How Long Can Berkeley Schools Keep Their Teachers?

For a new teacher with less than two years of experience, times are tough. California’s last hired-first fired policy means that even if new teachers secure a job for fall, they could receive a pink slip by the following spring.

Despite turbulent times, the has managed to avoid issuing layoff notices or forcing furlough days in the last few years, and has even managed to increase the number of less-experienced teachers on the payroll.

But everything may be about to change.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s May budget revision, which is to be announced Monday, could include billions more dollars in cuts to K-12 education and force Berkeley to reduce its teaching staff.

“It’s not looking good,” Director of Human Resources Mary Buttler said of the next school year. “We are now in the same spot as everybody else. We are not sure what we’re going to do.” Furloughs, program cuts and teacher layoffs all are under consideration.

Until now, Berkeley has been able to hire rather than fire teachers.

This is partly due to natural attrition, according to Berkeley Unified Public Information Officer Mark Coplan. Teachers leave or retire and other teachers step into their place. But what really aids the school district’s ability to maintain a robust teaching core is the money collected locally.

While state per-student funding has been decreasing for Berkeley Unified School District since 2007-08, local revenues have been steadily swelling. Two parcel taxes have alleviated pressure on the district’s general fund, according to school board Director Karen Hemphill. Measure A was passed by voters in November 2006 and levied a fee of 22.80 cents per square foot for residential buildings and 34.36 cents per square foot on commercial buildings.

The parcel tax meant an extra $28 million for the school district in 2009-10 to use for class-size reduction. Combined with other local monies realized by the school district, locally generated revenue totalled around $38 million, or $4,401 per student. By comparison, the state average for local revenue in 2009-10 was around $504 per student.

Parcel Taxes and Other Local Revenue for Berkeley Unified School District, 2009-10:

“What we have is a very generous community,” said Buttler.

For new teachers, it meant Berkeley Unified was the place to be. While all other districts in Alameda County lost the majority of their least experienced teachers — those in their first two years of teaching and therefore hanging by a thread in terms of seniority — Berkeley continued hiring.

“We often get 50 or 60 applicants for a single teaching position,” said Buttler. “It’s fragile, but the district has managed to retain the same portion of staff as there were prior to the significant budget cuts.”

Since 2007-08, Berkeley has increased the number of teachers with less than two years of experience from 3.3 percent of the teaching staff to 7.5 percent in 2009-10.

Meanwhile, all other school districts in the county had to cut teachers with the least seniority. In the Alameda Unified School District, the share of teachers in their first two years of teaching dropped from 20.2 percent in 2007-08 to just 1.1 percent in 2009-10. In the same period, new teachers in the Albany Unified School District dropped from 32.4 percent to 1.5 percent.

Berkeley remained one of the top districts for employing inexperienced teachers, second only to the Oakland.

Teachers with Less than Two Years Experience in Alameda County School Districts (Percentage):

After three years and $20 billion in state cuts to education, however, Berkeley Unified is feeling the pressure.

Teachers agreed to suspend pay raises two years ago, helping to ensure that there would be no layoffs or furlough days. Since 2006, Berkeley teachers have also shouldered all increases in benefit costs, which tend to be in the 10 to 15 percent range, according to Cathy Campbell, president of the Berkeley Federation of Teachers.

But with further state cuts looming, the district is looking for more severe ways to slash costs.

“We’ve asked our bargaining units to discuss furloughs,” said Buttler. “We certainly have temporary teachers we could lay off. And we could chop programs that are non-essential.”

The school district is too late to issue pink slips to permanent employees, Buttler added, but can simply choose not to renew contracts with temporary staff. Only teachers in their first and second year of teaching can be considered “temporary” teachers.

“We’re now at a place where we’re joining our peers,” said Buttler. “This is a period of total uncertainty.”