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Ignorance is Bliss

Board won't fire district chiefs
'We can't react solely to a petition,' says president
(San Mateo County Times)

SAN MATEO The San Mateo Union High School District board is ignoring teachers' pleas to fire the district's top leaders, outgoing board President Marcia Cohn-Lyle said Monday.

Frustrations over the budget and contract negotiations provoked 96 percent of the teachers in the district to approve a vote of "no confidence" in Superintendent Samuel Johnson Jr. and Associate Superintendent of Human Resources Ethel Konopka.
Among reasons the teachers association cited for the vote were careless budgeting, contract violations, unfair labor practices, inept personnel moves and bargaining in bad faith.

"They are free to say anything they want," Cohn-Lyle said. "We don't agree with it."

The board, she said, has not voted to call for the resignation of Johnson or Konopka.
Board President Robert Griffin agreed there are no plans to terminate the two superintendents.

"We can't react solely to a petition," he said. "When the superintendents' contracts are up, we'll evaluate them appropriately. I'm not ready to make personnel changes."

Johnson could not be reached for comment Monday. He said Thursday that he could understand the teachers' frustrations over the budget problems, but that doesn't stop him from having to make hard decisions.

Teachers association bargaining chair Naomi Tuite said union members will talk individually with each board member to explain in detail their accusations against Johnson and Konopka. "I would be really surprised if some of them didn't have some concerns with the issues we raised," she said.

The bitterness between the teachers and the district began this fall, when unexpected budget problems caused the district to make $3.5 million in cuts, including laying off teachers and other employees. Now the district is looking to make more reductions in the spring.

Teachers felt with better planning, these cuts could have been avoided.

Relations grew even worse when contract negotiations between the district and teachers' association stalled in November because of a disagreement over health benefits. A state mediator is expected to help the two parties settle on an agreement.
Tuite said she thinks it will take some time before teachers and district leaders would have a good working relationship again. Furthermore, she said, the instability in the district may even prompt some teachers to look for work elsewhere.

"It will affect the long-term relationship, because people aren't going to be as trusting," she said. "It will be hard for a while. It will be uncomfortable for a while."

This isn't the first time such hostility had existed between teachers and district officials, Cohn-Lyle said.
In 1997, she said, there was an uproar when the district was experiencing budget problems and teachers did not receive a raise. "When they got a zero percent raise, I got death threats," she said.

Griffin said he would like everyone to begin focusing on getting things done instead of personally attacking each other."The thing that concerns me the most about the current problems is they seemed to be personalized, and there seems to be a lack of respect," he said. "All of these people are interested in education. They all went into teaching not for the money. We need to resolve these issues to focus on our mission to educate these students."

– Written by JC

Posted in

26 responses to “Ignorance is Bliss”

  1. Anonymous

    I think it is time for these Board Members to move on, ten years (at least) is enough for anyone on any Board or Council. (They might have been better when they started, I have no idea, actually.) However, that has zero chance of happening unless someone competent runs against them next November.

    Has anyone expressed serious interest? It would be great to have somebody who does his or her homework, and who is a critical thinker. I don’t think it has been at all helpful to this District to have board members running together, and voting in lock-step with one another. The checks and balances disappeared a long time ago.

  2. Mac

    The SMUHSD school board must have the same public relations consultant as the Bush administration.

  3. KRN

    Griffin said he would like everyone to begin focusing on getting things done instead of personally attacking each other.

    “The thing that concerns me the most about the current problems is they seemed to be personalized, and there seems to be a lack of respect,” he said.

    “All of these people are interested in education. They all went into teaching not for the money. We need to resolve these issues to focus on our mission to educate these students.”

    How does ignoring 96% of the teachers translate into respect? Respect is earned, or lost by the actions of the individual.

    I called my banker to tell him that I would be paying my mortgage with the smiles and thank you’s of my students. He didn’t think it was funny. Teachers do not go into the profession for money, but they need it to survive in the Bay Area economy.

  4. Mac

    “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.”

    — Thomas Gray (1747)

  5. Mac

    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

  6. fred

    Who watches the watchmen?

    Nice quote and a great comic book.

  7. KRN

    Democracy! The people must take action when their elected leaders fail.

    Here is a question for the board, What will need to happen before action or investigation is taken? Bankruptcy? (financial or ethical)

    Schools are not factories producing widgets. Schools produce human capital that will in turn be used by the student to produce their future. Treating teachers like factory workers will only get you a factory mentality in response.

    Teaching is about people, not programs. Under the current regime, the the contributions of the teachers (and others) are being placed second to the implementation of faceless programs. When the district begins to see an exodus of great teachers ( the first wave has already taken early retirment) then they may begin to realize what they have lost. The damage to the relationships will be hard to mend.

    The response…”We don’t agree with it. We’re going to ignore it.”

  8. Mac

    Thanks Fred.
    What are your thoughts about 90+% of teachers voting “no confidence” in the current administration?

  9. KRN

    Board President Robert Griffin agreed there are no plans to terminate the two superintendents.

    “We can’t react solely to a petition,” he said. “When the superintendents’ contracts are up, we’ll evaluate them appropriately. I’m not ready to make personnel changes.”

    That petition represents almost the entire teaching faculty of the district!

    Is the board falling into the fallacy of sunk costs? We have to stay with bad leadership because we have already paid for it.

    Stanford currently has three football coaches under contract. Two were fired and are no longer coaching at Stanford because they failed to meet the objectives set by the school. The school had to buy out their contracts in order to move on to a more effective leader. The buy-outs are costly but are less than the losses of continueing with a failing program.

    What will be the cost of expanding a program of failed leadership in the schools?

  10. Mac

    As I stated on a previous post, I think the school board and administration want to create an unfavorable work environment over the next couple of years so teachers in the middle to high end of the pay scale will retire/leave, thus allowing the district to hire less experienced “novice” teachers at half the cost– Under the current administration, SMUHSD is becoming a small-market team and will never recapture it’s previous luster.
    “Don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone…”

  11. fred

    Mac, the vote doesn’t surprise me. Cut my pay or limit my raise and I would probably vote the same way.

    I stepped away from the issue, I don’t see this as entirely Sam Johnson’s fault but I am not going to voice opinions on this subject when it seems possible that the teacher’s might strike.

    I believe the teacher’s deserve all the pay they can get, I understand the District Administration needs to balance those needs with incoming funds.

    The only thing I will say is the truest lesson I have learned in life, “You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate”.

  12. KRN

    “You don’t get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate”

    Right now teachers are trying to get the district to “pay up” on what they have already negotiated and now refuse to pay.

    Last year, the district got both the CTA and CSEA to agree to leave PERS healthcare in order to same money. This move saved the district over $1 million. Both unions agreed to the move, but not to a healthcare cap. NOW the district is stating, “oh, we included the cap when we made the move!”

  13. BHS teacher

    “I think the school board and administration want to create an unfavorable work environment over the next couple of years so teachers in the middle to high end of the pay scale will retire/leave”

    Mac might be right on this point but I don’t think it will work out the way they think it will. Several days ago, a group of five apparently content BHS teachers including myself, were chatting about the state of affairs within the district and the school. ALL FIVE of us eventually admitted to strongly considering leaving the district. What is surprising is that we five come from various departments and are all in the lower or middle of the salary schedule. Any faculty has its small minority of malcontents but these five certainly wouldn’t fit that description. We all seemed to be in relative general agreement about the main reasons of discontent:
    1) frustration that the district can break our legal contract at will and without any consequence while we are expected to keep following it – the arbitrary withholding of money from our paychecks for medical without negotiating was a significant complaint but it was the fact that it was just one of many breaks of the contract that seemed the most distressing. Additionally, their complete unwillingness to negotiate our contract which expired several months ago.
    2) to only a slightly lesser extent, frustration at the BHS administration which seems to be pushing its own agenda about the direction of the school regardless of the input of the faculty. Any input suggesting that a proposed policy (or, in some cases, a policy that we already have) is problematic or undesirable tends to be ignored.

    Any parent reading this can take heart that none of these five had any real complaints about the students themselves.

    The reason I don’t think Mac’s conspiracy theory will work for the very top-of-the-scale teachers is that only a certain number of years of experience are transferable from one district to another so the long-timers would have to take a potentially substantial paycut. However, the large majority of us are in the middle or lower end of the scale. And, at least as we discussed, there is an easy reason to leave: There are several very desirable districts relatively nearby as well as some excellent private high schools. And, the unfortunate reality in our country is that there is a significant shortage of qualified high school teachers. None of us five thought it would be difficult at all to get a job in one of those districts.

    Probably most worrisome is that this was five out of five usually content BHS teachers. It thus seems really possible that this could be the mentality of a very large number of teachers at BHS as well as at the other schools in the district. I’m not sure how the district would be able to deal with a large exodus given that they tend to have a hard time filling the relatively small number of openings in the district each year with strong teachers.

  14. bill

    Please go ahead and leave! I for one think we would be better off without you malcontents who do not seem capable of understanding that you have a very cushy job…

  15. Grinch

    Bill,

    If the job is so easy then why isn’t there a line of high quality people cued up to take these cushy jobs! If teachers do leave the SMUHSD, it will be the best teachers walking, leaving you with replacements. Why don’t you explain how the district will be better off without these malcontents. This should be a very interesting explanation.

  16. Mac

    My take is that is the departure of five teachers earning anything above the minimum salary could prove to be a cost-effective move for the school district. It’s really less of a “conspiricy theory” than the principle of “supply and demand”.

    The issue is that the school district is in a manufactured fiscal situation, and the impending exodus of teachers would allow the district to find less expensive, more compliant teachers who may (or may not) be the calibre that the Burlingame community expects.

  17. KRN

    How many good teachers are going to have to leave before the community wakes up that this isn’t a joke?

    How many good teachers has BHS lost in the last few years? Yes, include “early” retirement. The term early is the key. People don’t retire from great situations. How many more are looking at “early” retirement?

  18. neighbor

    I don’t think anyone knows the answer to these questions. Long experience can be good and it can be bad especially when tenure is involved. Is there any way to show that only the good go early? Peoples self-image of being good or bad has at least as much to do with it and we know their self-images aren’t always correct.

  19. KRN

    The most qualified teachers have the greatest mobility to move to another school or another career.

  20. ASE

    Bill, where do you get off continually criticizing highly qualified teachers for the tremendous amount of work they do? Let’s see your boss reach into your paycheck and pull out a hefty sum and see if you think your situation is so “cushy”. Besides, you may want these teachers to go, but you don’t have to deal with their replacements. We, the students, do. So before you start offending OUR teachers and running them out of OUR classrooms maybe you should consult us. Besides it’s not like these district problems are brand new. The negotiation of LAST YEAR’S CONTRACT continuing doesn’t help. Not to mention that negotiation means that there’s not contract for THIS YEAR. And the great teachers that don’t go into early retirment by choice are forced out by the Administration. Like at BHS when Frank Firpo was forced into retirement because the Administration completely phased out his legendary Honors Freshman Modern World History class. So what chance do we students have? With all the teachers being scared away, pushed away, and bribed away, what will we be left with?

  21. Mike Skrable

    Please go ahead and leave! I for one think we would be better off without you malcontents who do not seem capable of understanding that you have a very cushy job…?

    This would actually be really BAD for the students and parents. I am currently in my 11th year in the BHS math department and I can’t possibly emphasize enough how difficult it is to acquire and retain quality math teachers. Just during my eleven years, we have had several math teachers who were non-reelected (a euphemism for lacking the competence to be asked back for a permanent position) and, more frustratingly, an even greater number of excellent young math teachers who were given a permanent position but voluntarily left in less than five years for another district or another career altogether. In fact, the issue of retaining good teachers during the first few years of their career has been so problematic district-wide that the district actually created a beginning teacher support program several years ago in an effort to stem the tide.

