oakley press 06.27.14
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Your Hometown Local News & SportsTRANSCRIPT
16A I THEPRESS.NET
Talk About Town Nice surprise from the stands at an Oakland A's game last week -a fabulous rendition of the Star Spangled Banner performed by none other than the Liberty High School Choir. Huddled around home plate, the a cappella choir did themselves- and our national anthem- proud. Great job!
• • • There's still time to register for the family-friendly, free, Great American Cam pout this weekend at Cornell Park in Discovery Bay. The annual event is Saturday, June 28 and is a great way to reconnect with family and friends under the stars. For complete details and registration information, visit www. dbcommunitycampoutcom.
• • • And speaking of stars - and stripesthe Antioch Fourth of July Parade is back this year, bigger and better than ever before. The Americana Rivertown Parade begins at 11 a.m. at the comer of Second and E streets. Bring a lawn chair and your pride!
• • • Yes, it's summer so the parties just keep on coming! Circle July 12 and 13 on your calendar and head on down to the inaugural Brentwood Harvest Time Festival at Brentwood City Park. The free, two-day event will feature live entertainment, locally-produced food and beverages as well as contests, culinary demonstrations and informational booths. For more information about the July event or the Harvest Time organization, visit Harvest4you. com/201Mlarvest-time-festival.
• • • One more mark-your-calendar event: Oakley's Heart of the Delta Festival, which is scheduled for Saturday, Sept 13. This family-friendly event features wine tasting, gourmet food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, a community stage and more. If you'd like to be a vendor at this event, visit http://heartofoakley festival.com for more information.
0 BRENTWOOD PRFSS ~ ' & PVBusHING CoRPORATION~
I~"' National Award Winning Newspapers i Lw;: The PRESS NEWSPAPERS are adjudicated in ~ the cities of Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, and
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JUNE 27, 2014
Landmark case spells change for education by Dr. Rick Rogers
Superintendent, Oakley Union Elementary School District
A recent ruling by a Los Angeles superior court judge in the case of Vergara vs. California is a landmark decision which is a clear victory for the children of this state and quite honestly, for all educational professionals.
GUEST COMMENT
In short, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled last month
that the current laws related to certificated dismissals, granting of tenure Gob rights for life, unless fired for cause) and layoffs are unconstitutional.
I am intimately familiar with this lawsuit, having been subpoenaed as a witness in the case and deposed for nearly six hours by state and California Teachers' Association (CTA) attorneys.
To date, it has been impossible to have an open-minded and reasonable discussion on these issues, but I am hopeful there will now be a reasonable conversation and ultimately a solution that will balance the due process rights of all certificated employees with the educational needs and rights of our students.
Within the public education set-ting there are two broad classifications of employees: certificated and classified. Certificated employees must possess a credential issued by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. These staff members include not only teachers, but also all administrators, counselors, school psychologists and speech therapists. Classified employees are non-credentialed employees, such as clerical staff, custodians, bus drivers, food service workers and instructional paraprofessionals.
The judge's analysis included the following:
''All sides to this litigation agree that competent teachers are a critical, if not the most important, component of success of a child's ... educational experience."
The evidence presented was "compelling" and "shocks the conscience."
" ... A single year in a classroom with a grossly ineffective teacher cost a student $1.4 million in lifetime earnings per classroom."
In L.A. Unified, a student taught by a teacher in the bottom 5 percent of competence loses 9.54 months of learning in a single year."
The State's and CTA's own experts testified that 1-3 percent of teachers in California are grossly ineffective. Based on the State's and CTA's own witness, there are between 2,750 to 8,250 grossly ineffective teachers in the state.
It takes between two to 10 years to dismiss a tenured teacher at a cost between $50,000 to $450,000.
Due process is an " ... entirely legitimate issue." However, certificated employees in this state have "uber due process."
Classified school employees such as custodians, bus drivers and secretaries, are "fully endowed with due process rights." Yet " their discipline cases are resolved with much less time and expense." The laws are very simple on this topic concerning classified employees: dismissal procedures must be negotiated at the local level.
"Why, then, the need for the current tortuous process ... for teacher dismiss-als, which is decried by both plaintiff and defense witnesses?" "This is particularly pertinent in light of evidence . .. that teachers themselves do not want grossly ineffective colleagues in the classroom."
So what does this landmark decision mean? First, no doubt CTA will appeal through the state court system, and it is likely nothing will change for another three to six years. This is unfortunate and
hypocritical for a variety of reasons. Unfortunate, because by CTA's own admission tens of thousands of students will continue to be exposed to "grossly ineffective" teachers. Hypocritical, because the usual rhetoric from the union is "we don't want bad teachers in the classroom. We just want their due process rights protected." This ruling provides for that opportunity unless you insist on "uber due process."
While this ruling is a great step forward for our students and for our profession, I'm still concerned with what the ultimate outcome will be. Will this result in truly meaningful and balanced reform? My fear is that CTA and the legislators will draft a bill that will do the minimum to pass the judge's straight-face test. Ultimately, real reform may still have to come from the voters through the initiative process.
One simple, immediate step the legislature can take today would be to allow local districts to bargain the dismissal process locally. This is the law as it relates to classified employees. And it has worked very well for all parties concerned.
These arcane and restrictive laws have frustrated many of us - parents, teachers and administrators alike - for many years.
There has never been a more opportune time to have your voice heard in Sacramento. Call or write your local legislators. Tell them you want them to immediately pass legislation that would return local control to school districts by allowing districts to negotiate the dismissal and layoff procedures.
Furthermore, tell them that you expect them to embrace the judge's ruling in Vergara vs. California by passing legislation that will provide meaningful reform. Now is your time to support the profession, and more importantly, our children.
For more information on the case visit http://studentsmatter.org/wp-content/ uploads/20 14/06ffenative-Decision. pdf
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Baffled by benefits
Editor: As a past chairman of the City of
Stockton Salary Setting Commission, which has the responsibility to determine the wage and benefits for the mayor and councilmembers, I was surprised when reading the article "Council received illegal benefits" that the City of Brentwood provides council members with medical benefits.
Stockton councilmembers do not receive medical benefits. Stockton is significantly la rger than Brentwood. The commission conducts surveys of cities of comparable size in California in determining wages and benefits recommendations for the mayor and city council. Not providing benefits to council members is
consistent with the survey data. How can Brentwood, a much
smaller city, justify providing medical benefits for city councilmembers?
Editor:
Eugene Hammerson Brentwood
Keep the DBPOA
I wish to urge your vote to keep the Discovery Bay Property Owners Association (DBPOA) in place.
The DBPOA is the only organization working to see that the CC&Rs are followed. Even with the current board's hand wringing about the past, those dedicated volunteers were doing the best job $25 per year would allow.
In Mr. di Fate's letter in the June 20 edition of The Press, he wrote about le-
gal fees in excess of $120,000 but did not state that he personally was responsible for suing the DBPOA before he was a board member and collected a big share of those fees.
This court loss by the DBPOA was of a technical issue surrounding an interpretation of the D avis-Sterling Statute. After making this determination, no decision was rendered on the original dispute where Mr. di Fate did not follow the building plans that had been approved by theDBPOA.
And now that he won his case, he voted as a board member not to follow the Davis-Sterling Statute, whose goal is to protect individual homeowners.
Carlene Hunting Discovery Bay
