By G. FRANKLIN PELKEY
Schools embody the dreams that we have for our children. All of them. --Deborah Meier
There is no greater demonstration of trust than to place the care of one's young in the hands of another, and it continues to be the case that Americans believe that their own local schools are serving their children well.
There are those who say that local school boards are the last bastion of meaningful local government as more and more political policy-making becomes centralized at state and national levels. Whatever one may believe about the role of local school boards, few underestimate the importance of their actions in upholding the public trust and providing the conditions for quality schooling for all our youth.
It is not by accident that our community benefits from five state distinguished high schools, two nationally recognized Blue Ribbon high schools and impressive school performances on such criteria as the rate of students staying in school, the percentages of students qualifying for university entrance and the scores of local, state and national standardized exams.
Less evident in the news media but even more powerful in their effects are our students' work in the visual and performing arts; their involvement in student government and athletics; their endless capacity for more science and technology; and their desires to excel in their personal goals. All of these achievements represent decisions, priority setting and planning for the use of local resources on behalf of students.
For students to have opportunities to achieve at these levels, the local school board is constantly challenged to find and retain the best teachers and support personnel; to keep the curriculum current; to provide the best textbooks and most recent learning technology; to maintain and upgrade facilities (science being the most recent example); to fund a seven-period day for students who want it; and to keep the school environment safe for all students.
All of these challenges mean ongoing resource management--working within a budget, projecting our revenues and expenditures over a three-to-five-year period, predicting the impact of governmental initiatives and using a crystal ball to guess the effect of local and state economies on local property-tax revenues and the fiscal stability of the district.
The local voter expects its school board to meet the challenge of educating today's high school student within the constraints of available resources and to remain solvent--and we demand this of ourselves. One of the challenges is finding agreement on reasonable compensation and quality working conditions for our employees, including teachers, who deserve the very best that we can provide. Coming to agreement with employee associations through the negotiation process on the best compensation that we can afford means careful planning and responsible balancing of available resources and competing priorities.
Negotiations by law are conducted by designated employer and employee representatives at the bargaining table. In keeping with the Rodda Act, negotiations may not take place outside of the mutually established negotiations procedures. The board provides direction and parameters to its designated negotiators. Board members may not negotiate current collective bargaining issues as individuals or as a board in any other forum. Your local school board takes very seriously the laws that prescribe collective bargaining procedures.
The board believes the interest of the public would be best served and that the negotiations process can benefit most at this time if the remaining negotiations sessions are held in public. The board's negotiators have formally proposed to the association in a letter dated May 1 that our negotiations with the Fremont Educatlon Association be open to the public.
The members of the Fremont Union High School District board welcome these seemingly awesome obligations. We understand the issues. We struggle to address these dilemmas that face us during numerous and difficult deliberations. We strive within the legal parameters of employer/ employee relations to balance competing interests and priorities over the next few years.
We hold your dreams for your children as a sacred trust. Together we will do the best for our community.
G. Franklin Pelkey is president of the Fremont Union High School District Board of Trustees.
By GEORGE GREDASSOFF
For years, the Fremont Union High School District has been an excellent place to bring your family. Not only is it located in the middle of one of the fastest-growing, most livable places on Earth, but the school system was second to none.
Students in the district continuously performed higher than every comparison group against which they are measured. Our graduates were accepted at the finest colleges and universities in the country. Our former students have become the leaders of industry and commerce.
People from all over the world moved to the district in order to attend our schools. As the San Jose Mercury News reported recently, people buy homes, often sight unseen, in the district so that their children can attend our schools to become well-rounded citizens. All of this is still true today. This is still a great place to live, work and educate your children.
The FUHSD became a renowned district in large part due to the vision of past boards of trustees having the foresight to recruit and hire great teachers. That was possible because the district had not only good kids, terrific parental support and a good reputation, it offered the young teacher a highly competitive salary and good benefits package.
All of that is being threatened today by the shortsightedness of the board and district administration. We did not issue a vote of "no confidence" in the superintendent lightly.
The FUHSD teachers were at one time the highest-paid teachers in the state. Then along come a series of administrators who had no stake in the district and, in most cases, did not live in the district. They did not and do not understand or appreciate the contribution of the staff to the excellence which had developed here. They do not realize that they cannot attract the very best graduates of the teacher programs with a salary schedule which has slipped as badly as the FUHSD's has. Beginning teachers in the district make less than some receptionists.
While the teachers in the district received just over 5 percent in salary increases since 1990, the cost of living rose by almost 19 percent. During the same time, the district's reserves have grown to $9.2 million.
The Fremont Education Association proposed a salary increase for all teachers. The raise we seek is affordable and would use less than half of the present reserves.
We know that the district needs to attract the very best in order to maintain the high standards which have been established. Many of the present teachers have reached a point in their careers where they are seriously contemplating retirement: One hundred seventeen of 391 teachers have been in the district more than 28 years. When these fine teachers retire, the district will have to replace them with new teachers. The district cannot hope to attract the very best teachers by offering them less than receptionists' pay.
Not only does the district not make a salary offer which will attract the very best teachers, they ask the staff to pay for their own benefit costs. This is hardly the way to attract recruits to the teaching ranks.
The district's chief negotiator has told the teachers' negotiating team that they should not expect to receive all of the reported 5.7 percent increase in wages. Some of that money will have to be used to pay for other things. Teachers are left to wonder just what the district is offering them.
The teachers' association doesn't believe the board has authorized its team to make any deals nor are they authorized to bargain. Their tactic so far seems to be one of delay after delay. The two teams have met more than eight times and it was only on May 8 that the teachers' team received any written proposal from the district. We entered into these negotiations early in the hope that we could conclude them before the school year ended. Our reason for wanting to accomplish this was so that we could end the year on a positive note, rest for the summer, and not have to face the acrimonious atmosphere of negotiating at the beginning of the school year. We especially did not and still do not want to see a situation such as that which ripped apart Oakland this spring. Our motto has become "No Oakland Here."
The community has a right to expect its elected officials to act responsibly and to meet with the association in good-faith bargaining. The community must step in, as it did in Oakland, to force the board to act reasonably in these negotiations.
George Gredassoff is president of the Fremont Education Association.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 15, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.