Last month, district representatives rejected a union proposal that would have saved $3.8 million by implementing work furloughs on five school days a year, said Tami Carlson, president of the teacher’s union.
“We were quite surprised and disheartened when they didn’t accept our proposal because they had said at the outset that this is the figure they need to save and they didn’t care how the money was saved, but it had to come from our bargaining unit,” she said.
School districts are allowed to shorten the school year from 180 days, a measure granted by the California Legislature to offset steep cuts.
District representatives said they are open to furloughs that included non-teaching days, but would rather cut costs by capping district contributions to health plans and restructuring those programs for greater efficiency.
“How many folks out in the community have a health benefit plan that looks like ours? Virtually none,” Glendale Unified Supt. Michael Escalante said. “If we’re out there asking the community to support our schools, we have to be within normal bounds of what community members receive.”
But union representatives said that they do not want to close the deficit on the backs of teachers.
“We seem to be at a line in the sand because they’re saying something has to come off benefits and we’re saying we don’t want to do that at this time,” Carlson said. “Quite honestly, we don’t really feel we need to make that big of a concession because we’re not in a financial crisis right now. In response to their fears . . . we made these concessions and furlough days, so they could rest assured and we could maintain our benefits.”
But after months of impasse, district officials interpreted the furlough proposal as a sign that the union acknowledged fiscal pressure.
“The simple fact that they’re willing to do furlough days [shows] they must’ve reached the reality that there is a crisis,” Escalante said.
Containing the costs of the health benefits boil down to the district’s PPO family plan, which represents roughly a quarter of teacher association members.
District officials said they proposed a cap all health plans at $13,000, which wouldn’t affect the majority of teachers before June 2011.
But teachers in the PPO family plan are already paying $300 to $600 in out-of-pocket costs, and single-person plans will begin to see similar increased expenses in the next few years, Carlson said.
“But we’ve been taking hits to our salary every year and they want us to pay for benefits on top of it, that’s too much,” she said.
