Redwood City Schools May Shave Five Class Days Off Annual Schedule (CA)

May 4, 2010

Redwood City School District students would have five fewer days of class next year under a tentative agreement between the district’s administrators and teachers union.

The proposed three-year deal would end lengthy negotiations between the district and teachers, who have been with out a contract since June 2009. It still must be ratified by the school board and the union.

The tentative agreement, reached late Friday, includes six fewer work days for teachers — five instructional days and one staff development day — in the 2010-11 and 2011-12 school years.

The drop from 187 to 181 days would result in a 3 percent pay cut for the district’s roughly 500 teachers, or between $100 and $300 less per month, said Bret Baird, president of the Redwood City Teacher’s Association. Teachers make $43,000 to $85,000 per year, depending on experience.

The reduced days will save the district about $1.1 million a year, Chief Business Official Raul Parungao said in an e-mail.

"Hopefully, the worst is over and they have a comfort level for the next two years at least," Baird said.

Under the new contract, maximum class sizes would be increased from 31 to 32 students the next two years, though teachers’ health benefits would remain untouched.

The contract is retroactive to July 1, 2009, and keeps salaries and benefits at their current levels for the rest of the year. It would run through June 30, 2012, at which point the school year would revert to 187 days and the maximum class size would return to 31.

Superintendent Jan Christensen said the 9,000-student district had little choice but to look at shortening the school year to prepare for state education cuts. Administrators already cut back their work by five days this year, she said.

"It’s not something that I think any of us think is good for children, but we’re being forced into making some very untenable decisions," Christensen said.

It’s not yet clear how the shorter school year might affect the curriculum, as the district and the teachers union need to decide which five days to cut, Christensen said.

Administrators believe the district will need to cut about $6.6 million from its approximately $78 million budget next year, though those figures could change with state budget revisions.