SBUnified
Since all conversations in mediation are confidential, this Update cannot disclose the options and ideas which were communicated through the mediator. The District is encouraged, however, that the mediator believes it is worthwhile to have a second meeting to continue our discussions in a good faith effort to reach an agreement.
NEXT STEPS: Mediation session number two is on April 10, 2024.
Dr. John Becchio, Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources
Kim Hernandez, Assistant Superintendent, Business Services
John Schettler, Executive Director, Student & Family Services
Ann Peak, Director, Human Resources
Dare Holdren, Principal, San Marcos
Jennifer Foster, Principal, La Colina
Kelly Fresch, Principal, Adams
Gregory J. Dannis, Legal Counsel
https://www.sbunified.org/departments/humanresources/negotiations-update
Pathetic that this has gone this far. Pay the teachers. Pay them now. Deflate the admin salaries and put that money into the teachers. Do whatever it takes to pay who are probably the 2nd most important and influential people in our kids’ lives right now. Shameful to see the District doing this. Further, hundreds, if not more, of local kids are entering their final stretch of their senior years with a looming strike that could affect everything from financial aid assistance for college to prom night. Many have already lost out on tutoring and other outside the class room services that teachers normally provide. Pay them now!
Yep. I have a HS senior. It’s been a lot of fun. We’ve been lucky to get the one college and scholarship recommendation letter.
MM1970 – Yeah, it’s great to see how much the teacher still care for the kids, even when they were working to contract and now during this. This is why the students have supported their teachers so much!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1765127915493024053
It’s absolutely shocking that the district has let itself become so mismanaged. The current Superintendent should not have had her contract renewed. She occasionally sings a sweet song, but her incompetence has rippled out all around her and teachers have been harmed. First it was a $6.7M deficit, but that was also a mistake and now supposedly it was *only* $3.2M, but the question remains: what happened to those millions of dollars? They make a difference here.
I am glad, at least, to see ongoing coverage of this in Edhat. I would like to also see SBTA’s unfiltered voice, and I would like to remind all Santa Barbarans that supporting teachers helps the entire community, just like supporting all unionized labor helps their fellow Americans.
Agree with both you guys. Mismanagement at its best. Hilda, you need to go. You are getting an F grade gal. And consider taking the current school board members with you. Ok, half of them…
I agree that we should see the budget. The district keeps putting out “Did You Know” propaganda. And the new board member has been doing her best, as she learns about the budget, to relay the definition of each “pocket” of money – various types of funds.
However, none of that fixes the fact that the district and board members have MUCH larger reserves than recommended or needed, and the reserves keep increasing. Every $ of reserves is money being taken out of teachers pockets. I understand budgets and their use. I get that it often means making difficult decisions. But without teachers YOU DON’T HAVE SCHOOLS. I’m lucky enough that I’ve got one kid almost out. The second one, I could supplement if necessary. The majority of students are screwed if we cannot hire and keep teachers.
Let’s all see the budget. After all most of the monies is coming from community property taxes. Surely the price of real estate has not tanked in SB. What happened to vasts amounts of relief monies. If the union, attorneys, superintendent, board all get to understand the funding why can’t the community be let in, like a partner. Or is the community stuck with a limited role and stuck with mediocrity for the majority of students. Superintendents come and go. Some do a lot of damage in a short amount of time.The community is left to triage the damage to 60%of our students who can’t read at grade level and math is actually worse. All the chaos and delays are having a profound negative effect on the school climate and on the achievement gap. We are loosing 100 teachers a year to districts that pay 20K more
This top – down style of running a district is so destructive when leaders are unwilling to be transparent.
Just last board meeting one of the presentations showed that of ALL high school seniors only 21% were
proficient at math. The 5 vulnerable subgroups are even worse. We need to include transparency and add urgency because all the delays are hurting our students, many of whom have one chance at a decent education and it is not happening in this mess.
Maldonado clearly needs to go. I don’t believe she can be “recalled”, because she wasn’t elected. But the School Board all were. How about a campaign – not from the teachers but from all us parents, kids, citizens – to pressure the Board to either step down or dump Hilda? They all need to know we’re not taking this lightly and we’re on the teachers and kids side.
“pressure the Board to either step down or dump Hilda” – Well, you know you can always vote for new Board members next election…..