After more than 10 years under state control, Compton schools appear to be on the road to recovery at last - thanks, in great part, to the Compton Education Association (CEA), which has been instrumental in bringing some positive change to the troubled district.
Over the past few months, CEA leaders and staff have worked to get a school bond passed and to replace the former school board with six new members who are pro-teacher and pro-union, resulting in a contract settlement in April that has given CEA members a competitive salary schedule for the first time in decades.
"Our teachers have gone from the bottom or near the bottom in salaries in Los Angeles County to above the median," says Elsie Truby, president of the 1,500-member association. "It's going to make a difference. This district has not been able to recruit qualified teachers because they always leave us to go elsewhere. Now we've cut in half the places they would want to go."
Until recently, 20 percent of the teaching force in Compton was new every year. This year, with 28 percent of teachers in their very first year of teaching, Truby is sure the improved salary schedule will help the district retain them.
The new contract provides senior teachers with 6.5 percent in retroactive pay and increases in district contributions to health insurance premiums. For some teachers, the increase actually amounts to a 10 percent raise because of the salary restructuring that took place.
For Compton, a district in which 23,300 of the 25,000 students enrolled are socioeconomically disadvantaged, it's been a long wait for such positive results. Ten years of being under state management did nothing to improve the infrastructure of the district. The chief accomplishment of state management was to "fix roofs," according to CEA Executive Director Tom Hollister. The problem is, it did so by using funds that could have been used for teachers' salaries. Only now is the district approaching compliance with state mandates concerning facilities, pupil achievement and special education. In addition, ill treatment of teachers fostered such a hostile environment in the district that the association had little recourse but to go out on strike several times over the years.
With the salaries of Compton teachers still lagging behind other districts in the county, the association turned its focus toward organizing politically to achieve such goals as passing the school bond and electing new trustees, as well as keeping focused on what the needs of the district's students are. The effort appears to be paying off.
"I'm thrilled," says Hollister. "We're moving up."
If Hollister and Truby are a little bit pleased, it's because they and other CEA teacher leaders have been working for a long time to bring about change in the district. While the district was under state control, the school board had little power to govern the district. As soon as state administrator Randolph Ward left to take over Oakland schools in June 2003, CEA began its search to fill six vacancies on the seven-member board of trustees.
The teachers association worked with other local labor organizations and community groups to triumph in the November elections. Exhausting its local political action fund, CEA received financial assistance from CTA's political action committee, the Association for Better Citizenship. Working alongside parents, community members and labor activists, CEA made thousands of phone calls and sent out thousands of mailers to voters before Election Day.
The successful school board vote followed a successful local bond election in 2002, which received the approval of 83 percent of the voters. Truby credits the high approval rate to the state leaving Compton. Until then, voters had turned down three other bonds due to their distrust of the state. As a result of the bond passage, construction is going on at all 39 school sites in the district, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through adult education. The school construction complements and enhances the positive changes in the classroom.
"When all this is done, we will have decent schools, improved education for our students and improved morale for our teachers," says Truby.
Acknowledging the hard work of her colleagues, Truby also expresses appreciation for the support CEA received from the community, labor unions and CTA's experts on finances, negotiations and community relations.
The teachers association is gearing up for the next election to maintain the pro-teacher majority on the board.
"We're not going to stop here," says Truby. "There's still a lot of work to be done."
Dale Martin
