Board Ratifies New Teachers Union Contract
New Associate Superintendent of Business Services Hired
Torrey Pines Principal Discusses Improvements in Bathroom Safety
Superintendent Starts Discussion on Board Priorities
Board Ratifies New Teachers Union Contract
As a reminder, the District enters into a contract with the Teachers Union that provides for teacher pay rates, benefits, and various working conditions. The contract generally lasts for three years, and the currently effective contract expires on June 30, 2024.
Despite the notional three-year term of the contact, the agreement specifically allows for the Union to ask for pay increases during the term of the contract, a so-called “reopener”. Last year the Union asked to “reopen” wages and benefits for the 2023-24 school year, and the District is obliged to negotiate (though not obligated to provide any specific raise).
After several months of negotiations, the parties reached a tentative agreement, and at this meeting the Board voted to ratify the agreed contract modifications. The primary financial changes include the pay scale for all teachers increasing by 5% compared to last year, and the District’s contributions to their health care insurance premiums increasing about $1,900 per year per teacher. In total, most teachers will see an increase in salary and benefits of between 6.5% to 9.5% this school year compared to last year.
There were polite words from staff, teachers, and Trustees about how the negotiations were cordial and professional, although it is surprising that there was no staff presentation or Board discussion around the three key questions that should be asked whenever compensation increases are considered: 1) Is our pay competitive with other school districts? 2) What has been the increase in teacher pay over the last several years? And 3) Can we afford the proposed raise?
New Associate Superintendent of Business Services Hired
The Board approved the hiring of Mr. Stephen Dickinson to the role of Associate Superintendent of Business Services. This is essentially the Chief Financial Officer of the District, and is the job previously held by Tina Douglas.
Mr. Dickinson is an experienced executive and comes highly recommended. He will start his new job in the next couple of months, and will become a valuable member of the executive cabinet.
Torrey Pines Principal Discusses Improvements in Bathroom Safety
Torrey Pines Principal Rob Coppo discussed with the Board the actions taken to improve the safety and hygiene in the TPHS bathrooms.
As you may recall, many parents and students have complained over the years that at times the bathrooms were in such a poor state that students refused to use them, which is obviously not a good situation.
If you think about it, the solution is obvious - provide more adult supervision and monitoring. Students will be much better behaved when adults are present and would think twice about vaping, causing vandalism, or becoming violent if it could lead to consequences. However, it has been difficult to achieve meaningful change without a strong commitment to action and direction from the Board, which some Trustees were reluctant to do.
I tried for two years to instigate meaningful change, along with important recent support from Trustee Phan Anderson when she joined the Board, and it looks like we may have turned a corner. Principal Coppo reported that vaping is down, vandalism is down, and overall safety is up. The student Board Representative from Torrey Pines also reiterated that the bathrooms have been a problem for years, but lately have seen improvement. We now have more supervision by adults with site leadership reporting more frequent “pop in” checks. Principal Coppo also instituted a program of sending letters home to parents with loitering warnings for their children. With sustained effort I am confident that we can keep this momentum going for the benefit of all students.
Superintendent Starts Discussion on Board Priorities
Finally, Superintendent Staffieri kicked off a process of goal setting by proposing three high-level goals: 1) Academic Excellence, 2) Positive Climate and Culture, and 3) Fiscal Responsibility. (I note these are essentially the same three priorities I highlighted when I ran for election to the school Board, although I had a clever (?) acronym – the “ABC’s” – Academic Excellence, Budget Accountability, and Community Involvement.)
Those are good top-level priorities and can act as guideposts. But now the real effort starts, where we need to answer questions such as, how do we measure success? How do we instill a culture of excellence and continuous improvement? How do we improve accountability and foster a “parent and student first” culture?
This will not be an easy task, because we have fundamental differences in philosophy on our Board. To overstate the issue a bit (but just a bit), is the role of the Board to stop at these three goals and let the Superintendent go from there? Or should the Board use its authority to drive important changes to improve academic achievement, improve transparency, foster innovation, strive for excellence, and instill a customer service culture that recognizes that we should always put the interests of parents and students first?
I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation.