Dear Editor – Calendar Voted Down by School Board

Dear Editor, and fellow educators,

Last night ( April 26, 2022) CCCT and the Association of Classified Employees (ACE) issued a demand to bargain over the 2022-23 school year calendar. For more than 20 years CCFT, ACE and Management have worked collaboratively on the calendar.

Last school year the Board of Education criticized how the calendar was created and told CCUSD leadership to improve the process. This year the calendar committee worked tirelessly to improve the process.

This year in addition to surveying our own members, the community was surveyed as well. Over 800 employees and 3000 families completed the survey and overwhelmingly wanted the calendar that was presented to the board. We also held a community town hall and brought the issue to partnership. Everyone was in agreement the calendar that was favored in the survey would be the best option for the upcoming school year. We also worked on ways for us to acknowledge students who may miss school due to religious observances and not to penalize them. The committee also realized that with the diverse amount of religions in Culver City it would be impossible to have a day off for all of them.

However, last night three members of the Board of Education voted against a calendar that was created in the spirit of collaboration. They were Steve Levin, Kelly Kent and Paula Amezola. Several members said their issue was with the process but never communicated to district leadership, myself, Debbie Hamme or the calendar committee what they needed to see in the process.

I would like to thank Tashon McKeithan and Summer McBride for supporting the collaborative effort and respecting the massive amount of time in creating a calendar.

Morale is at an all-time low in CCUSD. Dr. Levin, Dr. Kent and Ms. Amezola showed a complete lack of trust in their staff and a complete disrespect for what the calendar committee saw as a very open and democratic process and are now contributing to the further deterioration of employee morale.

I would encourage all staff who felt their voices not being heard to reach out to the Superintendent and those the three board members who are not listening to staff voices.

We will continue to update you on the calendar as it will not move into the collective bargaining process.

Thank you

Ray Long
CCFT President

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