TTA Blasts School Board on Calendar Controversy

In a lengthy post appearing on the groups FB page, the Torrance Teacher’s Association (TTA) issued a stern lecture to the School Board and the TUSD Administration. The statement came in response to calls from parents in the community to change the current school calendar.  In the statement, TTA referred to the issue as a “firestorm brewing” and blasted TUSD and the School Board for continuing to “blame TTA for their [TUSD’s] unwillingness to engage the public in dialogue on the issue.”

The statement also claimed that, “Dr. Mannon and the TUSD School Board is passing the buck and [is] not being totally transparent or correct with their continued response of “go talk to TTA.”

TTA asserts that the issue came up during negotiations three years ago and that they felt their membership was too divided (with 57% opposed to it in polling) to move forward with a change at that time.

In further defense of their position, the TTA cited a TUSD subcommittee finding that AP scores are not significantly impacted by the late start and raised the concern of how much it would cost to properly ventilate and cool classrooms without air conditioning during August.

The TTA statement concluded with the following comments:

TTA Leadership expects TUSD administrators to take ownership of the contract in which they are collaborative partners in negotiating rather than passing the buck. We expect them to be as accountable and responsive to their employees as we are to our members. Unfortunately, it is only now that this has become an issue with parents in the community that the issue has gained any traction. It further demonstrates just how much TUSD administrators and school board members discount the needs and working conditions of their employees and students when making decisions. Only when it becomes a “political” problem do they seek solutions. That is a sad commentary in and of itself.

Proponents of the calendar change recently started an online petition that as of this writing has garnered 216 signatures. Supporters of the petition claim the current calendar “does not align with the TUSD mission to support student academic achievement and maximize individual student potential,” and that it disadvantages Torrance students in several ways including:

• Students involved in extra-curricular activities like band or sports lose opportunities to participate in college recruiting tournaments and camps that begin the third week of June and are less competitive for summer internships;
• AP testing occurs in May leaving AP students with one less month of formal instruction leading up to the exams and causing instruction in AP courses to decline significantly once AP exams are administered;
• High School students wishing to enroll in summer sessions have fewer options as many summer courses begin before TUSD has finished the school year; and
• Students have difficulty getting final transcripts to colleges prior to the 01 July deadline thereby risking having their admissions rescinded.

In response to the petition, School Board Member Michael Wermers wrote that:

This is great! However, as I’ve told anyone who will listen to me, the move of the school calendar is a “negotiated item.”  This means both the school board and the TTA will need to agree to this during the negotiations next fall.  The School Board and the TTA have a very functional relationship and I have high hopes for how this will go…but it still requires agreement between both parties.

TTA indicated in their statement that they would not consider revisiting the issue until the close of the 2018 school year.