District Proposes Furlough Days Despite State Funding Increases

Despite an increasingly positive education funding forecast statewide, at today’s School Board meeting the SDUSD Board will be “sunshining” a proposal to cut our pay in the form of furlough days starting next year. If this shocks you, it should. This proposal is insulting and goes against the grain of what’s happening everywhere else in the state. Even the rightfully maligned LAUSD leadership, in the face of a successful, massive weeklong teacher strike, has responded positively to the Governor’s proposed 2019-20 budget and reached a contract settlement today. With these proposed cuts, our School Board and Superintendent could not be more out of touch with reality.

These are the facts:

1. We don’t believe their budget assumptions, because history and our current analysis tell us not to.
2. The School Board has been missing in action. They need to actually show leadership here. They run our District, not the bloated bureaucracy that they’ve allowed to take over.
3. Given the improved state funding, the question the Board should be asking is how much we should improve, not how much we should cut.
4. SDUSD’s educator pay is flat-out not competitive. They need to invest in us and our schools, not make needless cuts to fund more pet projects.
5. Cutting the school year will harm students. It will make SDUSD less competitive in recruitment of educators. And it will tell the community that just voted to approve a $3.5 billion bond that the School Board is not serious about investing in schools.

We cannot take this lying down! As union members, we must move forward with our fight for competitive wages and safer schools, which is what wewill be sunshining at today’s School Board meeting.

If you want to fight back against these attacks on our schools and our pay, be at today’s School Board meeting! Educators across our state and nation are standing up and fighting back against attacks on public education. Now it’s our turn.

When: TODAY at 4:30 p.m.

Where: 4100 Normal St.

Who: YOU! Be there and bring a friend!

TOGETHER WE ARE STRONGER!