DISTRICT STAFF wore red T-shirts to Thursday’s BUSD meeting that read: “BUSD Reserves — Built On The Backs Of Students And Staff.”
Photos by Keri Luiz/Staff
■ Supe: Some valid points raised at BUSD trustees meeting
By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor
Approximately 70 teachers and certified staff showed up at Thursday’s meeting of the Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees sporting bright-red T-shirts with the same message: on the front they said “BUSD Reserves,” and on the back, “Built on the backs of students and staff.”
“The T-shirts are to represent the fact that the district has a pretty large reserve, approximately 20 percent right now, and we feel that it has been built on concessions that the teachers have given the last round of bargaining with some ongoing money, and we want some of it back,” said Jeff Jones, vice president of the Benicia Teachers Association and a Benicia Middle School math teacher.
“The last round of bargaining they offered a 1.5-percent raise … We fell that is quite unjust, it’s not even an offer,” Jones said. “It’s a, ‘We’re not going to give it to you until you give us more.”
Though there was no teacher salary issue on the board agenda, several teachers spoke their minds during public comment.
“Six years ago the reserve in this district was $2.9 million. That was the year that at the bargaining table we agreed to concessions for the next year,” Deborah Casey, a math teacher at the middle school and bargaining chair for the BTA, told trustees. “That next year the reserve grew by $2 million.
“In almost every year since it has grown by another million, to where last year you ended with $8.2 million. So in all the time you have been making cuts, you have managed to grow that reserve.
“It’s time to loosen the the purse strings and grant a reasonable salary increase, because there’s been nothing for five years, and the cost of living has gone up by 14 percent. And medical costs have gone up even more.”
“I appreciate them coming, and I understand that it has been difficult, and for five years there has not been any increase,” Superintendent Janice Adams said Friday. “They made some valid points, particularly in the increase in health care.
“We’re not settled yet, and we have work to do to get to a mutually agreeable increase. I’m happy we were able to offer an increase. I’m happy that Proposition 30 passed so we are able to talk about increases rather than cuts,” she said.
Adams also pointed out that while the district does have a 20-percent reserve, it was built because of uncertainty at the state level. “It’s board policy for good fiscal management,” she said.
“The state keeps telling us there may be cuts, we didn’t know if Prop. 30 would go through, so we put that money aside,” she said. “We do have a growing reserve and we acknowledge that. “
But she said that besides teacher salaries, other needs are pressing: “We’re working on technology, facilities needs, we haven’t been putting money into deferred maintenance. There’s a lot of things we need to use that money for.”
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When ever the word “reserve” is mentioned, everyone thinks they deserve it. What is wrong with having a reserve?
The teachers union doesn’t give one crap about students, and they never have. I think that having a 20% reserve is a very good idea. 10% of this country is still out of work. They need to shut up and teach.
For the most part I agree. There are teachers in the district who do care about the kids. However, there are also quite a few tenured instructors who are simply bad for children, and the union keeps these instructors in the classrooms while the principals do nothing while children are either not learning or are being harmed by instructors who do not know how to deal with kids.
Could you publish the salaries of educators so we can have a point of reference.
Also a good comment. The range, average, etc. would be helpful. “Teachers are underpaid” has long been the battle cry, but we do not have a stated amount to look at. I am wondering, also, about any differences in longstanding instructors standing regarding salary, insurance benefits, retirement options, etc. vs. newer instructors. I am very frustrated with the instructors who are “burnt out” or never should have been teachers to begin with who are not kicked out of the schools, and those who are good teachers, but have fewer years in the system (not necessarily younger in terms of chronological age either) who have difficulty in finding a job and are pink slipped every year.
Consider the responsibility they accept. How about their extended work day. They make way less than garbage/recycling technicians and ALL trades people to name a few… and deserve equality of worth! What happened to the smaller class sizes we voted IN when Arnold was governor? Teachers are the most unappreciated professional. Wake up and care. Teachers are gifts!
Shut up and teach? Wow! How much reserve is okay? 20%, 30%, 50%? The employees have “shut up” long enough. Teacher’s and classified staff have been taking CUTS in benefits for years, including double digit increases in the cost of medical benefits. The district office staff and admin. have received pay increases in the form of “reclassification” of job titles and levels, and stipends for “extra” work. They have the purse strings and made sure they were taken care of, even before Prop. 30 passed. There is much the public doesn’t know because of the lack of transparency and spin in this district. A raise of a few percent for the employees who work directly with the students would be the right thing to do!
