The VTA owes VUSD a half million dollars! claim ANTIs

Our ANTI friends are very angry at the legal precedents that allow a union to negotiate for a release time president. They are very interested in ending the policy and getting a 'refund" for the district. As I point out in the comment I posted at the North County Times, if the law suit goes against the CTA and VTA figuring out who owes what and how much is going to be difficult.

con no more (that's me) said on: February 11, 2010, 12:43 pm
Technical point--the VTA does not pay the EXACT cost of a replacement teacher for the president. The VTA often pays MORE than the cost of the replacement teacher. The contract between the school district and the VTA calls for the VTA to pay the amount in Class C, Step 4 which under today's VUSD salary schedule is $44,694. The district may have hired a replacement for as little as $33,859.

If the coming court battle between the CALIFORNIA (not Vista) Teachers Association and VUSD, turns out to support the most recent legal opinion obtained by VUSD, then the ACTUAL cost of each replacement teacher each school year will have to be figured and moneys credited to VTA for costs below what VTA paid or to VUSD for costs that were more than VTA paid. Services that the VTA president provides for VUSD will also have to be subtracted. It will be a messy piece of accounting.

And yes the release time president does provide at least one very valuable service for the district--advocate. Just as in the legal system there is an advocate for the accused, under collective bargaining there is an advocate for teachers who face job sanctions. Without the VTA president doing this advocacy job at the low, low cost of a teacher's salary, job sanctions against teachers could become very expensive court room battles.

Paying a set price for a replacement teacher for a full time release president has passed all legal review by lawyers employed by school districts in California including VUSD (last time for VUSD in 2003) for nearly twenty years. It is not unique to VUSD. Out of the approximately one thousand school districts in California, it is likely that at least a couple of hundred have the same arrangement.

If you wish to read the wording of the agreement between the VTA and the school district, I have posted the complete text at: http://vistaschools.blogspot.com/2009/09/release-time-president-vusd-board.html