LBUSD.com - District Administration

LBUSD Superintendent's Contract Renewed

Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent's Contract June 2006

Give Gaeblich an "A" For Effort -- LBUSD an "F"

Give Gaeblich an "A" For Effort -- LBUSD an "F", by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske, 01/28/2007

Councilwoman Rae Gaeblich (and the City staff that helped) should be given an "A" for effort in planning and executing the community resource fair that was held in Grace Brethern Church yesterday near Bixby Knolls. Rae has taken quite a few hits over the Bixby Knolls incident and I personally commend her for stepping up and trying to bring the community together by first of all listening to the youth in the community. The "youth panel" lasted an hour or so and most talked of their experiences of surviving the walk to and from school, not being able to use the bathrooms for fear of being "jumped" (these were the girls), not having good role models in their lives, and not being given choices about what they should do with their future. Noticeably absent were any representatives from the Long Beach Unified School District where these youth attend. Not a minute of listening. Not a minute of discussion about how the schools --where these youth spend the majority of their lives -- can be made safer and more responsive to their needs.

by Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske

School board votes down bond oversight with teeth - 11/28/2006

In August 2006, newly elected school board member Ellis (supported by Barton) proposed a Bond Oversight Committee to ensure the last $70 million of bond money was spent to meet the priorities of our students. Felton Williams, Jon Meyer & Mary Stanton all voted against it. Later, the Superintendent created the “facility meetings” tour. Unfortunately, this “input tour” has no legal enforceability mechanism or “public transparency” like the Bond Oversight Committee had. Meaning, instead of decisions being made in public (2 school board votes in support), it’s still the same-old, same-old in LBUSD (3 school board votes in support).

Editorial - The Head in the Sand Approach to School Improvement. 09/30/2006

Editorial - Lack of People Skills. 09/13/2006

From a District Insider - 09/12/2006

More schools make `the list' - 14 local schools could be targeted for federal intervention. Long Beach Press Telegram - 09/01/2006 - Read Michael Ellis’ Agenda Item to Address This Concern.

District Administrators don't provide the necessary support for all students nor requires college prep curriculum (info courtesy of www.caljustice.org).

Campaign Complaints Against District, compiled by the teachers at Newcomb.

Long Beach School Board Uses Taxpayer Funds for Political Mailer

What is wrong with the District Administrators?

Long Beach Unified School District Ratings:

• LBUSD is the 11th Highest Revenue per student in L.A. County.
• LBUSD is the 9th Worst in L.A. County in meeting State test goals.
• District High School Drop-out rates at 40%.
• Class Sizes Increasing in LBUSD.
• Less than 54% of LBUSD Middle Schools meet testing targets.

Budget Analysis Reveals District's 2005-06 Budget Increased by More Than 5.6% Over 2004-05, 2 nd Highest Increase Since 1992 (Dec. 2005)

The collective bargaining agreement between Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) and the school district expired August 31, 2005. Before that expiration, TALB proposed a salary increase for its teachers for the 2005-06 school year. As of December 13, 2005, the school board has yet to respond with a counter-offer. Considering that the entire $760,000,000+ budget is increased this year by more than 5.6%, the time is right for the school board to stop their delaying and offer the teachers a salary increase that will help retain and recruit the best educators from the area (See Unaudited Actual's in “District Budget” section). •  With over 7000 highly qualified active public school teachers living within the LBUSD boundaries, it is not acceptable that we are only able to recruit approximately 2000 of those to work in our district. •  It is not good enough that Long Beach teachers' salary schedule is the 34th worst of the 36 local districts. (See Salary Schedule Comparison Study). It is time to give a significant raise, such as the one given to the Long Beach Police and the nurses at Long Beach 's Memorial Hospital , to our award-winning teachers.

School Board's Cuts Primarily Aimed at Classrooms, $19 Million in Three Years ( Dec. 2005)

District budget documents show that over 200 teaching positions were cut through attrition from January 2003 through November 2005. This represents close to a $17 million cut to our classrooms. TALB Bargaining Unit Membership documents confirm that number; our bargaining unit had 5201 teachers in January 2003 and is currently at 4993 as of October 2005. At the same time, the school board through attrition and direct cuts has dramatically reduced the Instructional Aides who assisted students and their teachers in classes by $2.3 million. No other part of the budget has suffered as greatly by this school board as these $19 million in cuts to the classroom. This is why our class size is 2 pupils higher than the Los Angeles County average.