    Throughout the district, openings in most departments are difficult to fill with mathematics, science and special education being the most difficult. I would imagine that competition from other local, highly reputable and high-paying districts such as Palo Alto Unified, Mountain View-Los Altos and Sequoia Union High are a factor. However, math and science departments are faced with a much larger problem. College graduates with a math or science background tend to go into careers that are much, much more lucrative than high school teaching. My strong personal disagreement with the statement that teachers have a very cushy job’ is irrelevant it is our reality that disproves it. If teaching was truly a cushy well-paying job, there would be tons of job-seekers clamoring to get a teaching position. There would be no teaching shortage, position openings would be highly competitive and thus only go to extremely qualified people and certainly no one would voluntarily leave a cushy, well-paying position early in their career. The part that worries me the most is that our district (and I would imagine many districts for that matter) has had this acquire and retain’ problem during my entire time here when there hasn’t been any labor strife. We could have an extremely large problem on our hands if a much larger-than-usual number of teachers leave at once, especially in math and science.

    The greatest losers in this scenario? It’s not the teachers it’s the students and parents. The teachers would be leaving to greener pastures in nearby districts (or other professions). Obviously, the students are the biggest losers because they were probably being taught by qualified teachers and now would be taught by who knows what. Now whatever happens doesn’t affect ME personally as I have no children so I don’t need to worry about the quality of the district my kids would attend and my job at BHS is exactly the same whether I am surrounded by competent teachers or highly incompetent ones. I would think the parents lose out also for the following two reasons:
    1) it’s their children whose education we’re talking about
    2) my limited experience and knowledge of the real estate market revealed that one of the reasons the real estate values are so high in the district is the reputation of its schools (anyway, that’s what our real estate agent told my wife and I when he informed us that the cities in the district were out of our price range) come to think of it, maybe it is good if the district quality declines so that I could finally afford to live next to school  [just kidding]. My point being, that I would imagine that parents who paid a lot of money to live in a strong school district would probably be quite upset if the quality of that district goes down.

    I have definitely heard rumors myself of many people who are thinking of leaving (in my career it’s been rare when I hear of even one, other than for retirement) and the real shame, in my opinion anyway, is that most of the time they cite the problems with/treatment by the district as being the main reason. Thus, it would seem to behoove the parents, students and district itself to have those employees somewhat content. Just my two cents.

  22. Anonymous

    Both my kids have had Mike for higher math and he’s definitely been a top favorite. Unfortunately, this type of teacher isn’t the norm, just as it was not the norm when I was in high school. Back in the late 70’s,( around the Prop 13 era), the SMHSD made it pretty uncomfortable for some longtime teachers. I remember at SMHS there were a couple of incredible math/science teachers who taught very advanced courses, and their enrollment was typically very low as only the most motivated kids even bothered to tackle them.

    At some point, rather than trying to encourage more kids to enroll, and preparing them for the tougher courses, it was easier (and cheaper) to have those teachers retire early and get some new ones. It was the saddest thing, and such a waste. It seems to be a slow downhill ever since then, with more and more parents opting for private, (if at all feasible.) In the late 70’s, private schools were largely for ‘problem’ kids. This is certainly no longer the case. Furthermore, who can blame parents for not wanting to take chances with their kids? Even if the quality difference is more perception than actual fact, it hasn’t changed the trend, and this will take years to reverse.

  23. Krn

    “Furthermore, who can blame parents for not wanting to take chances with their kids? Even if the quality difference is more perception than actual fact.”

    What happens when the difference becomes more fact than perception?

    The loss of a handful of key teachers combined with the elimination of the freshman honors programs in math, english and social studies may remove the difference.

  24. Angry Parent

    I’ve heard that the school was looking at eliminating the honors program for freshman but could not believe that they would do something so stupid! Its hard enough for an advanced student to get a challenging education and now they want to take away the one area where these students can thrive. If they eliminate honors for freshman then what are the advanced students supposed to do… sit in the hall and read while the rest of the class catches up? What a waste of time.

  25. Mac

    This is all called “the standardization of public education”. Standards-based and one size fits all… whether you’re at Compton High or BHS.

    It’s also about how much water can be squeezed from the rock… “Exit one high priced experienced teacher and you can buy TWO new and improved ‘highly qualified’ teachers for the same price”. Another example is extending the school day 7 minutes with a last minute declaration two days before the school year ends.

    However, an apathetic majority in the community seem to be at ease with poor leadership and back room deals. Time will prove the ultimate judge and jury.

  26. Mac

    And the community can’t say we didn’t warn ’em!!!

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