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Despite the crushing budget cuts of recent years, teachers and administrators in the Torrance Unified School District have maintained civil relations.

But the tough economic times finally appear to be eating into the relative state of harmony.

On Monday night, a handful of teachers scolded the Torrance school board, charging that the district is taking advantage of their desperation to work by classifying some of them as long-term substitutes. This means they would perform the same work as their peers, but for nearly half the pay as first-year teachers, and with zero benefits.

In a couple of cases, high school teachers who earned $45,000 to $60,000 last year are being reassigned as subs, and thus are slated to perform the same job in the upcoming year for about $25,000, sans benefits and sick pay, teacher union officials say.

“We cannot stand aside as you further destabilize our classroom, and deprofessionalize our chosen career in our classroom,” teachers union President Julie Shankle told the board. “This policy or practice has further destabilized our classrooms, simply to save a few dollars while you maintain a 22 percent reserve and cry doomsday scenarios.”

School board members appeared caught off guard by the high emotions. But after buttonholing the staff about why the practice is occurring, most of the five trustees seemed to conclude that the dire times leave them with little other option.

“I’m not preying on you,” said school board trustee Mark Steffen, noting that he, too, is a public school teacher. “I’m not the tiger out there looking for someone to eat. … The goal here is to survive this so we can hire everybody back.”

The economic crisis of the past few years has left virtually no California school district unscathed, but Torrance Unified has been battered more than most, due in large part to the twin curses of declining enrollment and underfunding.

Here, the cuts have been so deep – more than 400 out of 1,500 teaching positions have disappeared in four years – that teachers with the least amount of seniority in the elementary schools now have nine years’ experience. Meanwhile, average class sizes have surged from 20 to 30 in the primary grades, and past the sacred threshold of 40 in middle and high schools.

As if that isn’t enough, analysts are now warning of a statewide call for midyear cuts, a nightmare scenario in the school world because it entails disrupting classes already in session.

Despite the misery, though, the Torrance teachers union all last year was careful to publicly adopt a collegial tone with the administration, reserving much of its verbal fire for legislators in Sacramento, and crediting local leaders for making do with a bad hand.

But on Monday night it was clear that, as far as the teachers are concerned, a line had been crossed.

“It’s not just a change in policy and practices, it’s a change in posturing as well,” Mario Di Leva, executive director of the teachers union, said of the district. “And we’ve changed our posture as a result.”

The specific issue at hand involves just six high school teachers. The teachers are scheduled to fill in for colleagues who are taking yearlong leaves of absence without pay for personal reasons, such as child rearing or going back to school.

In conformance with a 1-year-old district policy, the fill-in teachers are now initially classified as long-term substitutes, thereby saving the district $30,000 per head annually on salary and benefits.

Two years ago, such instructors were classified as “temporary teachers,” meaning they were compensated on par with their step-and-column peers.

On Monday night, some of the affected teachers shared horror stories.

Among them was Torrance-native Kelly Luhmann, who taught family and consumer science all last year as a long-term sub at West High School. In April, a frightening incident took place in her classroom. A student, later identified by police as 18-year-old Jessie Morehead, threw a roll of paper towels at Luhmann before taking out a knife and lunging at a girl.

“I was calling for campus security when he pushed me to the ground,” Luhmann told the school board in a wobbly voice, through tears. “I was diligent to let all of the students get safely out of the class and get the attacker to sit down.”

As a result of the incident, Luhmann said she had to visit workers’ compensation doctors, an orthopedist, physical therapists and counselors, all on her own time and dime, because long-term subs do not qualify for paid sick time off.

“Only offering long-term sub compensation for what we do is wrong,” she said. “TUSD’s reputation should be better than this. We’re here fighting for equal pay for equal work.”

Another teacher at West, Emma Biggs, last year was allowed to fill in for a teacher on leave as a temporary teacher. This coming year, the tenured teacher for whom she is filling in is taking a second year off unpaid , meaning there is a job for her again next year. But now, she is being reassigned as a long-term sub.

“I can’t even pay for day care” on that salary, she told the board.

Clearly perplexed, the school board discussed the matter for over an hour, even though it wasn’t on the meeting’s agenda.

The tension in the room was palpable, with school board President Don Lee admonishing the teachers for applauding after their colleagues spoke, and the teachers continuing to do so anyhow.

Seeming to agree most with the teachers was school board member Michael Wermers.

“I don’t like the way it feels to pay Mrs. Smith less than Mr. Jones when they are doing the same job,” he said. “I just don’t feel that that’s the right thing to do.”

Lee said that while he feels for the teachers, dipping into the 22 percent reserve during these uncertain times is a nonstarter for him.

By law, school districts must set aside 3 percent of their budgets for stormy weather. But Lee and other district officials maintain that the approaching storm is liable to grind down the reserve to the allowable limit within three years.

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” Lee said. “Yeah I can burn up the reserves, but then I’ve got a different set of people in here next year if we make the wrong bet.”

Lee added that when he was elected several years ago, the district’s total budget was around $200 million. Retrenchments have hacked it down to about $165 million.

“We don’t get there without some blood running down the sidewalk,” he said.

For their part, district administrators offered a technical explanation for the change in policy.

They said that some, if not all, of the long-term subs in question could be reclassified as temporary teachers by mid-September. That’s largely because by that time, officials will have a better handle on districtwide enrollment.

Administrators say that if they prematurely declare a fill-in teacher as a “temporary teacher” instead of a long-term sub, and then discover that enrollment doesn’t justify the presence of the teacher, they legally cannot dismiss the teacher until receiving permission from the school board. By contrast, long-term subs can be released summarily.

Translation: In the worst-case scenario, a temporary teacher who isn’t needed could be paid a full salary and benefits for up to a month, until the next scheduled school board meeting.

 

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