* UPDATED* Teachers Accept Fact-Finder's Recommendation: Urge Trustees to Return to Negotiating Table

UPDATE at bottom.

This from the Capistrano Unified Education Association, regarding the fact-finder's report:

Capistrano Teachers Accept Neutral Fact Finder’s Recommendations

Urge Capistrano School Board members to get on board with the process they demanded

ALISO VIEJO – Members of the Capistrano Unified Education Association’s (CUEA) Site Representative Council – comprised of CUEA members representing their colleagues at every district school site – voted unanimously at a Monday afternoon meeting March 15 to accept a settlement recommended by the neutral fact finder, mutually selected by the district’s teachers and the Capistrano school board to craft a compromise to end more than nine months of protracted contract negotiations.

“Although this kind of settlement – calling on teachers to give up temporary salary and health benefits cuts – is not something we would welcome during ordinary times, Capistrano teachers recognize that everyone in our community is suffering now from the downturn in the economy,” said CUEA President Vicki Soderberg. “From the beginning, we have offered to do our part, and now the neutral fact finder is recommending temporary cuts in line with contract settlements already achieved by teachers and school districts throughout Orange County.”

“The recommended settlement was written by a well-respected neutral fact finder with extensive educational and school budget experience and special training to analyze the facts in difficult contract disputes. Teachers and the school board mutually agreed that someone outside the district, looking at the situation with fresh eyes, might be able to use facts presented by both sides as a foundation for a mediated settlement,” said Soderberg. “We believe she has, and we hope the board will now direct its bargaining team to return to the negotiating table where the CUEA team will be waiting.”

“Rather than spending precious time, energy, and money on strike preparations, such as offering $200 a day – more than double the standard rate – to strike substitutes, the CUEA school board needs to save our precious resources and devote the whole of their energies to the negotiating table, using the neutral’s report as a foundation for settlement talks. Reaching a mutually agreeable settlement is the teachers’ goal, and we hope it is the board’s as well.”

“We urge parents, business leaders, and community members to join us by insisting that the CUSD board work with the CUEA negotiating team to accept the neutral fact finder’s reasonable and responsible solutions to the temporary economic crisis facing our schools,” said Soderberg. “By doing so, they can help us secure the future sustainability of public education in Capistrano Unified.”

 

UPDATE:

The CUEA has released a summary of the fact-finder report that details the savings and costs to teachers. See that here: Download CUEA summary (2)

Comments

[shelly]

I believe we, the parents, should e-mail the Board of Trustees and ask that they negotiate and compromise with the teachers. The district and Board of Trustees asked for this independent fact finding report. The recommendations of this report are based on the facts from both sides and should be respected, considered, and accepted.

Please, all parents, e-mail the members of the CUSD Board of Trustees and ask them to compromise and negotiate with our children's teachers.

Ken Maddox [email protected]

Larry Christensen [email protected]

Mike Winsten [email protected]

Ellen Addonizio [email protected]

Jack Brick [email protected]

Sue Palazzos [email protected]

Anna Bryson [email protected]

Interim Superintendent Mahler [email protected]

[Pam Sunderman]

Shelly,
You rock yet again :). Great idea!

[Dana Ford]

Thank you Shelly I just did send my email and ask them NOT to increase my childs class size but to cut the teachers pay. After reading the report one thing is clear the teachers care only about cash, mine in their pockets. Screw the kids and stay out my bank account is the union song.........no thank you. I am a parent first and my child comes before greedy union politics. So shelly feel free to throw your child under the bus with the teachers who lost a job but I am going to support the students and EVERY teacher!

[Eliminate Ignorance]

Dana
I think you'd better go back and read the fact finding report again. The report clearly supports the intial and current CUEA position, provides the district with more than it requested in cuts, and eliminates the threat of non-competitive salaries to attract future teaching talent. These are the issues that will impact your children. NOT your blind support of a radical minority who unjustifiably insist on keeping teachers in their crosshairs.
The only positive aspect I can glean from your post is to be thankful you are too old to be part of the public school system. Because it's the very lack of reading comprehension skills, like you have demonstrated here today, that cause our school's test scores to be in jeopardy.
Please stop your pathetic attempts at spin and just accept the report for what it is - factual!

[Disheartened]

Dana- that is so disheartening to hear that you really think teachers only care about money. Of course we care about and support our students. From what I understand, the BOT is the one who has several other options for NOT increasing class size. Monies they have in their possession and monies they continually waste. We ALL agree that class size is better smaller. The BOT was already planning on raising class size, so why blame the teachers for this? The BOT asked for a neutral party to intervene. She has. Now the BOT needs to man up and accept what they asked for. Seriously!

[socmom]

Keep in mind that the idea of increasing class sizes originally came from the district, not the teachers. The district has proposed increasing class sizes by at least one student in grades 4-12 since the beginning of the year. The district has also proposed increasing class sizes by 7 students in first grade since the beginning of the year. The district also approved layoff notices for over 300 teachers at its last meeting. So to say this idea came from the union is overlooking the last 6 months or so of district proposals.

[Wondering]

If this report is adopted-

how many schools will be closed?
which ones will they be?
how many teachers will be let go?
will there be any limit on class size?
what will 2010-2011 look like?

[Sonja Beck]

I am a working parent who feels strongly against what the district wants to do, cut the teachers pay and put a cap on insurance. Who in the heck is going to want to teach in this district????

Come on people really let's look at this logically, as the saying goes "you get what you pay for"! I want to be in a district where the teachers are paid top dollar. That just means we get the cream of the crop, everyone will want to work in our district. Most importantly the great teachers we have will want to stay!

If your child were sick and needed special medical care would you shop around for the cheapest specialist you could find or would you want the person who is going to look at your child as an individual and treat them with the care they need and deserve?

I remember being in a classroom with a teacher who thought teaching was their job and that's it. I don't want that for my kids! I want them to continue to love school!

Sonja Beck (Parent)
Carl Hankey

I emailed the board members last night...hopefully they didn't hit delete right away!

Dana I think you are the one throwing your child under the bus!

[1 size doesn't fit all]

If your child were sick, would you be satisfied to take them to the corner clinic, the only one available at no cost and the one that everyone says is the best because YOU have no other choice? Or would you push for other (maybe better or more appropriate) alternatives?

[Go Recall!]

Hay Dana,

After you cut every teacher's pay, who will teach your child's classes? Everyone who wants to cut pay always forgets to answer that question. The public expects teachers to be educated, erudite, well-qualified, giving of their personal time, and at all times totally selfless. Unfortunately, the public all too often expects wonderful people like that to work for peanuts. That isn't the way the world works.

A neutral fact finder (a school board member from another district, not less!) recommended her settlement. The board wanted her report, clearly believing that she would rubberstamp their draconian cuts. That didn't happen. the report calls for some give and take on both sides, but largely vindicates the teachers. The board should accept the report in full and move on from their.