Message From Capistrano Unified School District President Reardon

Press release from the Capistrano Unified School District:

June 22, 2020

Dear CUSD Families,

As you know, the CUSD school board wants to reopen school as normally as state and county health and safety officials will allow. The Board also seeks to ensure as much openness and transparency as possible.

Keeping our staff and community informed is not always easy as misinformation sometimes travels more rapidly than the truth.

One bit of misinformation recently put out by the president of our teacher's union is that at our Wednesday board meeting the contract extensions for our Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent contain increases to salary. This is a false statement, but it is gaining traction in social media and some of our employees and families are understandably upset.

This information is false, and the president of the teacher’s union knows it. Neither our District Superintendent nor Deputy Superintendent are receiving new pay raises and the adjustment of the daily rate is exactly the same as scheduled for the union president and all of her members, which was approved in December. In fact, contract extensions being considered Wednesday night contain language that commits the Superintendent and her Deputy to take the same salary reductions as our other CUSD employees if reductions are made.

While teachers and classified staff are covered by negotiated labor agreements, certain of our district's leadership staff (including the Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent) are contract employees. It is customary every June that the school board review the performance of our Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent and determine whether or not we want to extend their contracts.

We are very proud of the work of Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent during this very difficult school year and we have an item on our agenda to extend their contracts for an additional year. This contract amendment, which is available to the public and to the President of the teacher’s union, does not include a new salary increase.

The budget our board approved last week requires $35 million in reductions in next school year's budget to be negotiated with all of our unions and management employees. Making false statements to the public ahead of formal negotiation may be a tactic of our union leadership. I believe spreading false information is counterproductive to the negotiation process and in the end does not help the school community we serve.

Sincerely,

Jim Reardon
President, CUSD Board of Trustees

This press release was produced by the Capistrano Unified School District . The views expressed here are the author’s own.