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District and union to enter delicate negotiation 

Now that the Board of Education has approved $3.8 million in cuts and set the stage for heavy layoffs, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and the school district are locked in a delicate dance over work conditions for those who will remain. 

“What’s nice is that both the district and the union are coming across with a collaborative attitude,” said David Gomez, associate superintendent of administrative services. “But it’s not going to be all rosy.” 

Budget cuts, approved by the board Wednesday night, include several items that may affect teachers who retain their jobs.  

Among other things, the board voted to increase class sizes and move from a seven- to a six-period day at Berkeley High School.  

Currently, BHS instructors teach for five periods, plan for one and monitor the hall for another. With only six periods in place, work schedules laid out in the teacher contract could be affected. 

The board also voted to cut department heads at the high school and replace them with “department specialists.” The specialists would have less planning time than their predecessors and a higher stipend. That stipend is negotiable.  

Union president Barry Fike would not confirm the issues at stake, citing the importance of confidential negotiations. But he said at least five of the contract’s 25 articles may need to be re-negotiated in the wake of the cuts. 

Gomez got more specific. He said the union, in preliminary discussions, has raised concerns over class size, work schedule, stipends for department heads at the high school, and a teacher evaluation program, involving peer review, that is built into the current contract. 

District and union officials are scheduled to meet Monday night and set a start date for official negotiations. Both sides said they expect civil talks, but fireworks at the school board meeting Wednesday night suggest there may be turbulence ahead. 

At the meeting, Fike criticized the district for failing to provide the union with financial and teacher retirement information. 

“BFT made a formal request for information to the district many days ago and we have yet to be handed one item on the list,” he said. 

Superintendent Michele Lawrence countered that the district only heard about the request at a meeting with union officials two days before. Fike countered that the official request was first made two weeks prior, on Feb. 11. 

Fike also attacked the district for scheduling layoff hearings during Spring Break, when many teachers have planned to go away on vacation. The hearings allow teachers to verify that the district has accurately accounted for their seniority, which plays a vital role in which teachers are cut.  

“The psychological trauma of receiving layoff notices is hard enough,” he said. “To purposefully schedule layoff hearings in such a way would clearly be adding insult to injury.” 

In an interview Friday, two days after the board meeting, Associate Superintendent of Business Jerry Kurr said the district will address the union’s scheduling concerns. 

“If that is an issue with a lot of people, we won’t do that, because we don’t want to start in an adversarial mode,” said Kurr. 

Still, Kurr said the district does have some concerns about paying for substitutes to fill in for teachers with layoff hearings during the regular work week.  

Wednesday night, the Board of Education voted to issue layoff notices to about 200 district employees. Roughly 150 of those employees are teachers or administrators who, if they have the proper credentials, could take a job in the classroom and “bump” a beginning teacher. 

The Board, which needs to cut about $6 million by the end of the year, plans to rescind many of the layoff notices as the budget picture crystallizes in the coming months.