Teachers Contract Settled
Although it came with little fanfare, the School District and the San Carlos Teachers Union did settle the contract for teachers’ salaries for both this past year and the year coming up. See the Supertendent’s letter announcing the settlement.
As I have mentioned before, I was confident that we would work out a fair deal, and as a new board member I was suprised by the adversarial nature of the process. It seems so anachronistic to have a 20th century blue collar union bargaining process for a series of professionals working for a non-profit organization. This is hardly the auto industry.
Some of my colleagues have mentioned — and Steve Mitrovich mentions it in his letter as well — that we need to improve the negotiating process. Not withstanding the fact that many other school districts do it the same way, the current process creates an unnecessary wedge between groups who truly have the same goal in mind — attracting, motivating, and retaining excellent teachers and providing the best education for our children. (Unlike the private center, where there is assumption that any cost savings line the pockets of management or shareholders, no such dynamic exists in our case. All money gets spent for the children — it is merely a matter of balacing the mix of what that money gets spent on.)
Unfortunately the macroeconomic environment is not going to get any better in the near term — State financing is not expected to improve anytime soon (and we are limited on enrollment growth — see my earlier post), so hard choices may lie ahead. Also, it is imperative that we pass an extension/increase in our Parcel Tax. See the following article about the Board’s effort regarding a new parcel tax (my family was on vacation at the time, but I fully support the effort and would have voted with the other 4 board members). I encourage you all to get involved in this effort!
