Teacher Protest Briefly Shuts Down Pasadena Board of Education Meeting

Stalled contract negotiations between Pasadena school teachers and the school board once again took center stage at last night’s monthly Pasadena Unified School District board meeting. Demonstrators lined both sides of Del Mar just outside the school board chambers waving signs and encouraging motorists to honk their horns.

According to United Teachers of Pasadena President Alvin Nash, teachers have been without a new contract for more than a year and are currently among the lowest paid teachers among various surrounding school districts.

“We have been offered zero raises, and we know that the school board has received new monies in their budget through Prop 30,” Nash said.

Meanwhile, classified school employees, represented by California School Employees Association, which includes office employees, clerical workers, instructional aides, district security personnel and other non-teaching positions, came to a settlement with the district this past Monday.

Buddy Renzullo, President of CSEA, said Monday, “I believe this settlement is fair and in keeping with our ultimate goal of representing the needs and best interests of our members.” He said Thursday evening, that he did not believe that their settlement would have any effect on the teachers’ negotiations, explaining that each individual union negotiates its own agreements.

At the meeting, teacher Elizabeth Furnell pleaded with the board to come to a settlement with the teachers as soon as possible, detailing her financial frustration and saying, “I have to borrow money just to get my kids through summer.”

At one point the meeting and chanting in the board chambers grew so boisterous following Nash’s presentation, that Board President Elizabeth Pomeroy called a ten-minute recess, in hopes of calming the meeting.

Over at least the last six month, meetings between teachers union reps and the school board, with a third party negotiator. have yielded no results and the teachers are currently looking at working through the end of the current school year, with no new contract.

Associate School Superintendent Mercy Santoro, reached following the meeting, acknowledged the impasse, and said that the school board is still hoping that both sides can continue to meet to find “ a solution that will please both sides.”

The meeting was also notable in another regard, as at least four parents spoke before the school board in support of Madison Elementary School Principal Juan Ruelas. The placement of principal Ruelas by Superintendent Brian McDonald last spring, has engendered a host of complaints from teachers and parents at each monthly school board meeting since last September. This was the first meeting since then that he has drawn favorable comments from any public speakers at school board meetings.

Dina Perez Lucero, a parent at Madison and president of its PTA, said, “I am very happy with the school now, and I have seen some wonderful changes. I have been witness to some very positive changes at Madison.”

“I feel a sense of achievement from the school now,” added parent Isabel Santorio.