Guest Opinion | Jonathan Gardner: United Teachers of Pasadena Back Safe, Stable and Fully-Staffed PUSD Schools

This Thursday, February 26, United Teachers of Pasadena, along with families, students, community members, and other allies, will come together to insist on Safe, Stable, Fully-Staffed Schools at the Pasadena Unified School District Board meeting. Trustees will be asked to address what is being called a “budget crisis,” but all we see is evidence of poor planning–and the opportunity to make things right. UTP invites district leadership and Board Trustees to deeply consider three areas that present opportunities for our district to live up to its values. First, the cuts to programs and schools that were voted on in November deserve to be scrutinized and alternative ways forward need to be defined; second, UTP’s bargaining proposals this year merit the district’s wholehearted buy-in; and third, the RIFs that are being voted on this Thursday must be postponed until other ways of balancing the budget have been found.

The cuts to schools are incredibly harmful to our communities. The layoffs being proposed by PUSD demonstrate the stripping away of fundamental student support from our schools – including school social workers, counselors, librarians, nurses, custodians, tech support, attendance clerks, community assistants, security, and more. This crisis disrupts every school site and our broader communities. Stripping programs away from our schools will lead to declining enrollment, as parents will choose to send their child elsewhere when a program is no longer available. When parents are faced with sending their child to a middle school that has a closed library or an elementary school without the art, music, or STEM teacher they were promised; when they consider dropping them off for the day when there is no nurse on campus to administer insulin; when they imagine worrying about safety when there are not enough noon aides, security guards, and out of classroom personnel to supervise lunchtime; they will look elsewhere. PUSD is already suffering from competition from charter and private schools, and these layoffs that directly impact the student experience at our schools will make choosing PUSD much more difficult. When the district creates uncertainty and takes away the programs, services, and student experiences that make families choose our schools, they are contributing to their enrollment crisis. We are finally on our way to getting back on our feet one year after the devastating wildfires, so we don’t need any more disruption. PUSD must prioritize and protect the student experience.

United Teachers of Pasadena is laser focused on bargaining for what our students need. Our students need manageable caps on class size so that they can get the attention to make academic gains. Overcrowded classrooms are the result of poor forecasting and late staffing decisions, not unavoidable conditions. Currently, we have some core academic classes with over 40 students, yet PUSD is refusing to entertain any discussion about class size caps. It’s our students who are ultimately paying the price for the district’s mismanagement – keeping classrooms packed violates PUSD’s own strategic plan because it is not learner-focused and does not create a quality learning environment. We need the district to work with us.

Our special education students need stability and continuity of care. A rotating door for special education services creates chaos and confusion for our students who need the most stability. We need dependable systems and staffing plans, not band-aid solutions. Our students and families need consistency year to year, and that means hiring within rather than contracting out.

In addition, our special education staff should have a protected planning period for case management.  When this does not occur, our teachers are forced to complete case management duties, including IEPs, during instructional periods-leaving our students with subs- or they are forced to work outside of their contract hours to accomplish case management tasks.  Lastly, in secondary, the special day classes should be grade specific.  Why would students who need more support, repetition, and accommodations be forced to learn in split grade classes, which reduces the time that the teacher can spend with each grade and with individualized goals?  Our special education students deserve to receive an equal education with grade level curriculum as their general education peers.  PUSD must prioritize and protect the student experience.

PUSD should be exhausting its $150 million reserves and looking for other ways to balance its budget before laying off educators. We must spend today’s dollars on today’s students. Last year’s layoffs, including those of teachers on temporary contracts, have caused students this year to have a revolving door of substitute teachers because the district could not fill the positions they cut. These students will never get this time back, and they have lost a year of instruction that could have been avoided by not laying off so many teachers last spring.  When a student has sub after sub in a core curriculum class, the message they are receiving is that their education does not matter.  Receiving a layoff notice is a traumatic and stressful experience for any educator and ultimately leads to amazing educators leaving the profession because the chaos is too disruptive. PUSD has a history of attempting to refill positions after layoffs, but it’s often too late because fantastic educators who make an impact with our students move on.  Layoffs contribute to our teacher shortage and have a devastating impact on students and communities, leading to larger class sizes, fewer student supports and instability in our schools. There is no funding problem – it’s a planning problem. If neighboring districts such as Arcadia, La Canada, and South Pasadena can manage to prioritize the classroom and avoid RIFs, so can PUSD! PUSD must prioritize and protect the student experience.

There has been a lot of talk about “reimagining” PUSD lately. We fear that the newly reimagined PUSD will be a bare-bones operation in which student wellbeing is an afterthought. Instead, we  invite PUSD to work with us to reimagine how it could center the ideal experience for students in every decision it makes. We urge the Board to delay the RIF vote, seriously consider the suggestions we’ve made, and come back next week with a plan that minimizes disruption to our community and protects the student experience. We insist on Safe, Stable, Fully-Staffed Schools for our students, because they deserve nothing less. Let’s work together to make it happen.

Jonathan Gardner is President of the United Teachers of Pasadena