School District, Teacher Negotiations Drawing to a Close

Negotiations for teacher furlough days and elementary school preparation time for the 2011-12 school year could be drawing to a close as early as this week, as the Culver City Federation of Teachers and the Culver City Unified School District are in final talks about these and other matters in a contentious proposal process that has been going on for weeks.

As of the Monday labor negotiation meeting, federation President David Mielke said that the district and the union will most likely agree upon the teachers taking six furlough days for the 2011-2012 school year, which will equal $1.2 million in savings for the district. However, neither side made specific comments, not wanting to jeopardize the process.

“We are close. I can’t comment. We met, we had good progress,” Mielke said. “I am confident that we’re going to get this done this week.”

Furlough days, staff cuts and 19 teacher pink slips that were passed out in March have been lightning rods in the community in recent months, sparking protests and angry dialogue during school board meetings. According to Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Ali Delawalla, decreases in the state’s per-student funding for the district and a host of other financial concerns have forced the district to compose a that features the loss of 27 employees and the reduction of several positions from 12 to 11 months for the 2011-12 year.

These cuts, which would save the district $828,572 a year, represent only a piece of the $3 million reduction that Delawalla is targeting; the other piece of the pie is partially composed of the pink slips passed out in March, totaling $1,248,000 in savings per year for the district. 

Teachers and students have come to board meetings with signs and wearing  to speak out against cuts. The most recent board meeting featured an on-the-dias criticism of Mielke from board member Steven Gourley, who alleged that Mielke has “lied” to his union about bargaining information.

And Mielke has said on more than one occasion to Patch that he plans to file an unfair labor practice lawsuit against the district for making “regressive proposals”; Mielke is referring to negotiations from late last year in which the district was considering using a tiered salary reduction method for teachers versus furlough days. According to Mielke, the district proposed a tiered salary reduction to the union in November 2010 that would have equaled $800,000 in savings for the district for the year, but then in March proposed nine furlough days, which would come to a total of $1.8 million in savings.

“It’s complicated because they have made regressive proposals,” Mielke said. “We haven’t made a big deal of it because we want to get it scheduled, but when the dust settles we will probably have to file an unfair labor practice lawsuit.”

However, when Patch contacted Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Leslie Lockhart regarding the issue, she said that there was a “philosophical difference” between the two proposals. Instead of a one-time savings of $800,000 from a tiered salary reduction for the 2011-2012 school year, Lockhart said that the district’s early proposal was meant as ongoing savings, meaning that the teachers would not regain the income. Therefore, the early proposal would come to much more than $800,000 in savings for the district in the future, and thus the proposal for nine furlough days was not regressive, she said. Click the PDFs to the right to see the two documents.

“What do we want to do?” Lockhart said. “Do we want to stay fiscally sound and stay employed so that we meet the needs of our district or not? But when you’re talking about people’s livelihoods, it’s hard to see both sides.”

Aside from the furlough days, another major topic in negotiations is planning time for grade school teachers, Mielke said. “The other big issue for us is that we’re trying to get more elementary school preparatory time. Out of my day, I get one period to plan [and] grade papers,” he said. “Elementary school teachers only get 30 minutes—that’s unfair.”

In addition, Mielke is advocating for the district to include “snap-back language” in the agreed-upon contract, which will allow the district to rescind some of the pink slips and furlough days in the event that the district receives more money from the state. According to Lockhart, no pink slips have been rescinded to date.

Said Delawalla regarding potential "snap back language": "Even when the state approves the budget, if their revenue decreases they can always come back in the middle of the year [to the district ] and ask for reductions."

As soon as the contract is agreed upon, Mielke said that the teachers need to schedule the furlough days as soon as possible.

“Can we agree on these furlough days, and can we schedule them in a way that doesn’t do damage to our school program?” Mielke said.

According to Delawalla, the district budget will be presented at the June 28 Board of Education meeting.