Labor cost was the theme of a well-attended Morongo Unified School District Board of Education meeting Tuesday evening. Reporter Dan Stork relates what was said—and decided—about funding, negotiations, and layoffs…
Approximately 100 school employees—mostly teachers—came out to show their support for their contract negotiating team, following a second round of labor negotiations with the Morongo Unified School District. At the start of the meeting, classified employee representative Jim Goldsboro, whose union has had one round of bargaining with the District, noted state-level pronouncements about increased availability of funds for public education, and contrasted them with 0 percent increases offered by the Morongo Unified School District so far in contract negotiations. He said, “If your strategy is to create animosity and mistrust, you’re succeeding spectacularly.”
During public comment, a succession of 20 teachers came to the podium to assert their support for the negotiating team of their union, the Morongo Teachers Association, to enthusiastic acclamation by the teachers in attendance.
In the agendized business of the Board of Education meeting, the Board unanimously rejected a staff recommendation that teachers— amounting to 18 full-time equivalent positions—be laid off, starting next year, in anticipation of a continuing decline in enrollments. The projected savings from the layoffs were estimated at $1.5 million. We asked Superintendent Tom Baumgarten what the consequence of the Board action will be; he said that staff will just have to revise the budget for the next three years accordingly.
SCHOOL BOARD FACES UNHAPPY TEACHERS, REFUSE LAYOFFS
