Teachers union won't oppose bill to extend pink-slip deadline

Bill Freeman, president of the San Diego Education Association (SDEA), which represents teachers in the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD), has told Assemblymember Marty Block that the union will not oppose legislation that allows for a move from March 15 to June 15 the deadline for notifying teachers that they might be laid off come July. The bill would affect only San Diego's school district. The deadline extension would be subject to agreement between the union and the district. Other districts would still be required to send pink slips to teachers by March 15.?

SDEA had said it would oppose the bill unless the district promised not to send pink slips in March. That put the district in a tough spot because if it made such a promise and then the legislation failed, it would not be legally allowed to lay off teacher for the upcoming school year. The district may need to lay off hundreds of teachers?if not more than 1,000?in order to deal with a budget deficit of up to $122 million.

"We have backed off," Freeman told CityBeat today, "and we have said that we will not oppose that legislation."

Block will introduce his bill today. In order for it to impact the upcoming school year, it will need to become effective immediately upon passage. In order for that to happen, it has to carry an "urgency" clause. Urgency bills require an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the Legislature.

The March 15 deadline is in place to give teachers time to plan for a possible layoff. However, it's problematic because school districts don't know by then what their budget will be because the state, which provides the funding, doesn't know its financial condition until at least May.

Block told CityBeat today that he planned to introduce the bill at the "urging" of both SDUSD and SDEA.

"We were very surprised that

the San Diego Education Association kind of pulled back from their initial, very enthusiastic support," he said, "but hopefully, they'll be there ultimately and support this bill in the end."

Block said the two-thirds hurdle for the urgency bill won't be difficult if the union supports the bill. It will need some Republican votes in both houses, but he said he doesn't consider it a "particularly partisan matter."

He speculated that the powerful California Teachers Association (CTA) will "defer" to the local union, which is under the CTA umbrella, but he doesn't know for sure. "If CTA were to take an 'oppose' position, it could kill the bill among my colleagues," Block said.

"It's going to be difficult to get it done by March 15 under the best of circumstances," Block said. "We're going to try."

The bill will have to clear the Assembly Education Committee and maybe the Labor Committee, as well. Then it has to clear the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which assesses whether it carries any cost to the state. Then it goes to the Assembly floor. If it gets the two-thirds vote there, it follows the same path in the Senate before going to the governor's desk for a signature. Normally, that process can take eight months, Block said. "If leadership of both houses... [is] supportive, and the Governor's office is supportive, we can get it done much more quickly," he added.

Update: The original version of this post said the deadline would be extended to May 15.

Source: http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/blog-778-teachers-union-wont-oppose-bill-to-extend-pink-slip-deadline.html

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