This op-ed column by Dennis Smith is the first in a series of articles that will be featured under the new People Post column. The space is dedicated for Long Beach citizens to comment on local ideas and issues currently facing the city. Send your op-ed or proposal to [email protected] to be featured in the People Post.

10:54am | On Tuesday, February 1, 2011, the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education voted to close two schools and dismiss up to 621 employees, 419 of them classroom teachers. The votes are the result of a $115 million budget deficit that could occur if Sacramento and voters cannot agree on where and how the state should spend its tax revenue, and from where and how much it should get said tax revenue.

Ignoring for now the causes of the budget here are some ideas to use the budget crisis to restructure LBUSD for the long haul.

Classroom hours
Why must every campus in LBUSD seemingly have its own schedule? Why can’t classroom instruction begin and end at the same time every day for every campus? On our elementary school campus the classes begin at 9:00am and end at 3:00pm with lunch and recesses in between. Other elementary schools start at 8:00 and end at 2:00; some high schools and middle schools begin and end instruction even earlier.

Standardize the hours of classroom instruction across the district, and while we are at it extend the period of time the students must be on campus. Ask homeowners and businesses around middle schools and high schools when the most mischief takes place in the area, before the 8:00 bell in the morning or after noon when many students are leaving school and off for the day? How many teen pregnancies occur between sunrise and first bell compared to last bell and sunset when hormonally-charged teenagers are free from school and parents still at work for several hours? Extending class time and mandatory time on campus improves grades, discipline and reduces other social problems and petty crime in the community.

Start instruction every morning at 8:30 and end instruction at 3:30, and all students must stay on campus until 3:30, even high school students. We are currently missing instruction days because of furloughs, this allows some of that time to be made up. In the future when furloughs are no longer needed the additional time on campus, either in class or in study halls, will benefit the students. Ask the professors at Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach how many incoming students must be taught what amounts to remedial English and math so they have a chance to succeed in college. Extra classroom time cannot be detrimental to the students.

Teacher hours
Teachers are paid to teach 180 days in the classroom. Many – and I know this will generate plenty of comments from teachers – many teachers arrive just before classes start and leave with the students when the final bell rings. Consider our children’s elementary school campus: Many teachers are tenured, have special skills or degrees and get paid very well to teach 180 days, similar to many campuses in LBUSD. They teach a six-hour day, from 9:00 to 3:00 with breaks for recess and lunch.

All teachers and administrators should be on campus at a minimum one-half hour before classes begin and at least one-half hour after school ends. They can use the time to meet students who need special assistance with lessons, or meet with parents, or participate in a club or other activity with students. Even spend the time walking the halls and school yards to let the students know they are there.

With the added class room time and the additional time teachers spend on campus and available to students instruction will improve, attendance will likely improve and discipline will improve.

Parents
The single greatest cause of a failing student or one with discipline problems is lack of parental involvement in the child’s education. LBUSD needs to follow the strictest letter of the law to enforce truancy violations and hold parents accountable. If individual students and families are chronic discipline or truancy problems the district needs to actively pursue removing the children from the parent or guardians care and placing them in a more suitable home environment. Too many children have had their futures thrown away because of negligent parents or families and a system that has over-reached to protect the rights of the parents, in the meantime the children are doomed to failure.

Parents must be made accountable for their children, for their actions on and off campuses and for their preparedness each and every school day. Our district feeds and clothes thousands of children daily, for
free to the parents and guardians. Our district offers a safe place for those children to be and to get quality education every day. If parents cannot uphold their responsibilities as parents to ensure their children are prepared for school, behave and learn then measures need to be undertaken to protect the children and their future.

Funding
Long Beach Unified School District needs to aggressively pursue breaking the bonds of Sacramento and mandatory spending policies. State and federal spending mandates handcuff LBUSD, and other districts, into spending funds on programs that may not be needed locally; or worse having funds just sitting in special accounts that go unspent because of programs that are not needed. Given that Sacramento has drastically slashed LBUSD’s revenue from the state, and much of the revenue that is received is pre- allocated, the district should sue the state to allow more flexibility and local control over spending.

It is challenging enough to work with the ever decreasing revenue provided from the state, the challenge is greatly exacerbated by mandatory spending requirements for many programs that are not necessary or needed in our district.

As well, principals and parent school site councils should have more autonomy to utilize revenue to enhance programs that are wanted or needed on their campuses. As with any executive, if principals are found to be unable to properly allocate funds they should be removed and more capable and competent individuals appointed in their place.

Merit
LBUSD needs to reopen and renegotiate contracts with its unions, particularly TALB, the Teachers Association of Long Beach. Not only to require longer hours and time on campus for teachers but to restructure the pay scales. The automatic pay raises guaranteed teachers who complete additional certification or masters degrees is extremely out of proportion to the added value that is brought into the classroom. In LBUSD there are teachers with advanced degrees who are punching the clock with
tenure making significantly more than a second or third year teacher actively involved in the class and social communities of their campuses, the inequity of pay within the education industry is the dirty little
secret the union would like to keep from the community at large.

Long Beach Unified School District needs to actively pursue a system of merit by which to measure and grade teachers. This merit system cannot be perfect, but to quote President Obama whom the teachers’ union supported, “Don’t let perfect get in the way of good.” The status quo of teacher compensation and tenure has to be scrapped for a system that rewards performance and results. Every campus has a teacher or two, in some cases more, that everyone knows is not doing an adequate job of teaching students and preparing them for the next level. Unfortunately, it is impossible to get rid of these teachers.

In renegotiating a new contract the district needs to hold firm on a system of merit rather than tenure and insist on making it easier for teachers, and administrators or other personnel, to be fired for non-performance or incompetence. LBUSD needs to know and understand that in taking a stronger position on teacher performance and merit based reviews it has the support of parents. In taking a position against merit based performance reviews and the ability to remove poorly performing teachers the union is taking the position that tenure and job security is more important than the education of our children.

Opportunity
In commenting on the recession Rahm Emmanuel said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” He was referring to the ability of the Obama Administration to use the economic crisis to create and pass legislation that would transform America’s economic and social systems. It is advice that the members of the Board of Education and LBUSD administration should heed. Do not let this budget crisis go to waste, use it as an opportunity to restructure the district. Increase class time, better leverage the hours being paid to teachers and other personnel by keeping them on campuses and active with students longer, proactively pursue parents and guardians who are endangering their children’s futures, establish a system of merit for teachers so they can excel and be rewarded.

By taking on the sacred cows of education now LBUSD has an opportunity to elevate an excellent school district even higher. LBUSD has a history of groundbreaking policies that have made it consistently one of the best, if not the best, urban school district in the country. Now is the time to enact more innovative ideas and policies for the betterment of our children’s futures and that of our community.

Dennis Smith has been active in the Long Beach community for over 20 years and is a Past President of the Long Beach Education Foundation (his views do not reflect those of the LBEF).