Union bashes district’s proposal

By Danny Kelleher
Executive News Editor

Leaders for the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association bargaining team expressed discontent toward the district’s first official contract proposal on May 21.

In a bulletin to Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers from the MBUTA bargaining team on mbutanow.org, the team heavily criticized all three “main elements” of the district’s proposal.

“We had hoped for more,” the bulletin said. “We had hoped for a new era of respect and recognition, ushered in by a new administration. We have been reasonable in what we have asked.”

At a May 24 union meeting, teachers considered the idea of individually refusing to volunteer for Scholar Quiz, which many have volunteered for in the past.

“I started the damn thing [Scholar Quiz],” social science teacher and bargaining team member Bill Fauver said. “But my lunch is my time, and I’ll give it if I feel that the community values me as a teacher.”

MBUSD certificated staff employees have not received a market-rate adjustment since 2002, and this lack of wage increase has become a main platform of dispute.

“They have budgeted for $1.89 million to be spent on books and supplies over the next three years, and no money toward salary increases for teachers,” Fauver said. “They value things and gadgets more than they value teachers.”

MBUTA also brings up the district’s economic uncertainty reserve, which the district keeps at 5% of its general fund, more than the state’s requirement of only 3%.

“It is our responsibility to have reserves for fiscal management,” MBUSD Board President Ellen Rosenberg said.

The May 21 meeting was the fifth time the two negotiating bodies met, and the union plans on holding strong until changes are made.

“We’re going to wait to see whether the district puts the teachers as their first priority,” Fauver said.