Teachers: Contract Impasse in Beach Cities

The reorganization of school districts in the South Bay cities of Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan Beach has brought significant changes resulting in some successes, frustrations and adjustments.

As retired teachers who served two of the predecessor districts, one the Manhattan Beach Elementary School District and the other the South Bay Union High School District, we would like to comment on the current contract impasse in the new Manhattan Beach Unified School District.

We want to commend our former colleagues--elementary and high school teachers--for standing together and telling the school board that if they want high morale and quality instruction over the long term for our community, they are going to have to pay for it. Pointing to Sacramento and poor-mouthing the teachers and citizens won’t fly while they sit on a reserve of $20 million that could be tapped to provide the kind of education that is expected and deserved.

We especially commend the elementary teachers, who are supporting their new high school colleagues even though it is not in their immediate self-interest to do so. They are demonstrating the kind of professional solidarity that in the long term will provide our community with quality education.

Finally, we suggest that the district’s lawyer, Catherine Hagen, sign up for a refresher course in arithmetic with one of our third-grade teachers. Perhaps then she will realize that a 12-0 vote by the executive committee of the teachers union recommending a rejection of the district’s proposal and a 166-26 vote against acceptance by the teachers shows an overwhelming support for a bargaining team that Ms. Hagen feels does not represent the membership.

BOB AND MARY ANN BRIGHAM

Manhattan Beach