Calabasas mom advocates for education reform





Lesli Kraut

Lesli Kraut

A Calabasas resident is taking education reform to the state level.

Lesli Kraut founded a political action committee called Californians United to Reform Education, or CURE.

Kraut’s political activism started with her work as a volunteer at Las Virgenes Unified School District. As chair of the Measure E committee, a group that oversaw the spending of parcel tax money, she observed the district’s regular struggle with budget issues.

Kraut and her team of parents formed CURE to send a message to Sacramento. Educational decisions made by politicians at the state level needed to be more student-centric, she said. CURE could be the voice of change.

The CURE team supported a teacher evaluation bill, Senate Bill 441, authored by state Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello). Though the bill was defeated, it received enough support to give the group hope that change was possible.

Kraut’s group refocused its efforts to change the “last in, first out” rule that requires teachers with the least seniority to be laid off first when a school budget crisis demands cuts.

The LIFO rule is among the cornerstones of union practice, supported by the California Teachers Association, the Las Virgenes Educators Association and most teacher union groups, she said.

“We want all different voices heard,” Kraut said of her group’s goal of making a dent in the way teacher tenure is handled. “If one group is completely overwhelming, it’s not democracy anymore.”

Kraut and others want a new kind of “holistic” teacher evaluation established in California schools. The idea would be to have ongoing evaluations rather than yearly reviews or, in some cases, teacher evaluations every five years or so.

“Each teacher should be evaluated in several different ways,” Kraut said. As to how teachers should be let go, the CURE group is working out a detailed proposal.

“The problem with teacher tenure . . . comes when you have layoffs,” Kraut said. “It’s last in first out. Even if a teacher is amazing and is doing a fantastic job they can be let go. Even if they’re crazy good.”

Conversely, Kraut and others say that each year parents at some schools try to keep their child out of a specific teacher’s class. Often these teachers have angry letters from parents in their files. Yet the teachers are protected by union tenure rules, she said.

“It’s not fair—not fair to kids,” she said.

Reaction from union reps

Craig Hochhaus, president of Las Virgenes Educators Association, the union for LVUSD, said while they are sensitive to Kraut’s concerns about LIFO, the union and the district have worked to eliminate all layoffs during the budget crisis over the past five years.

“Programs like our negotiated early retirement incentives have created openings via attrition that have saved the jobs of our newest employees,” he said.

“Regarding seniority, it is not the biggest factor when it comes to layoffs,” Hochhaus said. “Credential type is the most important. Districts all over the state, including LVUSD, make a judgment that certain programs are more important than others . . . and the teachers with the training for that program have a priority in a layoff. So you could have a brand-new teacher being kept over a 30-year employee if the new teacher was in a priority program or had a more sought-after credential.”

Hochhaus has some complaints of his own regarding teacher evaluations.

“When it comes to employees with the same credential, our evaluation system is so poorly constructed and enforced it is virtually impossible to tell a stellar teacher from a poor teacher,” he said.

The current system is based primarily on the subjective evaluation of an administrator.

“It is not uncommon when a stellar teacher receives a lesser evaluation simply because the administrator does not understand the course content of the teacher. If we relied on this system as the basis for layoffs, it would be arbitrary and unfair.”

Hochhaus opposed SB 441.

“This bill, if it had passed . . . would set up a system for removing teachers simply based on the whim of a principal who may have a personal dislike for a particular outstanding teacher,” he said.

Sandra Pope, a union rep for the district for more than 30 years who recently retired, said teacher tenure just means that teachers are protected by due process laws.

“It’s exactly the opposite of what most people believe,” Pope said. “In the first two years of teaching you have no due process. You can be let go without being told why. At the start of your third year as a teacher, you are guaranteed due process, exactly the same as in any other profession.”

Pope said there are other misunderstandings about tenure. If there are problems with a teacher, administrators are supposed to attempt to correct the situation.

“Give teachers articles to read, have them observe another class,” she said.

The sticky part is that administrators must create a paper trail to show that they have tried to work with an ineffective teacher to get them up to par.

“There is no job description that says you can’t get rid of a person,” she said.

“The first in last out is very callous . . . ,” Pope said. “Would we want to apply it to all public and private sectors—CEOs, police? Education is taking a lot of heavy shots right now. People need to think about details.

“In the first two years, the administrators in LVUSD do a very good job watching closely and supervising new teachers to ensure there is a good match between district and employee.”


 

 

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