Tribune file photo by Laura A. Oda

That seemed to be the thinking of the Oakland school district’s administration, at least during a special budget meeting in which the school board began to figure out how to reconcile its priorities with a $27 million budget cut (which equals more than 10 percent of the district’s general purpose funds).

Using an interactive Excel spreadsheet — which is supposed to be made available to the public soon — CFO Vernon Hal plugged in various average class sizes and teacher costs and, boom! Out came the number of students that school would need, overall, to cover its fixed costs (principal, clerk, utilities, etc.), and vice versa. Read the rest of this entry »

Tribune file photo by Laura A. Oda

Ever since a parcel tax for Oakland teachers fell flat without the support of the local teachers union, a committee has been meeting to try again, this time with a broader support base. There’s been talk of placing a tax measure on the June 2010 ballot.

And once again, talks about ways to boost teacher salaries in the midst of ongoing state budget cuts – and tense contract negotiations — have run right into a teachers union sticking point: whether any of the money raised by local property taxes should go to the city’s 30-some independently run, non-unionionized, public charter schools.

No way, the union says, even if most of the money would go to its own members. Read the rest of this entry »

To think that in January 2008, the Oakland teacher union’s first contract proposal included 20 percent pay raises and class sizes of 15 to 20 students.

Union leaders say teachers are now being asked to take a 3 percent pay cut and that the district wants to cap its health benefit contributions.

This news did not go over well. Hundreds of teachers left their schools at 2 p.m. and marched from Lake Merritt to the district office, demanding a better contract.

Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Laura A. Oda/Oakland Tribune

One of the six ballot measures in California’s May 19 special election would restore $9.3 billion to schools. But even if the public supports that proposition – titled 1B – it won’t fly unless another measure, Prop. 1A, wins too.

The California Teachers Association is backing both measures. So why did the Oakland Education Association, which belongs to the CTA, break ranks? Why did the California School Boards Association –which endorsed 1B, on principle, but not 1A – and the California Federation of Teachers do the same?

Read the rest of this entry »

Don’t call it merit pay. If you’re ever at a social gathering with a bunch of policy wonks, you can show you’re really in the know by offhandedly referring to “P4P,” a cute acronym I learned today at a conference about “pay for performance.”

New approaches to teacher compensation, which have come in and out of style, are definitely on their way back in. In fact, they are on the table right now in Oakland, as labor leaders and district administrators try to find common ground on a possible new parcel tax initiative for teachers.

Roberta Mayor, Oakland’s interim superintendent, and Laura Moran, the district’s chief operating officer, came to today’s conference to gain insight into the controversial compensation strategy that Obama has recently endorsed. Betty Olson-Jones, the Oakland teachers union president, and a couple of other local union leaders (who were skeptical, at best, of some of these proposals), also came. Read the rest of this entry »

photo by Kristopher Skinner/Bay Area News Group

By the end of this week, more than 800 Oakland school district employees will have received a letter warning of a possible layoff. Here’s the pink slip lowdown from the district office (Note: These figures are different than the ones in a flyer that’s circulating at some schools): Read the rest of this entry »

President Obama probably didn’t make too many teacher union friends this morning after a speech about education at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Obama called for the support of successful charter schools, a new academic calendar that would add more instruction time, and better assessments of student achievement — and of teacher performance.

Here’s an excerpt from a detailed CBS/AP story:

He did not propose any specific legislative goals on education in his speech Tuesday at the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Instead, the president talked about how America must work much harder to keep pace with international competitors. Read the rest of this entry »

Arne Duncan, the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, will be our nation’s next education secretary.

The New York Times says Duncan “represents a compromise choice in the debate that has divided Democrats in recent months over the proper course for public-school policy after the Bush years.”

Catalyst Chicago, which covers education reform in the Windy City, says improvements in the city’s public schools have been modest under Duncan’s leadership. A story published yesterday about Obama’s education pick reports:

Duncan’s oft-stated goal was to create the “best urban school district in the nation.” Yet here, as elsewhere, high schools have made little progress. Read the rest of this entry »

Each year, some 14 percent of Oakland’s public school teachers leave the district, and many of those vacancies are filled with rookies. The Tribune has devoted quite a bit of space and ink to the subject of teacher quality, most recently in our series following first-year teacher Andy Kwok through his year at EXCEL High School.

Want to learn more about how OUSD hires and supports teachers, or to offer your own two cents? There’s a District 1 (North Oakland) town hall meeting on that very topic at 7 p.m. next Monday, Nov. 17 at Piedmont Avenue Elementary School, 4314 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland.

The speakers include Read the rest of this entry »

The “Outstanding Teachers for All Oakland Students” tax measure received 61 percent approval, but it fell short of the two-thirds vote it needed to pass — likely, because it was strongly opposed by the teachers union, itself.

Now, it’s back to the drawing board (and the bargaining table). The district’s part-time CFO, Leon Glaster, hasn’t loaded raises into the budget. The state is poised to make mid-year cuts, and further cuts next year.

What should the district and the teachers do now in the short term — to avoid labor unrest — and in the long term, to offer more competitive pay?