BUSDEmployee stated: There is much the public doesn’t know because of the lack of transparency and spin in this district.
Sounds like a good opportunity for you (or another BUSD Employee)to help educate the public on this issue, I am certain the Herald would welcome the chance to publish such a piece.
Really? I agree that there should be more information provided to the public, but I doubt the Benicia Hank would bother to publish any truly controversial information. There are so many issues in this town that the paper neglects to cover; the paper seems to leave quite a few stones unturned…
Such as? Ed.
Contact the school district. I think you will find out they will direct you to the right place. See the info then make a judgement. You could be right on some wrong on others. The Benicia Herald does an outstanding job covering local issues. We as residents must also take part. We must dig a little to get very specific info. It is there and I have no problem getting accurate and correct info.
We’ll ask the questions; answers are up to the officials. If there’s a story we’re missing, we welcome direction from the community whose paper this is. Ed.
My comment was directed at Benicia Resident. Benicia Herald does a great job. Thank you
“BUSD employee”. Your screen name says it all. I’m so sorry that you have to work until 3:30 every day, get all Summer, 2 weeks at Christmas and a week in March off. I’m so sorry that you have a generous pension to look forward to. I’m so sorry that you got into teaching apparently having no idea how much it paid.
“Local Crumudgen:” your name says it all! I’m so sorry that you are assuming that I am a teacher, you are wrong.Try informing yourself about staff and teacher’s salaries. We do get paid for federal holidays, but do NOT get paid for the time off during Summer, Winter, or Spring breaks. Thanks for trying! I will not engage with you anymore.
I believe if you take a 12 month pay the winter simmer and spring breaks are included in your check but spread out equally over the summer period you are not workinhg. So less money per month for 12 month pay period You will not get the summer pay if you take the shorter months pay because you are not working. But I do believe your winter and spring breaks are included in your pay and are not deduced from your check during the year. I believe you get your whole amount due for spring and summer breaks. Correct me if I am wrong.
Bob–I am paid for only the days that students are in school, period (I am support staff). The teachers get a couple extra days before school starts for prep and staff meetings. In-service days have been pretty much eliminated to save money. No pay for winter, spring, or summer breaks. You are correct that we can have our 10 months of work divided up into 12 monthly payments. Work year for myself is 180 student days, teachers are 182 days.
Thanks for the info. My daughter is a high school tearcher in Marin County. Their structure may be different than yours.. I do support the district and the teachers.
As a retired teacher with 35 years experience, I am continuously amused (no longer get angry because I realized, years ago, that my profession is not, nor probably ever will be, honored in this society, so most teachers choose to teach because they get satisfaction from the response they get, every day, from their students.), by statements made by people who have never spent any significant time in a classroom, anywhere, anytime and who talk about the “union,” as if it is some faceless megolith that does evil all the time. The union, folks, is TEACHERS – yes, those folks who ARE in the classroom every day; those folks who NEVER work until 3:30, who NEVER have lunch hours of more than 20 minutes, if lucky and uninterrupted by parents or student crises; who work on weekends and evenings (just one example: think of a high school teacher who has, on average, 100 students a day. He/she assigns a one paragraph homework report. It takes approximately 3-4 minutes to correct and evaluate each one. That’s 400 minutes (6-7 hours!) just to correct ONE short assignment. When does she/he do it? AFTER SCHOOL and on weekends; who spend hours in their classrooms and in continuing education (usually at our own expense) during vacations and summer. I went into teaching very clear about how little this work is valued in this country, but stuck to it because I believed education was important, even though thousands of people, like our curmudgen, believe we are lazy slackers, who, by the way, taught HIM how to read and respond to these posts.
Also, I’m pretty sure that Sue Gibbs is asleep in this photo. Steve Gibbs looks like he’s close.
The smart thing to do is to let this reserve build in a variety of safe investments. Over time it will reach a point where it can provide a self sustaining source of revenue to fund raises and perhaps a tax decreases. That would be a global win. The notion of check to mouth simply has to stop. I am very much pro teacher, but it is common sense to do this because everybody would win in the end.