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Teachers vote against cost-saving measures, narrowly defeating day off without pay
Union president to ask for revote on top two choices next week
Faced with a variety of choices to save the Hesperia Unified School District money -- and some of their fellow teachers' jobs -- Hesperia teachers voted for "none of the above" last week, although a majority favored some sort of cost-cutting measure.
"They had four choices, and they had to pick one of them," Hesperia Teachers Association President Jim Pace said Friday.
The teachers union approved a new contract earlier this year, which was negotiated prior to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing that the state was facing a billion-dollar deficit and that state school funds would face cuts. In the HUSD, up to 54 teachers could lose their jobs, although the district now believes that number has shrunk to 33.
Forty-seven teachers voted to not move up a step on their pay scale, or over to the next column if they qualified for a more highly compensated pay scale, based on improving their own educational credentials. The move would have saved the HUSD up to $2 million.
"Step and column [increases] probably affects 85 percent of the people," Pace said.
Fifty-nine teachers voted to defer the one-percent across-the-board raise teaches were scheduled to get in the 2008-2009 school year. The measure would save the HUSD an estimated $600,000.
Two hundred and forty-three teachers voted to take a day off without pay, a move that would save the district an estimated $300,000.
"Pretty popular item," Pace said.
But the winning choice was "none of the above" with 249 votes. But that vote doesn't fully reflect the will of the majority of the teachers, in Pace's mind.
"I think it's fairly clear from looking at the voting results that the membership is willing to make concessions to save their colleagues' jobs," he said. So, at Tuesday's meeting of school site representatives, he will recommend teachers have another vote, with just the top two vote-winners on the ballot: an unpaid furlough day and none of the above.
Pace believes that results, if there is a revote, should be known early on the week of May 26.
"A one-day furlough will save the elementary music program, if they vote for it," he said. "I think a half-dozen teachers were involved in that."
Beau Yarbrough can be reached at 956-7108 or at beau@hesperiastar.com.
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| To Books, That wiould depend on what day of the week it was and if it was before or after the union asked about the excessive funds in the book budget during contract talks. Does 14 million ring a bell? |
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| notinamillionyears - Jun 02, 2008 07:22:30 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Not in a Million years. Do youknow what the budget for books was the previous year. I do. |
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| Books books books - May 31, 2008 11:16:14 PM | Remove Comment |
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| I know for a fact that the union leadership does not share all the information they have with the membership. I know for a fact that the union leadership manipulates the membership. I guess its the lesser of two evils then on who you believe. |
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| Who to Believe - May 31, 2008 11:15:02 PM | Remove Comment |
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| No the sheep would be those that believe everything the district says. I for one do because I have first hand knowledge of the decet. Thank goodness must of that crew left before getting shown the door. The graft and corruption was wide spread and I believe those angry at Mr Bentley just might be some of those that are no longer recieving that graft. I suggest any one interested ask for the last 3 years book budget and then ask for the amount spent on books. It is a real eye opener. Remember the millions and millions in the building fund that was never spent, it just keep growing and growing as our school kept getting more crowded each year. That is why the feds would not help build Oak Hills High School. The District Attorney needs to convene the grand jury and everything for the last 5 years needs to be investagated from the phot fiasco to Mr. Bray wife being in charge of EXcel and a district employee getting contracts for her own company. I find it amazing that time after time we are told that this is illegal or thats illegal so we stopped it, but nobody is charged with a crime. For the life of me I can not figure this out. |
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| notinamillionyears - May 29, 2008 07:40:45 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Pace, the master manipulator. Just a prod here and there, with a couple of big mouths that shut everyone else down, and knowing everyone's weary, and voila, he gets his way with no fallout. What sheep these teachers are. |
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| Hesperian - May 27, 2008 10:26:49 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Has anyone thought that if the three had not decided to shutdown the 6th grade schools this district would not have spent 6 million to go to a choice school. 4 million to convert Cypress and 3 million to add portables to Mission Crest. |
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| Think About That - May 27, 2008 12:52:01 PM | Remove Comment |
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| I don't know the exact numbers. I'm sure you can tell me and point me where there is proof. I will gladly include building, but you should know that facilities and payroll come from two different budgets. Even if HUSD had 10 million in the facilities budget it would have to spend it on facilities projects and COULD NOT spend it on payroll. Every business, school district factors in extra money to their budget. |
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| Accounting - May 27, 2008 12:49:13 PM | Remove Comment |
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| I noticed that you had no comment on the money socked away for buiding. Pading a budget is not a good pratice because it takes money away from needed programs. If the budget for books was little paded it would be one thing but to pad it by millions is just wrong! |
