They came from small, large, urban and rural districts to attend the CTA Presidents Conference in Pacific Grove. Despite the differences, however, everyone seemed to share the same worries over the impact of the largest budget deficit in California history.
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Among the chapter leaders talking about their concerns as to how budget cuts will play out in their districts are Beverly Craig and Merrilee Claverie from Evergreen... |
"I'm not looking forward to what the new school year will bring," said Tom Reed, president of the Whittier Secondary Education Association. "I expect that we'll have backsliding; we may lose the gains we have made over the past few years in salary and budget. Yet, we will be expected to meet state standards and assessment - even though our school has low-income students who are too poor to buy calculators. There is always hope, but I'm worried about cutbacks."
"Morale has not been good, and it may get worse," confides Diane Black, president of the Red Bluff Elementary Educators Association. Layoffs hit her district last spring, but some staff members were hired back in exchange for health care concessions. Now, she says, district officials are talking about cutting back reading programs and eliminating middle school electives.
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Patsy Williams from West Covina; Deborah Scheffler from Hughson... |
"Hopefully, these challenges will bring more members to the cause and get more people involved in the association," she says. "Hopefully,
some
good will come from this."
Gov. Gray Davis' signing of the budget shortly after the conference enabled school districts to finalize their budgets. But teachers are still unsure exactly how the $1.5 billion cut in public school funding will play out in their individual districts. Many hope that the teachers who were laid off and programs that were cut might be brought back at the 11th hour.
"There is a high anxiety level," says Karl Kildow, president of the Visalia Unified Teachers Association. "It's a heck of a way to start the school year."
To deal with the uncertainty, his chapter has taken proactive measures such as working on health care cost containment. "I have made it clear to the school board and superintendent that the association insists on having a voice in any dealings with the budget process."
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Lesley Brooks from Roseland;
Community College Association President Cathy Crane-McCoy from Long Beach City College; and Karl Kildow from Visalia. |
Tony Diaz, president of the Teachers Association of Long Beach, doesn't think there will be a big impact in his district. "Long Beach has a surplus of $30 million they have kept for a rainy day. And now, the rainy day has come."
Some leaders said they feared students who need extra help may suffer the most under the new budget this year. "Lots of students are new arrivals in the U.S. and experiencing culture shock," says Patsy Williams, president of the Teachers Association of West Covina. "We have had aides come in to work with these children, but the district has cut aide hours. We are under the same pressure to succeed, but we will have fewer resources."
Her district negotiated an increase in class size for grades 4-12 to cope with the budget shortfall, and she worries that an increase in K-3 class size will be next on the list. Approximately 70 teachers were laid off last spring, and half have been hired back. "They have cut teachers but still have the same enrollment, so essentially you have the same load and fewer people to share it."
Cathy Crane-McCoy, president of the Community College Association, predicts the budget cuts will be devastating. Local districts, she says, are raising fees for community colleges, which have traditionally been considered the way out of poverty. But now, she fears, students will drop out or fail to enroll because community college may no longer be affordable.
"Part-time faculty will feel the impact the most," says Crane-McCoy. She fears that many part-time teaching positions will be eliminated. "And even though there is money in the system, the district will use the budget as an excuse."
Beverly Craig, negotiator for the Evergreen Teachers Association, wonders what is left to cut in her district. "They have canned music programs in elementary schools," and reduced PE specialists, nurses, ELD services and aide time for libraries.
"But we still have class size reduction, and we're going to fight to keep it."
Among the most popular sessions at the Presidents Conference were ones offering chapters help in how to bargain in tough times.
