By Greta Nerad
News Editor
And Kyra Williams
Executive News Editor
Teachers within the Manhattan Beach Unified School District began participating in job action on Feb. 25 due to stalled contract negotiations regarding salary and class sizes.
The Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association has been working for three years on contract negotiations with MBUSD. In response to the negotiation issues, Costa teachers have closed their doors during snack and lunch, preventing students from asking for extra help and clubs and organizations from holding meetings during those times. As of this week, Costa counseling staff and Manhattan Beach Middle School teachers also began closing their doors to students at these times.
“One thing we can do is protect that break time to alert people that this is not your right; this is us giving something away for free,” MBUTA President and English teacher Shawn Chen said. “We try to limit that sense of entitlement people have to our free time to help people understand that we don’t want to be taken advantage of.”
During Scholar Quiz this week, Costa’s administration required teachers to keep their rooms open for the competition. However, California state law requires that a certificated staff member is present in classrooms when students are inside.
“There’s a difference between damaging and harming students versus inconveniencing,” teacher and yearbook advisor Lindsey Valbuena said. “When students experience the discomfort teachers are constantly forced to deal with, the goal is to create that empathy and understanding that teachers do go above and beyond a lot of the time.”
MBUTA members’ wish to feel valued by MBUSD before donating their time drove the recommendation to the teachers to withdraw their participation in Scholar Quiz, according to an MBUTA email to teachers. Until the district and MBUTA agree on teachers’ salaries, benefits and working conditions, the job action will continue.
“Teachers serve as our role models, and they are teaching us students to stick up for ourselves and [our] beliefs in peaceful ways,” senior Hayley Gordon said. “Despite being peaceful, closing the classroom serves as an academic and social detriment for students.”
Elementary school teachers refused to write comments on their students’ report cards as a part of the job action. The only grades that students received are those on the elementary grading scale, in which the teacher rates students on a scale of one to three.
“Teachers not commenting on report cards negatively affects students because there is no way for these kids to know what goals to work toward or have confidence in what they have accomplished,” Robinson Elementary parent Talia Frederick said. “With positive or negative comments, students can understand their progress and feel as though their teachers care about them and their potential or their successes.”
The MBUTA bargaining team, made up of Costa history department co-chair Adam Geczi, MBMS science teacher Stacey Cooke, Costa history teacher Bill Fauver and Grandview Elementary teacher Daniela Olson, met with MBUSD representatives on Feb. 27 for three and a half hours, but did not reach a consensus on the contract. District members responded to salary and class size proposals, and the teacher representatives responded to the district’s calendar proposals. Although the groups made movement in a positive direction, they remain far apart on important issues, MBUTA said in a March 1 bulletin sent out to teachers.
“February of 2018 we started the negotiations, and we’ve met 11 times since then,” MBUSD Board President Bill Fournell said. “There’s been basically one negotiating meeting per month on average. Negotiations have really been in progress for a year for the contract because the first year was pushed back a ways.”
Initially, the teachers proposed a 9% raise over three years. This would constitute over a $7 million increase in MBUSD’s budget and would give rise to many restrictions and program cuts, Fournell said. The union told the district that they are open to a discussion over how that 9% is allocated over the years being negotiated in the contract.
“We’ve often faced the disrespect of our time, sense that we make enough already, that we aren’t entitled to cost of living increases and that it isn’t expected that teachers who work here should be able to afford to live here,” Chen said. “There is a lot of disparagement that comes along with refusal of the district to allow the teachers to partake of the budget in a way that’s fair and equal.”
Initially, the district countered MBUTA’s offer with a proposal of 1% retroactive only to the start of the 2018-19 school year. The teachers insisted that their offer of 9% is a reasonable raise, the bulletin said. The district then countered once again with 2%, again only retroactive to the 2018-19 school year, not the 2017-18 school year.
“Like any negotiation, there are two sides that want different things and have different expectations,” Fournell said. “For us to make [9%] work, we would have to look really hard at a lot of programs and there would be a lot of likely cuts.”
According to Fournell, MBUSD teacher salaries are close to if, not better than, of comparable districts like Redondo and Palos Verdes. After the 2008 recession, MBUSD was the first district in the area to give raises; teachers received 3% in 2013 and have received over 19% in pay increases since then.
“Every year there’s been a raise, and I don’t want anyone to think we’re not looking to have our teachers paid near the top of the community – they are,” Fournell said. “We want them to be paid fairly and as high as we can compared to their peers in the marketplace.”
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