By ABEL MEJIA
The Human Resources Assistant Superintendent of Pajaro Valley Unified School District should take some remedial courses in public relations if she is going to succeed at her job. She is only partly to blame for the mess that is our district’s negotiation process and the job that the district does to provide for our children’s needs.
Her latest email, which gets sent to public officials as well as our staff, contains a variety of errors, half-truths and bold phrases. They are in darker font as if to make a stronger statement. Not impressed.
A quick Google search provides me a definition of public relations: “A strategic communications process that helps manage, protect, and enhance the reputation of an organization, its members, and its services.”
After a year-long struggle to come to terms with its certificated staff, they are now at impasse. No progress was made on Monday, Dec. 11. A district so intransigent with its employees makes it a place to flee from, not run towards. Images of accountants with their “fine-toothed combs” looking for pockets of money cross my mind. The money is there, but the district’s argument is that there is going to be a rainy day. While claiming fiscal conservativeness, the board has approved new expenditures and hires without first taking care of its dedicated employees. A 12-year veteran in this district can move over to Salinas and make 29 percent more a year. Oh, and, this also includes a signing bonus of up to $11,000! If the district cared about its reputation it would stop undervaluing its rank and file employees.
The Dec. 11 offer from the district includes “over $5.7 million in a variety of incentives.” One incentive is to take money from teachers’ left pocket and put it in their right pocket. If the teachers’ union increases their office co-pay and pays more for its prescription benefits, it can bring the district close to $3 million. That alone will pay for our 2 percent ongoing increase. Who absorbs the brunt of this shift in cost? Teachers. How is that an offer? Why wasn’t this offer brought to our attention last year? The district won’t explain this blunder in their convenient, one-page email.
Another huge error that escapes clear thinking is that the shift of costs to teachers means “no increases to employee paid premiums for 16-17 and 17-18.” We basically have two weeks left in the year. This contract dispute will be resolved next year. How will our premiums go up for a year that has already passed? It sweetens the pot without actually containing any new perks. Bad call.
A 6 percent increase for Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers comes up short of the union’s demand for 8 percent. People may quibble and disagree, but understand that these teachers have similar responsibilities to K-12 teachers, but get paid less than a custodian. How does the district demonstrate that it values these employees? Paper certificates, hand shakes and pats on the back don’t pay bills.
Incentives to help end this dispute are a clear divide and conquer strategy. It gives math and bilingual teachers more than other teachers. This states that one teacher is more valuable than the next and does little to promote equity or fairness. It gives one group of teachers a reason to push their union to settle so they may receive more.
Beware the ides of March! Somewhere in the second week of March, teachers begin to inform their school district if they plan on staying or leaving the district. If a resolution isn’t reached soon, expect darker clouds to fill our educational skies.
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Abel Mejia is a teacher in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. His opinions are his own and not necessarily those of the Pajaronian.
