Our ANTI public education friends still are posting occasionally. Their posts are often full of errors. Facts are misstated or just plain made up. Grammar and punctuation are problematic.
Last Sunday one of our friends who calls herself, "housewife" wrote a post after the Lilly/Bales opinion piece. I have copied her post in red. Her reference to the union owing the district money has to do with the legal opinion of a single lawyer who decided that the long used and collectively bargained VUSD reimbursement formula for the release time president was illegal.
The problem with this single lawyer's opinion is that this president release time language has been used for twenty years in dozens of school districts all across California and found to be legal hundreds of times in the past.
It may turn out that this new lawyer could be correct or he may not be. The question of who owes what and how much, if any, is owed is still being resolved. CTA lawyers maintain that our the Vista Teacher's Association owes the district nothing. The legal discussions are ongoing. I imagine it will be resolved in court. Of course, no one pays in a legal argument until a legal resolution is reached. Certainly the side with two decades of precedents on their side( theVTA) certainly would not pay. If fact if the VTA did pay before a legal resolution of the legal questions, then the VTA would be guilty of violating its fiduciary responsibility to not waste members dues money. This subtle point seems to have been missed by "housewife".
Here is "housewife's" comment, followed by "clare's" award winning response is below:
Housewife said on: March 21, 2010, 5:24 pm
It wouldn't matter what was in the article, someone would find it offensive in one way or another. It would seem to be of some assistance if the VUSD union would pay the monies declared by attorneys to be owed the school district. When other districts can ask for a reduction of much greater per centage (sic) of their teachers (sic) wages and an agreement can be reached, what does that say for VUSD's union? (run-on) Inflexible at best and greedy at the worst.(fragment) These are HARD times and HARD decisions must be made.
clare said on: March 21, 2010, 10:22 pm
Dear Housewife,
Are you aware that Dr. Bales is the highest paid superintendent in SD county? She earns $233,000 a year. The average salary for SD superintendents is $185,000. She spent over $10 million of our school budget on her ineffective LindaMood-Bell program.
Vista teachers rank 30th out of 37 districts in SD county in terms of salaries. I cannot afford to buy a home, and I am a college graduate with several degrees. If I were teaching in Oceanside, I would be making $17,000 more a year. That is appalling. It's not all about money. The district wants to make its proposed changes PERMANENT, and teachers want to place a two year limit on the changes.
We are not being unreasonable or greedy. We've been working without a contract for two years. Dr. Bales and Dr. Lilly mention other districts in their piece, but they make no mention of the fact that other districts have given their teachers pay raises over the years, and that their salaries are higher to begin with. I wish people would be truthful and honest. Misleading the public to gain public support is just plain irresponsible.
You are fortunate that you don't have to support yourself. I, and many other people do. As a teacher, I would LOVE to have you volunteer in my classroom for day, so you can see how hard my colleagues and I work. I have some amazing, bright, and lovely students who constantly inspire me. I also have 10 students in my classroom who have severe behavior and emotional issues due to their chaotic home environment. Increasing class sizes is not going to help these or any students.
Teachers are at school before after our contract hours, and on the weekends, to ensure that our students receive a rigorous and challenging education. I would also encourage you and other members of our community to attend a school board meeting so that you can be informed about the issues with the Vista School District before you make inaccurate statements.
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