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Open Letter from Dawn Urbanek
As a parent of a student in CUSD, I have attended most of the CUSD Board Meetings and Budget Workshops over the past two years, and I felt compelled to write this letter. Not every parent has time to attend meetings and workshops. Those of us who do need to start sharing our knowledge with other parents so that any letters that are written to influence the Board and/or Administrators are based on fact, and are "intelligent," "thoughtful" letters that truly reflect what we as parents feel "is in the best interest of our children."
I was really angry, and disgusted, to see teachers at my child's school standing outside the campus Friday morning... wearing black... handing out flyers. The flyers were asking parents to contact Ellen Addonizio, the President of the Capistrano School Board, and tell her to start working with teachers during contract negotiations in a "reasonable and responsible way.”
What happened Friday was a staged event by the CUEA. The CUEA stands for the Capistrano Unified Education Association and is the professional association (teachers union) for the non-supervisory certificated employees in the Capistrano Unified School District. The flyer that was being passed out by teachers can be viewed at the CUEA web site: http://cuea.org/index2.shtml. In the top right-hand corner you will see a box that says "School Board Not the Best" Get a flyer to pass out here.
I do not appreciate the CUEA bringing their politics onto my child's campus. Putting children in the position of having to worry about whether or not their teacher will have a job next year is not beneficial to children, especially when many parents have already lost their own jobs. It is very insensitive to the many families that are suffering during these economically difficult times.
I also want to say how disappointed I have been with the press coverage of the CUSD Budget issues. I attended the Oct. 13 CUSD Board Meeting. From the Orange County Register article: "Capistrano district identifies $9.3 million in possible cuts. Officials have a long way to go to close an anticipated $25.1 million deficit." It did not even begin to provide parents with the full flavor of what is at stake in the next round of cuts that the District will be forced to make to avoid insolvency. The full article can be found at: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/school-district-budget-2606475-million-cuts
This is going to be a very difficult year financially for everyone in California. CUSD needs to identify $25 million in cuts to their budget by December 2009. The $25 million in cuts is based on the Budget that the State of California passed this summer. The anticipated revenues that were projected in the State budget are already wrong. The California economy is not "recovering" as anticipated. The $25 million in cuts that need to be identified by December will most likely be the first of a series of additional cuts that CUSD will need to make to its budget this year.
At the Oct. 13, 2009, CUSD Board Meeting, Ron Lebs, Deputy Superintendent, Business Support Services stated very clearly that: "... 85% of the District’s budget goes to salaries, pensions and benefits." Only 15% of the District's budget goes to "other expenses"... expenses such as books and supplies, CSR (Class Size Reduction), Block Music, AAA GATE. etc.
The fact is that CUSD can only make unilateral cuts to 15% of the entire CUSD budget. Any cuts to the other 85% of the budget must be negotiated through collective bargaining with the three employee unions in CUSD. The three unions are CUEA representing the teachers "Certificated Employees," CSEA representing support staff "Classified Employees," and the Teamsters representing the bus drivers, etc. I encourage every parent to go to the District web site and click on <Departments<Business & Support Services and then under the second heading "CUSD Budgets as Approved" click on the following link. 2008/2009 Unaudited Actuals and 2009/2010 Revised Final Budget Go to Exhibit B "Expenditures" (page 12) you will see the following:
Expenditures:
Total Expenditures per year 2009-2010 $381,716,882
Salaries:
Certificated Employees 2009-2010 $193,507,709
Classified Employees 2009-2010 $ 57,262,822
Employee Benefits 2009-2010 $ 72,388,033
Total Salaries, pensions and benefits $323,158,586
$ 323,158,586 of the total $ 381,716.882 spent at CUSD goes to Salaries, Pensions and Benefits. 84.66% of CUSD's budget goes to Salaries, Pensions and Benefits.
The reality is that if the District is not successful in negotiating some cuts to salaries, pensions and benefits, then all of the cuts will come from the 15% of the budget that goes directly to our children. The sad truth is that even if every one of the cuts listed below were made it would only total $9.3 million dollars.