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| toldyouso - May 27, 2008 10:41:43 AM | Remove Comment |
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| If teachers are really upset about the do nothing vote then they have but one group to blame and that is THEIR leadership. If they truly care about their fellow teachers then they need to vote out the current leadership next union election. I'll give you the notion that teachers care about their students, but based on the vote, more obviously don't care about their fellow teachers AND some students. What do you think is going to happen to those students who no longer have a teacher. |
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| Union Issues - May 27, 2008 10:34:07 AM | Remove Comment |
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| Union leadership should be ashamed of them selves for deluting the vote. Anyone with enough statistics knowledge or even political science knwledge knows that if you have 250 votes for do nothing, you add enough choices to the ballot to spread the other voters out over a broader area, there by ensuring you get the do nothing vote. Duh. |
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| Union Ploy - May 27, 2008 10:29:08 AM | Remove Comment |
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| Budgeting a little extra in areas is actually called good accounting. You never know what is going to happen. What if the price of shipping goes up from the time you decide on the books to the time you order them? What happens if the price of books goes up before you order them. What happens if you need 100 additional books on top of what you projected? |
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| Good Accounting - May 27, 2008 10:25:46 AM | Remove Comment |
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| I'm willing to listen to the unions proof that HUSD has money put away somewhere. This doesn't make sense since the three incharge are union supporters. The books are open to the board to inspect. If this was the case I'm sure the three would have found it by now and delighted in calling Landon out in an open board meeting. |
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| No Union - May 27, 2008 10:23:18 AM | Remove Comment |
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| The reserve can be used in other areas freeing up money for jobs. Like I have asked before. What good is a reserve if you can never use it? Also this district has a well know habbit of padding the budget in other areas so they can plead no money. The union leaders have caught the district doing this over and over. One only has to look at the book buying budget to see this. Remember when the district went to the feds for money for the new high school it was told no way you have way too much money socked away for us to pay for it. |
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| toldyouso - May 27, 2008 09:47:54 AM | Remove Comment |
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| If that is true then there is no way Pace and his leadership group will be elected next election. Plain and simple if so many teachers want to help and ARE disgusted then they need to not have such a short memory come election time. Shame is, the damage will be done because HTA will do nothing but give 5k to Kirks friend to run for school board to even make the board worse than it is. |
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| No Union - May 26, 2008 05:40:09 AM | Remove Comment |
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| Teacher, You are completely right! I misstated my point. I meant to say it is the teacher's union that won't cooperate. I know the teachers would help if HTA would get out of the way. I apologize to you and all teachers for my mistake. |
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| How It Works - May 23, 2008 02:54:18 PM | Remove Comment |
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| How it works, you can't say that the teachers won't cooperate. More than half us voted to do something. It's our union leaders that are dragging their feet on this and many of us are as disgusted with them as everyone else is. |
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| teacher - May 23, 2008 01:06:59 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Come on, The Real Problem, use your head. More than 75 percent of the district's spending is in payroll. The only place to find significant savings is in payroll. The administrators and non-teaching personnel have have already voted to do more than their share. Teachers and the only ones who won't cooperate. |
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| How It Works - May 23, 2008 12:35:52 PM | Remove Comment |
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| Here are two things that should be kept in mind when criticizing the certificated vote. First, only about half of certificated employees even voted. Pretty sad that more of them don't seem to care. Secondly, many did not think they should have been asked to vote without more disclosure from the district regarding other ways to save money without impacting wages. Oh, that list of 20 items again. When is that going to be in the paper, Beau? |
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| The Real Problem - May 23, 2008 10:14:12 AM | Remove Comment |
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| I usually don't see eye to eye with LBO, but he is correct. The reserve is for the district and not the union. What I mean by that is the reserve should not be used to benefit the teachers union who voted to do nothing. The reserve is to keep the district in a good financial state and in cases of emergency. I like teachers, but laying off teachers is not what I would call a financial emergency for the district. |
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| Financially Sound - May 23, 2008 07:49:37 AM | Remove Comment |
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| The reserve cannot legally be used for teachers. Stop confusing the issue. The reserve is not an issue. |
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| How it Works - May 22, 2008 10:19:05 PM | Remove Comment |
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