January 18, 2007 VUSD School Board meeting speech

Brenda Hensley

VTA President

Good evening Board members.  My name is Brenda Hensley and I am the president of the Vacaville Teachers Association, proudly representing over 700 nurses, counselors, librarians, coordinators, psychologists, speech therapists, literacy coaches, program specialists and teachers.

I come to speak tonight on a topic of great concern. Before I address the issues, I want to assure you that I am not here to name-call, embarrass or rant and rave. I am here to express my memberships’ disagreement with a decision you made on December 7, 2006.  As elected officials, you should understand that this board is accountable to its constituencies. You make decisions that affect us. So when we disagree with something you have decided, I have an obligation to voice my membership’s concerns.  This Board has the responsibility to listen. This is not a personal attack on you or any administrator in this district, and I hope that you will take it as constructive criticism from an important part of the community you serve.

Mr. Yerkes, I ask you to grant me some leeway on time. I believe that this speech will slightly go over the three-minute limit; it is my hope that you will extend the courtesy of letting me finish what I have come to say.

On December 7^th, 2006, in a 5-2 vote, this Board approved an administrator pay package. The description in the Board agenda was rather vague. That brings me to our first concern: transparency.  This Board has shown a level of openness in the recent past with budget numbers and financial records.  But this item was voted in without full disclosure to the public as to what it actually meant.  Administrators were not simply given a 5% raise and a 1% bonus. Their salary schedule was restructured, and for some positions, it meant a 14% increase or more.  The superintendent and assistant superintendents’ contract details were not included, and their pay increased by at least 11% each. VTA sincerely hopes that this lack of transparency is not a shadow of things to come. Openness in all financial operations has been a key factor in gaining back the community’s trust in this Board and district.

Second concern: the amount of the raises. Please understand that we still believe a decent settlement was reached this year. Our concern isn’t about how much more we could have settled for; the total increase for the administrators wouldn’t have covered another full 1% increase to our membership.  But, the administrators’ pay increases went too far. How can you justify a 14% increase to a first-year principal or an 11% increase to an assistant superintendent the same year a librarian or a counselor receives 6.6%? How can you in good conscience implement a plan to make administrators’ pay comparable with other districts and not acknowledge the teacher pay inequities with Travis, Fairfield and Napa?

The main reason given by the superintendent, as quoted in The Reporter, for this pay increase is recruitment of administration. The same argument can be made for those who actually work directly with students.  From our sunshine statement and throughout bargaining, VTA has reiterated the same message: recruit and retain quality educators.  Every year, the district struggles with filling positions because candidates look at the salary schedule and take a job in Fairfield or Travis instead.  Vacaville students deserve the best and brightest teachers. We have an excellent teaching staff, but the younger ones don’t stick around. They start a career here, the district spends money training them, and then they leave for better pay. Several excellent teachers are due to retire within the next few years, and they will need to be replaced. Vacaville should be able to attract new teachers and have them grow a long, distinguished career in this district. But, why would they stay when our career earnings sorely lack compared to those surrounding districts? This action, with no plan to do the same for teachers shows that this Board does not have a focus on retaining the best educators that work directly with students.  Where is your plan to do this? In June 2006, our bargaining team gave each of you a binder with several salary and benefit comparisons of VTA to the surrounding districts, with the data to back them up.  You had ample time to work with your staff to establish long-term goals. But no long-term plan was offered or even mentioned by the district negotiating team that represents this Board.

One Board member at the December meeting, who voted against this raise for administrators, stated that if we cannot do this plan for all certificated employees, than we shouldn’t do it for just one group.  We wholeheartedly agree with that concept.  Another Board member stated that because it doesn’t cost very much overall, that this plan for administrators was easy to do.  What is easy isn’t always the best way to proceed. Sometimes the most rewarding and right thing to do, is also the most challenging.  Will it be challenging to bring up salaries to a comparable rate to Fairfield, Travis and Napa? Yes. But that is the moral and just course to take. Five Board members veered from that course and that negatively impacts my members. I’m sure that you do not want this issue to be a negative or divisive one. But, how did you expect us to react to something that clearly was NOT equitable? How can you expect this action NOT to be divisive when one group is granted so much more compensation than another, with no plan in place for anyone else?

I would like to conclude by putting this Board on notice. VTA intends to bring a long-term plan for compensation to you in the next round of bargaining. Some of the components of the administrator package (lower cost medical, retirement benefits, career increments, and relative comparability with surrounding districts) were included in our most recent proposals but rejected. Expect to see those again and a comprehensive plan for attracting and retaining the best of the best in educators who work directly with students.  Before you actually build next year’s budget, before you begin thinking of all the new programs you can start and spend money on, before you do anything else, think about the current program we have and the most crucial way you can ensure it is the best program it can be: employ the most valued and respected teaching staff in the surrounding area. 

Don’t Vacaville’s children deserve it?

Thank you and have a good evening