Torrance City Council – A Town Hall Style Conversation About Local Politics

Due to compulsory Williams reporting requirements, the District disclosed that it had received a Williams Complaint in June of this year.  The complainant alleged that restrooms were not properly maintained and stocked and that they were not a sufficient amount of restrooms kept open during school hours.  More specifically, the complainant wrote:

“No soap in restrooms all year, stall walls rusting and falling off.  No locks on stall doors.”

Williams Complaints stem from a 2004 legal settlement in which the plaintiffs asserted that public agencies failed to provide public school students with equal access to instructional materials, safe and decent school facilities, and qualified teachers.  Due to that settlement, persons may lodge a complaint based on the following criteria:

• Students do not have a book or instructional materials to use in class and take home;
• School facilities pose a threat to the health and safety of students or staff;
• Classroom does not have a permanent teacher assigned or teacher is not qualified to teach; or
• A restroom is not fully operational, well maintained and cleaned, stocked with supplies, and open during school hours.

Under the Williams Complaint procedures, the principal must investigate and fix the problem within 30 working days.  The complaint against TUSD was submitted to the principal at Torrance High School.  In response to an inquiry on the subject, the Senior Director of Elementary Schools,  E Don Kim, wrote in an e-mail that the issue “was handled and resolved by the principal and custodial staff at the school.”

The School Board declined to comment on the complaint at last night’s School Board meeting.

Last Monday evening the TUSD School Board approved a budget forecasting over $31 Million in deficit spending over the next three years. The deficit spending will have a dramatic impact on the District’s reserves. The Board had a budgeted reserve for economic uncertainty of $46.1 Million as recently as FY 2013-14. The forecast now indicates it will plummet to negative $6.2 Million within three years. That figure is well below the state mandated minimum of 3% (or about $7.3 Million).

During a prior presentation on the budget, TUSD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Stabler commented that a 17% reserve is a nationally recommended standard that Districts should have available and reminded the Board that the District recently held a reserve as high as 25%.

Notwithstanding that standard, Stabler explained that the District was intentionally spending down the reserve at the behest of the School Board. Alluding to why the Board took such action he said, “It’s the unions that don’t want us to have a reserve because they want to spend the money on salary increases.”

Torrance Teachers Association (TTA) President, Julie Shankle, took exception to Stabler’s comments quickly rising to the podium after he spoke to assert that:

“Unions are not opposed to Districts having a reserve … we just believe that money that goes to school districts should be used to educate children and should be used in the classroom. It’s not for getting salary raises.”

In seeming contradiction to Shankle’s statement, the Board just allocated a significant amount of its reserve to pay for a labor agreement reached with TTA giving teachers a 4% raise, a $2800 bonus, and a $500 increase to their health and welfare contribution.

The current budget, however, assumes no additional teacher salary increases for the next three years. Thus, any additional salary increases reached with the labor unions will further impact the budget.

Another factor that could impact the District’s financial outlook is the outcome of ongoing litigation. That litigation includes a lawsuit brought by at least 18 former students who claim they were molested by a former TUSD wrestling coach and another filed by the parent of two children who were hit by a car in a crosswalk on their way to school.

Speaking about that potential impact, Stabler noted that the District has $25 Million worth of insurance coverage and said that, “We don’t know what will happen with their lawsuit, but we feel the $25 Million in coverage should take care of it.”

Los Angeles Unified School District recently settled a case alleging similar circumstances to that of the Torrance wrestling coach for $88 Million.

The TUSD budget could also be impacted by the outcome of a proposed extension to the Proposition 30 tax increases. The extension is heavily backed by the California Teachers Association and is expected to be on November’s ballot.

TUSD’s budget is based on the ballot measure not passing. Of its potential passage Stabler said, “We don’t know what effect that will have on our budget, but it should be very positive.”

Stabler also attempted to alleviate any concerns about the budget and the diminishing reserve by stating, “We are aware of the situation and the Board and the Administration will deal with it.”

The Board meeting and budget presentation was Stabler’s last as Deputy Superintendent of the District as he recently announced his retirement.

Last Monday, the TUSD School Board approved a restructuring of its Special Education Department. To justify the move, Chief Academic Officer Dr. Stowe, cited impacts due to increased litigation as more parents of special needs children have resorted to suing the District in order to obtain legally required services.

Board Member Don Lee lauded the restructuring saying via telephone, “I think it’s as good a thing as I’ve seen us do in awhile.” Lee also cautioned that, “If we don’t provide the right level of service for special needs kids, then it ends up costing more money in the long run.”

Lee might have been referring to a litany of special education lawsuits filed against the District as not providing that right level of service has cost the District hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation costs and attorney fees over the last few years. Special Education law allows for parents to recover attorney fees if they prevail in a dispute. TUSD Board meeting records show that occurred in at least thirty-four instances over the past two years. As a result of this litigation, the District was forced to pay approximately $561,249 to the lawyers of the prevailing parents.

Board meeting notes also reference 41 instances over that same two year period where mediated settlements led to the parents obtaining increased services for their children such as tutoring, counseling, transportation, and evaluations. The total dollar amount provided for those services was approximately $376,887. How much the District has paid their attorney’s to fight the litigation and prevent the special needs children from obtaining the desired services was not included in the Board agenda items.

As a result of the restructure, the District will expand the Special Education Department by adding a Director position, four Coordinators, a Legal Administrative Assistant, and a Staff Secretary. The total costs for the increased staff is $867,000 a year.

Board Member Terry Ragins questioned the hiring of so many administrators versus working level employees by stating, “It looks like we have administrator, on top of administrator, on top of administator…” She would later comment:

“That’s a lot of Coordinators and Directors and not too many people with feet on the ground working directly with the students … For that same price we could get a bunch of teachers.”

To that Board Member Mark Steffen offered, “It is a lot of money. It looks very top heavy, but I’m with Mr. Lee. It should help us reduce the amount of litigation and keep people happy.”

Board Member Michael Wermers concluded the discussion by acknowledging the same concern when he said, “I agree with Ms. Ragins that we could use some more boots on the ground, but our budget precludes that so I think this is a very good move.”

Despite the expressed misgivings about the restructuring, the Board approved the motion by unanimous vote.