A Good Question about Furlough days in ABC

Groupwise email question asked: Is ABC going to restore lost pay too by adding those days back at the end of the year?

My reply:

Thank you for your email. I also saw this on the news and thought about the questions this will raise for ABC. Our financial situation is somewhat different for many reasons and I do not foresee the elimination of furlough day for this school year. First, ABC is the second to last worst funded district in LA County just beating out the revenue limit of Walnut USD so we do not have as much money to spend nor  have we had the financial cushion that other districts have had during this recession. However, ABC has not sent "pink slips" to any permanent teachers during the entire downturn whereas districts like LAUSD laid off over 10,000 teachers last year and on top of that increased class sizes and reduced heath care options. In ABC we have not increased class sizes over the contract limit and we have made minimal changes to our health plans and all on a shoe string budget.

I give you my word T++++ that the ABCFT's negotiating team's first priority is to make sure that we make teachers whole again by getting rid of furloughs as soon as we possibly can. Please remember that like LAUSD we have a structural deficit of 6.5 million dollars that we need to do something about. This means that ABC is still spending down our balance as we figure out how to cut 6.5 million from the operating budget without impacting classrooms and further burdening teachers with furlough days. 

We will keep all unit members informed about the budget decisions to be made in the future. Again, thank you for your email and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Ray Gaer
Preseident, ABC Federation of Teachers