Guest Opinion: Rebuttal to PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald’s Guest Commentary “Superintendent Gives Final Offer to PUSD Teachers”

Brian McDonald’s public announcement of PUSD’s “Last, Best, and Final Offer” is misleading and self-serving. McDonald’s commentary is an effort to market a non-competitive three year salary proposal and deliberately leaves out any reference to the District’s final proposal that gives the Superintendent the right to involuntarily transfer and/or reassign any member of the United Teachers of Pasadena (UTP) Bargaining Unit as long as he determines that it is in the best interest of the District or the school site.

McDonald stated that as PUSD’s Superintendent, one of his responsibilities is to “manage taxpayer funds responsibly while being committed to excellence in all that we do.” McDonald acknowledged that PUSD’s enrollment has been declining for over a decade, so it would seem that right-sizing the District would be a priority to ensuring that taxpayers’ funds are managed appropriately. Why has the Superintendent NOT made the necessary personnel cuts to right-size the District so the staffing matches student enrollment? Additionally, why does the District’s organizational chart reflect a growing, rather than a shrinking, management team?

McDonald stated the majority of teachers “earn an average of $107,233 in total compensation, including salary, district-paid health care benefits and district-paid retirement contributions.” In public education, “total compensation” is understood to be calculated on salary and health and welfare benefits. In fact, the majority of the United Teachers of Pasadena unit members do not receive $107,233. The average salary is $65,473 with an average health and welfare benefit of $11,891, which makes an average total compensation of $77,364. The CalSTRS contributions, which are paid by both the District and the employee, do not equal $30,000 annually.

McDonald stated the District “is committed to attracting, retaining, and rewarding talented teachers.” However, the District’s offer “calls for a 3 percent salary increase” for 2015-2016 and “2 percent salary increase” for 2016-2017, but he deliberately leaves out that the District’s offer for 2014-2015 was 0%. Let’s do the math: 0%+ 3 %+ 2% divided by 3 years = 1.67% average per year, which will do little to improve our salary ranking of 43 out of 47 school districts in Los Angeles County. The District’s offer does not fulfil a commitment to attracting, retaining, and rewarding talented teachers.

In reality, the District is insisting upon an obviously inadequate and non-competitive salary increase in addition to involuntary transfer and reassignment language that is altogether severe and unreasonable towards teachers – which is not good for students and their families.

The Superintendent’s statements suggest that the movement necessary to prevent a prolonged and protracted struggle to settle the contract dispute must come from United Teachers of Pasadena.

It is this arrogance that McDonald must overcome in order for the parties to reach a fair and reasonable settlement that results from movement from both parties, not just the Teachers Union.

To read the complete text of the District’s Last, Best, and Final Offer for yourself, go to the District’s website at www.pusd.us.

Sincerely,
Alvin Nash, President
United Teachers of Pasadena