CUSD & Teachers Reach Tentative Agreement A Three - Year Bad Deal for Students

Parents comments on the Press Release are in bold-

Dear Capistrano Unified School District Families and Community Members:

Yesterday, the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) reached a tentative agreement with the Capistrano Unified Educators Association (CUEA) that will provide our students and employees stability over the next two to three years as California faces economic uncertainty.

Can the Public view this agreement and make comments before it is is accepted?

When the economic recovery planning began in 2013, the Capistrano Unified School District created a plan to reinvest in our classrooms, campuses and facilities.

That may be true- but what the District has not invested in is the education of students-

No restoration of core educational programs- there are schools in CUSD that do not receive art, music or science that align with State Content Standards and Curriculum Frameworks unless parents fundraise for it. This is illegal and immoral as it creates wealth based inequities within our District.

Currently, we are replenishing reserves to provide safeguards against future downturns.

That is code for we keep extra money so that we can always start our budget process with increased employee compensation and then decide what is left to educate students.

Parents- call CUSD and ask them to explain their "Multi-prong Approach to balancing their budget." which starts with "UNILATERAL" cuts to programs and services and only looks at reduction in compensation as a last result.

We are rebuilding our deferred maintenance reserve, which was exhausted during the downturn,

Yes- EVIL CALIFORNIA - allowed public employee unions to move deferred maintenance funds to the general fund to avoid cuts to employee compensation.

adding much needed Elementary and High School Assistant Principals, and have hired and placed 30 new counselors in our schools to support student social-emotional health.

The 30 Counselors came from the restructuring of ROP. Prior to that CUSD laid off all but 16 academic counselors to save money. Without full disclosure they hired "Academic Advisors" at half the price. The difference:

Academic Counselors have a masters degree in Counseling and are credentialed teachers that are paid the average compensation of a certificated teacher with a masters- Over $110,000 per year. An academic advisor is a classified employee with a drivers license and a high school diploma. They are paid at a classified employees pay- $50,000 per year. So they saved money at your child's expense to protect tenured teachers pay scale. The result has been a devastating blow to A-g completion rates and our students ability to successfully transfer from CUSD to college and career.

Additional maintenance staff has been hired, including locker room supervisors and cleaning staff, and a comprehensive work-order system to build efficiency in district operations has been put into place.

CUSD has deferred maintenance for so long that the work orders have been ignored to the point that we have overcrowded classrooms and campuses in facilities that have not been maintained- with insufficient restroom facilities - drinking fountains and insufficient lunch tables that our best and brightest are forced to eat lunch on the curb next to garbage cans.

We have increased safety in our transportation services by purchasing new school buses and adding GPS to our bus fleet.

They added GPS to see where their drivers go now that there is almost no busing left for students - unless parents want to pay an additional fee.

We have invested heavily into our technology plan and Chrome books for students, and we are working to implement a district-wide business system that will further increase efficiency in our work-flows by moving us from paper to an electronic process.

If you read the Districts technology plan it is based on parents willingness to fundraise for new computers every three years. On top of fundraising for Art, Music, Science, Class Size Reduction, Instructional Aids, Teacher Release time, Teacher subs and even employee compensation increases.

We are also investing more than $90 million dollars into our facilities around the District for upgrades, refurbishments and expansion. This work, which our teachers are strongly committed to, is critical to our mission to prepare our students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. We are also investing in the recruitment and retention of the teachers and faculty who are in our school classrooms and on our campuses each and every day.

In three years the majority of CUSD teachers will be retiring at maximum pension and benefits. With all the employee compensation increases over the past three years unfunded pension liabilities have gone from $49 million to $57 million. And that will be paid for by hiring new teachers at $48,000 per year instead of the $95,000 per year they currently make. Our kids will remain in overcrowded facilities that have not been maintained for years, they will remain in the largest class sizes in the nation , have no honors classes, no art , music, or science but at least we will be paying our retired staff very well. They deserve it.

Under this agreement with CUEA, our students and families will benefit from greater accountability through teacher evaluations tied to student performance and progress, greater transparency and communication with parents in the education of their children and greater support to ensure students have an implementable plan for college or career after High School graduation.

OMG- I could write a novel about how untrue this statement is... so lets just summarize and say THAT IS JUST A LOT OF HOOEY!

Under this new agreement,

(well what is the "new Agreement"? are we increasing class sizes? are we cutting more programs? The law will not allow CUSD to give furlough days to students - that expired June 2015)

and through great collaborative

(collaborative means everyone except taxpayers and parents- collaborative means YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN ARE SCREWED)

work of the District and CUEA Teacher Evaluation Joint Task Force, teacher evaluation and performance will be directly tied to student performance and progress through clear assessments that will include performance goals, pre- and post-observation of classrooms and teachers, and a formal evaluation process that will also include a self-assessment. Teachers will demonstrate increased performance and progress of students and connect student performance and progress to evidence that was determined prior to instruction.

Isn't the CTA in court about this right now- and isn't our Attorney General using our money to defend teachers against student interests?

Additionally, under this new agreement, teachers will utilize our Learning Management System (currently School Loop)

Which parents also fundraise for

to communicate with students, parents or guardians regarding grades, academic matters and other educationally relevant issues. This universal adoption of our Learning Management System will create consistency of engagement and increase communication and transparency across the district for every student, family and guardian of the District.

Just FYI- the District has an obligation to taxpayers too.

Finally, the District will have the opportunity to add College and Career Counselors with differentiated hours to support students after the regular school day has ended - as late as 9 p.m. The addition of this position supports one of our highest priorities: to ensure that every student has an implementable plan for college, military and professional careers when they graduate.

So now to get what students should have during a regular school day they have to stay till 9:00 pm at night to have access to a counselor? This is the oddest statement of this entire press release? Does that mean that these "counselors " are moonlighting? ... not available during regular school hours.

The College and Career Counselors will maintain and operate a High School College & Career Center, providing counseling on a wide variety of college and career information and materials. Counselors will work with students, faculty, parents and community representatives concerning career planning and college entrance. Counselors will provide guidance concerning scholastic aptitude and achievement tests as well as counseling and support concerning specialized scholarships and assistance completing application forms. Counselors will plan, organize, develop and implement career events and schedule and arrange guest speakers from local businesses, community colleges, universities and armed forces to provide choices and opportunities to high school students and families. Work hours of these counselors will be non-traditional workday/evening hours at a satellite location to ensure access and availability to students.

Well - this is a good thing- because CUSD had no problem taking this away to protect employee salaries and we now see what a disastrous choice that was for students with over 1/2 having to attending Community College to take remedial work before applying to a 4-year college or university.

The tentative agreement increases salary schedules by four percent effective July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2017.

So this is a "retroactive" salary increase.

The tentative agreement also provides a four percent off schedule (one-time) payment to be paid during the 2015-16 school year.

PLUS a 4% extra payment - they just received an additional 2% "off salary schedule (one time) payment. Which means that Teamsters will also get this 2% "off schedule increase even though they just completed their 3-year contract.

In total, this agreement is for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 school years.

... This article is to long for the Patch- to finish go to:

http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2016/03/cusd-and-teachers-reach-tentative.html