by Anna Mavromati
Many Manhattan Beach school teachers will not be writing letters of recommendation for students this year, but district superintendent Michael Matthews says he will.
Last Tuesday the Manhattan Beach Unified Teachers Association announced that teachers will not be writing letters of recommendation or engaging in other extra-curricular activities this year as a protest over negotiations about salary increases for teachers. In a letter to the district community Matthews said that the district will see to letters of recommendation for students.
“If our teachers refuse to write the recommendations and the deadline is approaching, I assure you, the recommendations will be written,” Matthews wrote in his letter. “School administrators, district administrators, board members and I will write them. But our recommendations will not be as meaningful to colleges as a teacher’s recommendation. I am saddened by the MBUTA action, and I believe that many teachers are saddened too. I know our teachers. They love their jobs and they care deeply for their students. So if our teachers follow MBUTA’s harmful directive, you have people in our district who will intercede on behalf of our students.”
Matthews says that MBUTA’s protest violates a contract between the teachers’ association and Manhattan Beach School District. He said that a preamble to the bargaining agreement between MBUTA and MBUSD states that they must adhere to their contract until June 30, 2012 and “from year to year thereafter.”
“While a provision is made for parties to reopen the agreement, the language clearly expresses MBUSD’s and MBUTA’s intent to be governed by the collective bargaining agreement’s terms until a successor agreement is implemented,” Matthews said.
Kurtz said that Matthews is incorrect in stating that the association must hold to its contract with the district because that contract is expired. He said the association consulted with the South Bay United Teachers executive director and California Teachers Association attorneys about withdrawing from articles of the contract and said that the district was notified months ahead of time about the association’s actions.
“In short, Dr. Matthews is entitled to state his opinion in public regardless whether or not it is correct,” Kurtz said.
In addition to refusing to write letters of recommendation, teachers are also refusing to host clubs during lunch or before or after school, and are closing classrooms to students during snack and lunch. As part of the protest, they are also no longer arriving on campus early or staying late.
“He says he’s saddened by our actions, but we’re saddened by what they’re doing,” union president Karl Kurtz said in response to Matthews’ e-mail.
He said that teachers hope to reach an agreement with the district after a mediator comes into town this week.
“Letters of recommendation have always been voluntary,” he said, “We do it out of kindness, but literally for every letter you write you get compensated one hour of time.”
“It’s come to the point now where we have to defend ourselves and our families,” he said.
Matthews says that he hopes the district and the teachers association can reach an agreement soon.
“I know we can reach an agreement that can both provide a pay increase to teachers and keep our district solvent in troubled times,” Matthews said. “I urge MBUTA to stop directing teachers to take actions that clearly harm students.”
Matthews wrote in the letter about his personal experience writing letters of recommendation for students at lower-income schools as well as higher-income schools throughout his career.
“It’s a lot of work, but what an honor to be asked,” he said.
He said that his letter to the district was largely in response to parents who are worried about the effects of the protest on students.
“We were getting a lot of concerns from parents about the letters of recommendation,” Matthews said. “So while we are very hopeful about sitting down with a state mediator, we have to let those parents know the students are being taken care of.” ER
