I would rather have the Barton reading program funding than paid employee birthday holidays.

A reminder that the public meeting begins at 7 pm tonight.

I would gladly give up the birthday holiday...Barton is way too important of a program to go without.

Who gets a paid holiday for their birthday? I've never heard of this before? Maybe I just never had the "right job". Sounds like there really should be no decision other than going with the reading program.

PUSD Board of Trustees voted last night to cut Barton funding in half. Classified personnel still have their paid Birthday Holiday.

Actually to clarify, Bowser, Laursen and Grant are the ones who voted to cut the Barton program.

Arkin and Hintzke voted to save the Barton program, but Bowser, Laursen and Grant outvoted them.

And Grant was one of the three trustees who were quick to agree to hire back, on a temporary basis and per Casey's request, a few employees who had been laid off so that their pensions would not be affected. I am not surprised that Grant continues to vote the wrong way.

What I do not understand is why the community elected Bowser and Laursen instead of Piderit (Piderit was endorsed by Arkin and would most likely vote in favor of keeping student programs)

"Classified personnel still have their paid Birthday Holiday."

It seems that Grant is more concerned with helping pensions, employee benefits that with the students. Hopefully next election, the community will be wiser and not vote for people like Bowser, Laursen or Grant.

Keep birthday holidays but get rid of Barton? And they claim it is all about the students? Two yes men are gone now, but were not replaced by smart trustees!

Thanks PUSD employee, that was kind of you to make this statement. I for one really appreciate it.

Regarding the rest of this, I don't like the tactics, but I'm sure Barton will be saved in the end. Also, have the employee negotiations happened? I thought they were still talking . . .

Bowser, Grant, and Laursen probably voted to ax the program because they know it will get attention and scare people into voting for a parcel tax (if you don't vote for the tax; the most efficient program in the district is cut). Shame on them for their political decision.

The district administration and the union are actually the most to blame in all of this. They should have worked on contract negotiations way before having to do this vote on cuts. We are doing these cuts because the unions are demanding their step and column raises, and holding off negotiations to protect the status quo.

You can thank the union president for these cuts.

Also, if we got rid of the administrators auto allowances of $600/month for each administrator, we probably have enough money to pay for the complete Bartons program.

Seriously, there aren't really auto allowances are there? Are you sure about this? That would blow the whole "we don't have anything else to cut" arguement out of the water!

Well, there is NO surprise that Bowser, Laurensen, & Grant choose UNIONS OVER STUDENTS....THAT'S what the union does. You KNEW that DIDN"T you ? ? ?

The list of employees receiving car allowances [you know Pleasanton is a giant metropolis, isn't it so I am sure a LOT of time is spent traveling; I am sure it takes AN ENTIRE 7 minutes to get from the District office to any school site :-)] was posted on the Town Square forum in May 2009. It is out of date and some people are no longer with the District, but the following were receiving car allowances back then.

Administrative Perk Roll Call, Count Off Now!!!!

Hubert Anton
Kathryn Benson
Sandra Betts
Rhea Brandon
Michele Brynjulson
Matthew Campbell
John Casey ($1,000/mo or $12,000 per year per contract)
Frank Castro
Luz Cazares ($600/mo or $7200 per year per contract)
Dana Chavez
Lisa Cheney
Terry Conde
Susan Connolly
William Coupe
Ralph Cruz
Gary Davila
Julie Duncan
John Dwyer
Maria Escobar
William Faraghan ($600/mo or $7200 per year per contract)
Carol Fernandez
Ben Fobert
Cindy Galbo ($600/mo or $7200 per year per contract)
Greg Giglio
Jane Golden
Richard Gorton
Ellen Gould
Myla Grasso
James Hansen
George Hefner
Barbara Heisser
Colleen Henry
Gary Hicklin
Diane Howell
Jorja Ivie
Adam Jennings
Kevin Johnson
Lauren Kelly
Michael Kuhfal
Larry Lagatta
Stephen Maher
Ron Mahler
Mark McCoy
Kim Michels
Robert Middleton
Jon Morgan
Esmeralda Moseley
Kim Ortiz
Dee Osborne
Carolyn Parker
Aileen Parsons
Leann Pomplun
Bill Radulovich
Jim Rallis
Kent Rezowalli
Kenneth Roch
Fred Rutledge
Marc Schweitzer
Robin Sehrt
Amy Simione
Rick Sira
Glen Sparks
Chris Tibbets
Lori Vella
Jon Vranesh
John Whitney
Charles Young

Thanks for the info, but that's 2009. I'm sure it's all gone now.

Many cities, counties, and special districts allow car allowances to be included in the pension calculation. If an employee receives a $500 dollars per month car allowance that could add $6,000 dollars per year to the pensionable income. If the employee were to receive 80% at retirement that would increase the pension payout by $4,800 per year.

I'm not sure what the car allownce plan in Pleasanton is but many cities allow this to happen.

I doubt there are any car allowances in Pleasantono now, but if there are please tell me.

Of course there are still car allowances! For example, the new Superintendent, for instance, receives a $7,200 car allowance.

Web Link

I have to say I really am surprised. Well, I guess there are things to cut other than kids programs! Honestly . . .

This is a false choice. The board did not have any part of the CSEA contract on its agenda at that meeting, and so they could not have changed the "birthday holiday".

It's a bummer that the Barton program might be cut in half, and other reading specialists might be cut as well... I hope that some changes can be made to reverse those cuts.

The Board has closing comments where the Board can bring up and vote on items to be agendized for the upcoming meeting, however, this time is usually spent in long-winded speeches regarding talks/trips with people in "Sacramento" and several fawn over just how great the staff are ("aren't we lucky to have them! hurray!") as well as commercials for the Chamber of Commerce, i.e. promotions for the "Leadership Pleasanton" program.

They could have requested months ago that the Birthday Holiday be brought as an item for discussion as well as discussion of everyone who has transportation allowances and how much it is costing the District. Just because a union contract or an administrator's contract was not on the agenda two nights ago is no reason it could not have been brought up months ago.

FYI:

From the list above of people getting car allowances, I saw the name "Bill Radulovich" - I wanted to clarify that he does not get a car allowance anymore.

He is retired now, the former principal of Walnut Grove Elementary, and gets a pension of more than 100K, and please note that he is in support of Measure E. His name is shown in the list of supporters of measure E (see their website).

NO on measure E. No on the June taxes that Brown wants to put on the ballot. No more taxes to support raises and ridiculous pensions!

John - Nothing stops a PUSD Trustee from making a request to staff to report on the cost of providing a paid Birthday holiday, asking how many paid holidays there are over and above the state mandated (EdCode) paid holidays, and how PUSD could optimize staff allocations and free up money for student programs. Nothing stops them, except maybe union pressure?

Seems PUSD and CSEA are still on course to protect the paid Birthday Holiday while laying off classified staff.