Three School Systems Sign up for Race

January 11, 2010

At least three Solano County school districts want to join a federal education reform effort, though none so far have the support of their teachers unions.

Friday was the deadline to submit an agreement to the state to participate in the federal Race to the Top funding program.

Officials from the Benicia, Vallejo and Vacaville unified school districts said they would or had submitted a required Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the deadline.

The state could be eligible for up to $700 million of the $4.35 billion Race to Top funding, which requires participating districts to institute as-yet undetermined education reforms.

The MOUs, in which districts agree to follow program rules, had to be signed by district superintendents, with school board and teachers union presidents’ giving the state’s application an edge.

Benicia school board members reluctantly OK’d the agreement Thursday, some drawing comfort from districts’ ability to back out after more details are known.

But a federal education official on Friday said having lots of schools backing out of their agreements would reflect negatively on California and could hurt its chances for funding.

State education officials said they have told districts to take the agreements seriously but that there is no penalty, financial or otherwise, for backing out of the MOU, officials said.

The reform program could tie teacher pay to student performance and allow parents to move their

parents out of low perfo rming schools. Those were uncertain elements that factored into the Benicia teachers union opting against signing the agreement, Superintendent Janice Adams said at Thursday’s board meeting.

Vallejo Education Association president Christal Watts said she would not sign the agreement because its full impact is not yet known and that the union’s collective bargaining agreement, which expired in June 2008, still has not been settled.

Vallejo Interim Superintendent Reynaldo Santa Cruz said he and the school board president signed the agreement.