Study Reveals That School Board Keeps Award-Winning Teachers Near Bottom of Salaries of the 36 Local Districts (Nov. 2005)

The summary of the 2004-05 Salary Schedule Comparison Study below is the most comprehensive and objective tool to measure the relative strengths and value of different salary schedules. It takes 60 cells on each salary schedule and adds the total amount that a typical teacher would earn working 30 years in that district. The comprehensiveness of this study is contrasted with the school board's practice of highlighting one cell that may be strong on our salary schedule and then declaring the entire 150 cell salary schedule to be “competitive.” The districts in this study represent the ones within commuting range of Long Beach because they are the ones that compete with LBUSD for the best educators in the area. The study conclusively shows that our schedule ranks as the 3 rd lowest paid of the 36 districts. This comprehensive comparison is the only objective way to compare salary schedules; it does so by taking snapshots of the salary of the identical 60 cells on the various salary schedules. The comprehensiveness of this study is contrasted with the school board's practice of highlighting one cherry-picked cell that may be strong on our salary schedule and then declaring the entire 150 cell salary schedule to be “competitive.”

½ Page Summary of the Study

Entire Study

Salary Schedules of all 36 Districts

Regardless of who is to blame for the sorry state of teacher salaries in Long Beach , it is clear that the current school board majority has the power to change it. Based on our first four months of bargaining with them this year, however, it is clear that they have no interest or will to address this problem. That too is unacceptable.

School Board's Forced Change to Employees' Health Benefits in 2004 Costs the District $14 Million Before School Board Reverses its Error (Oct. 2005)

During Fall 2003 the current school board forced its approximately 500 administrators and over 1000 school support workers (CSEA) to drop their low-cost PacifiCare and Blue Shield Health Plans in favor of the CCN network. It attempted to force this change on the 5000 teachers, but the Teachers Association of Long Beach (TALB) fought back.

Approximately 1000 teachers protested the forced change in January 2004 and the school board was forced to back off. Unfortunately, the other employees forced into CCN plan ended up costing the district more than $14 million over what the cost would have been if the employees had stayed in PacifiCare and Blue Shield (See the District's worksheet on the annual savings it estimates now that CCN is being thrown-out of LBUSD). Had TALB and its members not fought so hard, the District would have lost an additional $40 million. Now that the school board has again forced its employees to change health care programs, you would think the school board would thank TALB for saving it $40 million and apologize for its original decision that lost $14 million in less than two years. Unfortunately, not a single school board member has acknowledged their original $14 million mistake even though all five current members voted for the ill-conceived change.

School Board Fails to Allocate Resources to Our Poorest Schools (Sept. 2005)

In August 2005, the school board unilaterally ended its partnership with the Teachers Association of Long Beach to try to recruit some of most experienced teachers to our community's poorest schools. These “hard-to-staff stipends” were monetary incentives for teachers to work at schools in low-income areas and cost very little as compared to overall salaries. The motive for ending this program was to simply strike-back at the union for its increased aggressiveness and is one part of a long-term union-busting strategy adopted by the school board. This is a clear example of politics trumping the welfare of students and their teachers. To see a study done by the independent and respected “Education Trust- West” regarding the school board's failure to address the shameful resource miss allocation of this district, click on the image below.

School Board Ignores Common-Sense Budget Savings Proposed by the Superintendent's Budget Advisory Committee (June 2005)

Last year a group of 30 citizens and LBUSD stakeholders came together to work on streamlining the district budget and making sure it focused on the classroom, not on less important budget items. The group which included administrators, teachers, school support workers, parents, outside experts and citizens of Long Beach spent the year drafting ideas and costing out proposals. They wrapped-up their recommendations at the end of the year and forwarded it to the district decision-makers. That was in June 2005. As of December 2005 the school board has failed to acknowledge the existence of these recommendations let alone act on them. Clearly the school board did not like the fact that so many of the recommendations centered on reducing bureaucracy and district office personnel. The recommendations can be seen in this document along with TALB's analysis.