After over six bargaining sessions, the Redondo Beach Teachers’ Association and the Redondo Beach Unified School District have finally come to an agreement. Assistant Superintendent Nancy Billinger said they tentatively agreed take five furlough days for the 2012-13 school year. According to the MOU between the groups, if either of the November ballot initiatives pass, there will be no additional furlough days, but if both of them do not pass, an there will be up to seventeen total furlough days, depending on the amount of cuts to the budget the school district will face.
“Obviously we feel like this is a devastating times economically… we’re not happy any employees have to take any cut in pay,” said Billinger. “The employees aren’t responsible for the economic crisis, [we] feel the state is in charge of it. Unfortunately the staff [are] the victims. [Furlough days are] a necessary step to be able to manage our budget deficit. It’s not something we’re happy about or nor something [we] ever wanted for employees. It’s obviously catastrophic.”
To keep additional furlough days from happening, either Proposition 30 or Proposition 38 need to pass. “We believe that for the community to realize that a .25 increase in sales tax will save schools from being shut down for [additional] days is important,” said Amy Santa-Cruz, the Elementary RBTA director.
“Any day loss is a permanent loss in a child’s education,” said RBTA President Monica Joyce. “To think that losing days won’t have an impact, it will. Anybody would be naive to think that.” ER