The cuts that are being proposed are as follows:
- $1.66 million: Eliminate funding for all extra-curricular activities, and all stipends for department chairs
- $1.3 million: Eliminate funding for all sports programs
- $1.2 million: Capture the savings from lower-than-anticipated costs for employee health insurance
- $1.2 million: Eliminate the 25-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio in the first grade
- $1 million: Eliminate elementary school block music
- $1 million: Remove this money from a district fund for facilities maintenance, leaving $2.6 million in the fund over the next four years
- $0.7 million: Close two small elementary schools
- $0.5 million: Delay purchasing new textbooks per the standard textbook adoption cycle
- $0.25 million: Eliminate all summer school in grades K-8
- $0.21 million: Reorganize the district's business services department
- $0.14 million: Eliminate the college-level International Baccalaureate program in high schools
- $0.1 million: Eliminate resident substitutes at high schools, and use a district list instead to find substitute teachers.
From one parent to another, I ask you, what is in the best interest of our children?
1. Preserving currently scheduled increases to salaries, pensions, and benefits? or
2. Preserving class sizes, sports programs, Block Music, and all the programs that materially affect the quality of education that our children receive?
Is preserving current projected increases to salaries, pensions, and benefits more important than maintaining our public school buildings? We already have many over-crowded classrooms where the number of children exceeds the number of desks in the classroom, and the number of children in the class exceeds City fire and safety codes.
I volunteer hundreds of hours of my time to my child's school. I donate hundreds of dollars in time and money for school fundraisers. When my child's teacher needs supplies, I personally pay for and donate, paper, pencils, pens, etc. (the list grows larger every year).
Next time the CUEA asks your teacher to stand outside of school and pass out a flyer asking for you to write a letter encouraging the Board to work with teachers during contract negotiations in a "reasonable and responsible way" remember one important thing: Parents are the only Advocates children have.
The CUEA is a union. It is a union's job to negotiate the best labor contract for its union members. Unions do not represent our children. In economically difficult times such as these if we as parents write letters in support of the union’s efforts to maintain scheduled increases to salaries, pensions and benefits, then we must also understand that means we support making the necessary cuts to the 15% of the budget that goes directly to our children.
Another issue that has not been covered by the press, but should have some bearing on what is the "reasonable and responsible" is the following: The CUSD final Budget that passed on June 22, 2009 contained automatic step and column salary increases and projected health and welfare benefit premium increases. That means that to date, CUEA members are still getting salary increases!
I encourage every parent to go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under September 15, 2009 click on "Budget Summary Recap" and you will see that Salaries and Benefits are scheduled to increase for 2009/2010 by:
Certificated Employees 2009-2010 $4,225,298
Classified Employees 2009-2010 $1,804,487
Employee Benefits 2009-2010 $4,154,316
Go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under September 15, 2009, click on "Budget Reduction Up-date."
The District saved $9.7 million dollars by increasing class sizes this year. If the unions had agreed not to take their projected salary increases this year, the District could have saved CSR for every student in K - 3.
Cumulative increases in Salaries, pensions and benefits are projected to total over $ 44.7 million dollars over the next five years. Go to the District web site and click on <Administration<Board Meetings and then under June 8, 2009 click on "Budget Workshop Presentation" page 8 and you will see the following:
Salary & Benefits
09/10 $8.1 million
10/11 $8.5 million
11/12 $8.9 million
12/13 $9.4 million
13/14 $9.8 million
There is currently no "new" contract between CUSD and the CUEA, which means that the old contract is still in force. While most people across the nation have taken at least a 10% reduction in pay, the CUEA has not agreed to a single cut in salaries, pensions and benefits, and are in fact still receiving projected salary increases. What is the "reasonable and responsible way" to cut $25 million from the CUSD budget? Should the children be the only ones to bear the burden of these cuts?
Dawn Urbanek
CUSD Parent and Advocate for my child.
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