LARKSPUR SCHOOL DISTRICT
Larkspur, California

RESOLUTION NO. 2005/06-10

Proposition 74 – Put The Kids First Act

            WHEREAS, trustees on local school boards of education are elected by their communities to insure that quality teachers are recruited, hired, and evaluated for the state’s 6 million students;

            WHEREAS, research on new teacher support underscores the need for coaching, time spent on analyzing student work and goal setting to insure quality teaching; and

            WHEREAS, the measure does not provide any funds for new teacher support, reduction, and retention; and

            WHEREAS, Proposition 74 claims to help school boards, but would result in unintended consequences by changing probationary periods for teachers and redefining unsatisfactory performance; and

            WHEREAS, under current law the probationary period for teachers is two years, with performance evaluations required at least once each year for probationary teachers and at least once every two years for teachers with permanent status; and

            WHEREAS, Proposition 74 would extend teachers’ probationary periods to five years, thus requiring local boards to perform two additional performance evaluations during a teacher’s first five years, resulting in an additional 35,000 evaluations each year statewide; and

            WHEREAS, the measure does not clearly identify better and more effective evaluation processes to insure quality evaluations; nor does it provide data to support the extension to five years rather than three or four; and

            WHEREAS, Proposition 74 would redefine “unsatisfactory performance” as it relates to the dismissal of permanent or tenured teachers: a change that could require boards to abandon their own locally adopted definitions; and

            WHEREAS, the initiative would also specifically link the definition of unsatisfactory performance to a process that must be negotiated with teachers through collective bargaining, dramatically raising the stakes for these evaluations; and

            WHEREAS, this change could result in protracted negotiations over evaluation procedures, with impasses likely in many cases and an increase in grievances over evaluation procedures; and

            WHEREAS, the statewide costs of this expansion of the scope of collective bargaining and the additional evaluations required by the measure could run into the millions of dollars annually – costs for which districts would not be reimbursed; now therefore,

            BE IT RESOLVED that the Larkspur School District opposes Proposition 74 on the November 8 special election ballot.

            PASSED AND ADOPTED by the Larkspur School District Board of Trustees at a special meeting held on November 2, 2005 by the following vote:

AYES:  Kowalski, Mangan, Weeks
NOES:  Blatt, Futterman
ABSENT:  None

I, Valerie Pitts, Secretary to the Board of Trustees, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the Resolution adopted by the Board of Trustees of the LARKSPUR SCHOOL DISTRICT at its Special Meeting of November 2, 2005 which Resolution is on file in the office of this school district.