Teachers ramp up the pressure over salaries
BRAWLEY — In order to discuss a tentative agreement signed by the Brawley Elementary Teachers Association and district’s Superintendent Ron Garcia, the Brawley Elementary School Board of Trustees met on Monday in special meeting.
A full house of educators and family filled the district’s office board room for the public comment portion of the meeting and many of those in attendance brought signs to urge the board to take action on the agreement.
During the public comment section five of the teachers gave their testimony and urged the board to vote on the tentative agreement that was agreed to on May 31.
All items of the meeting were under closed session, meaning that the board was only going to discuss the matter and not take a formal vote.
“I’m here to urge the board to please vote on the Brawley Elementary Teachers Association signed and ratified tentative agreement,” BETA president Peggy Emanuel told the board during the meeting. “I think it’s important for us to get this over with, put it behind us. I don’t think you would want to leave this for a new superintendent to deal with as soon as she gets here.”
Another teacher that spoke at the meeting was kindergarten teacher at J.W. Oakley Elementary, Henry Moreno who told the board he felt the teachers had made a lot concessions but had yet to see the same from the board.
“We’re not in this career to be rich, we’re in it to enrich students’ lives,” Moreno said. “It’s signed (the agreement) we cannot go back and alter that and it would be a waste of time if we do that.”
After the meeting, Emanuel said that the BETA and BESD superintendent Ron Garcia signed a tentative agreement which would give the teachers a six percent retroactive raise for the 2015-2016 school year.
After it was signed BETA members voted to ratify the agreement and notified Garcia of their decision so he would move forward and present that agreement to the Board of Trustees for them to vote on, which Emanuel said he never did.
She said that the reason Garcia gave them to not present the agreement to the board was because the BETA wanted to exercise the “Me Too Clause” which allows them to get the same terms negotiated by another union. The teachers under the California School Employees Association and the Certified Pupil Personnel Association negotiated a seven percent salary increase and therefore would also increase the BETA members wage to the same seven percent.
“It has come down to this because Mr. Garcia didn’t present the ratified signed tentative agreement to the board after the BETA members ratified the agreement,” Emanuel said. Time is of the essence regarding the issue since the district is set to welcome new superintendent Rupi Boyd who will replace Garcia on July 1.
“I think it is vitally important to get it taken care of before the superintendent comes in,” Emanuel said. “I would hate for her to have to settle this and be her first order of business when it should have been taken care at the end of May when we voted on it. I think it’s a horrible way to welcome the superintendent into the Brawley Elementary School District.”
While the closed session was taking place Garcia informed the BETA members that no decision was going to be made during closed session. Emanuel told the rest of the group that the next step for them will be to submit a written request to have the agreement be placed in the agenda as an action item to allow the board to vote on it.
“Regardless of what we are all going through its important that we settle this matter this school year,” Third grade teacher at Phil D. Swing Elementary, Paula Baragiotta told the board. “Let’s leave the past in the past. We are here to look ahead toward the future.”
The next board meeting will take place on June 28.