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March 17, 2008
Not So CUTA Anymore
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| Image: Here's something that will always be cute. It's got to suck to be a Chico Unified School District teacher and be low on the totem pole right now. Part timers will be let go, and any teachers without the proper CUTA "street cred" are hanging by a thread (CUTA, Chico Unified Teachers Association). Hundreds of layoff notices went out to Chico unified teachers and employees. Something like 330 layoff notices were described in this Chris Gullick E-R story published on Sunday. You can be sure the complicated method of determining who gets put out to pasture has little to do with job performance. What's probably worse than being laid off is the fact that the teacher's union was told this might happen a couple of years ago when they demanded pay increases. It wouldn't be correct to blame negotiated raises for all of the economic pain headed toward Chico Unified. But some in the district said the result of teacher's raises would be layoffs down the road when the district ran out of money. A December 6, 2006 Chris Gullick story covers some of the contract that was negotiated. The negotiations were long and sometimes unfriendly discussions. It took a year and a half to finish negotiations and mediation. Feaster [Assistant Superintendant at the time] predicted that the contract was the beginning of a cooperation between the district and its teachers . He described the agreement as representing the turning of a new page in the district -- one of trust, honesty and respect. The new contract gives teachers an 11 percent raise over three years -- 1 percent retroactive to July 2005, 7 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2007, and about 3 percent Jan. 1, 2008. It also gives teachers more rights when they are reassigned and a greater voice when a school's curriculum must be changed to address program improvement. The last time Chico teachers received a raise that was not tied to step and column -- the raises teachers receive for longevity and education levels -- was July 2002. The board will need to make about $1.5 million in adjustments in each of the next two years' budgets, to cover the scheduled raises , trustee Rick Anderson explained, but it demonstrates how teachers are a priority with the district. "We'll need to remember that when we have to make those adjustments," he pointed out. I hope they remembered that when they sent out the layoff notices. Past pay raises are likely to cause problems for state and city governments as well. Negotiating pay reductions with unions is not a quick process. When faced with a dire need for spending cuts layoffs are the only quick solution. |
 CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Ulster's own Orange Order observer, the Rainman. See comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at March 17, 2008 07:10 AM
Comments
Hi Lon,
It's been hard but I've crawled back into the CI-zone to catch up on my reading. The downsides of being busy and forgetting to check the site are the missed Seinfeld references and missed CI Challenge opportunities, though embarrassingly, the George pose was probably the only one I would have gotten correct. The upsides are the new Onion links. Nice addition.
Best,
Tempra
Posted by: Tempra at March 17, 2008 07:38 AM
CIC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1420000/images/_1422212_orange300.jpg
The Orange Order marching somewhere in Ulster. The perfect antithesis to St Patrick's Day.
Posted by: rainman at March 17, 2008 07:47 AM
Tempra,
Well it's good to have you back. Although I think it is better for a person to be too busy for this blog as opposed to not busy at all.
Let's see, what are the big stories you missed... do you remember the city budget problem? Nothing's changed except a couple of great surveys were taken.
Did you get surveyed? I didn't. Oh well. That's all the news since you last posted.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 17, 2008 04:00 PM
Orangeman,
Yes that's the Orange Order. Also, CUTA members wore orange shirts to school every Tuesday before the '06 elections to show union support.
Or teen spirit.
Lon
Posted by: Lon at March 17, 2008 04:02 PM