding cuts go through, the students in Oceanside will lose music programs, librarians, nurses, counselors and classroom teachers," said Aaron Marcy, president of the Oceanside Teachers Association. "These cuts will hurt all of our students."
When the Bakersfield school district had the audacity to hold a job fair the same week it sent RIF notices to 194 teachers, members of the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association held a rally and march at the site of the job fair.
Teachers were protesting the district's refusal to postpone the ill-timed job fair and its lack of willingness to use its estimated $14 million in reserves to prevent RIFs, says BETA President Helen Collins. In addition, the district was proposing to reduce teacher salaries by 1 percent and dismantle the class size reduction program.
"The board has set in motion a series of events that BETA believes are premature and will have a negative impact on students, our educational programs, and teachers," says Collins. Describing the district as "cut-happy," she says it "has jumped the gun in preparing layoff notices even though the actions are not justified by the facts at this time."
Collins warned the board that dismantling California's historic class size reduction program would impact students' academic growth for years to come. BETA's appeal to keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible went unheeded, as did its demand that the district use its reserves before making drastic budget reductions. The district has also ignored the association's recommendations on implementing cost containment measures that would have prevented some of these actions.
The teachers have sent a letter to the district demanding to bargain the impact of layoffs, and have activated their crisis committee to start organizing activities to respond to this "slap in the face to teachers."
