Piedmont Teachers to Rally Against State Cuts

Piedmont teachers union president Harlan Mohagen is hoping there will be a band of Piedmont purple in the crowd Friday when educators and advocates .

In the wake of $20 billion in cuts to public education statewide over the last three years, California teachers have declared a "State of Emergency". Friday's rally will be the culmination of a week of action and demonstrations organized to demand that state lawmakers pass tax extensions without which another $4 billion could be slashed.

Districts in Alameda County lost an average of $259.39 per student in state funding between 2005-06 and 2009-10. During the same period, Contra Costa County districts saw an average cut of $167.39 per student.

Schools across California have had to reduce their teaching staff by 10 percent on average since 2008-09, according to Michael Hulsizer of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA).
 
“We don’t have anywhere near the number of teachers to serve our students that we had three years ago,” said Hulsizer.

PUSD has kept mass layoffs and program reductions at bay with an emergency supplemental parcel tax, bumped up contributions from parents to the Giving Campaign for Piedmont Schools, and union concessions including a salary schedule freeze and furlough days.

With those local efforts buffering the blow, the impact of state cuts, Mohagen said, has hit Piedmont, "much later than other districts, but now it's hitting us pretty hard."

In March Piedmont that caps health benefits for the first time ever. In April the school board decided to.

If the state tax extensions fail, the Legislative Analyst’s Office says balancing California's budget would require a suspension of Proposition 98, which guarantees minimum funding for schools and adjustments for inflation and increases in student population. The result would be an additional cutback of more than $700 per student for the next academic year.
 
“I’ve been in education all of my adult life, so over 40 years, and I’ve seen many crises. I’ve never seen the kind of assault on public education that we are witnessing right now," said Sheila Jordan, superintendent of the Alameda County Office of Education.

After years of successive trimming, a further $700 per student seems impossible, Jordan said. So her office has instead advised districts to prepare for a cut of $349 per student based on the governor's January budget. If state funding drops from the current level by more than $200 that would trigger PUSD's contingency plan: a 1.5 percent pay cut for Piedmont teachers.

"We've got do something about it," Mohagen said. "It needs to be a district-wide effort."

So Mohagen is recruiting teachers, administrators, students, and parents to, "get Piedmont out of Piedmont and into the state fray," even if that means missing the 46th annual bird calling contest at Piedmont High School.

The demonstration in San Francisco starts at 5 p.m. Friday, so rally-goers will be gathering in Piedmont to head over at 4 p.m., the same time the contest is scheduled to begin.

"It will be the first time in 15 years that I will be missing the bird calling contest," Mohagen said.

Assistant Superintendent Michael Brady and school board president Roy Tolles have already committed to being at the rally, as have about a dozen high school teachers and a handful of middle and elementary school teachers.

If you want to jump on the bandwagon, put on something purple and call Harlan Mohagen at 510-710-1197.