Dozens of teachers chose not to participate in Mira Costa High School’s Scholar Quiz this week to protest the Manhattan Beach School Board’s response to labor negotiations.
The jeopardy-like event, founded 26 years ago by Costa history teacher Bill Fauver, tests 64 teams of four students from all grade levels in material from high school curricula, pop culture and events.
In a letter posted on the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association website, Fauver and former Scholar Quiz Director Steve Singiser wrote that in past years, teachers would spend nearly 30 hours of personal time developing questions, reading questions, and scoring and judging matches.
“Lately, though, this Board of Education has sent a clear message that our efforts are expected and not appreciated,” Fauver and Singiser wrote. “Rather than begin to meaningfully address the erosion of teacher compensation over 10 years, this Board has proposed to accelerate that erosion by offering no raise and an implementation of a hard cap on benefits.”
Usually about 35 teachers participate each year, said Costa PTSA President Erika White. This year, just a couple teachers participated in the event.
“It’s their right to make that choice,” said School Board President Ellen Rosenberg. “We were able to work around it. Everything appeared to be going as smoothly as ever.”
When event organizers received emails on Thursday and Friday from more than 20 teachers refusing to participate, they spent the weekend gathering volunteers for the event. For eight years, the event has been sponsored by the PTSA, White said.
“Luckily most of (the teachers) notified us before the weekend, so we had time to bring in extra volunteers,” White said. “It is an event parents and students love, so we had plenty of parents willing to step up and volunteer.”
About 80 volunteers filled the reading, judging and score-keeping positions on Tuesday. Even with teacher participation in past years, there’s always been a strong volunteer component, Rosenberg said. The number of volunteers needed dwindles throughout the week as teams get eliminated.
Karl Kurz, Costa science teacher and president of MBUTA, said that while their lack of participation may sadden students, teachers must look out for their own wellbeing. “(The district) is not making us a priority,” Kurz said. “Teachers really make the difference.”
The Scholar Quiz finals will be held next Tuesday at 11:20 a.m. in the high school auditorium. This year, District Superintendent Mike Matthews and Costa Principal Ben Dale will read the questions during the finals, instead of Fauver and Singiser, who’ve been reading the questions for years, White said.
“If teachers feel valued and respected, they will bleed for their students,” Fauver and Singiser’s letter continued. “When expectations and a sense of entitlement have replaced appreciation for our efforts, we begin to question whether we should continue what the Board has come to expect. The Board and their actions make it impossible, then, for us to voluntarily give of our time for Scholar Quiz.”
Labor negotiations are ongoing. The next scheduled meeting between bargaining teams is on June 11.
