The beleaguered West Contra Costa school district is sitting on a financial time bomb that if not defused could eventually send it into bankruptcy.This column takes a very one-sided and simplistic view of the situation involving WCCUSD's lifetime health insurance benefit. He quotes school board trustees and district officials but no teachers or union representatives.
District contracts with teachers and other workers expire this summer. Officials plan to seek changes to the retiree health benefits. For the solvency of the district and the sake of the children, let's hope trustees stand firm and employees wake up. To be sure, the district is in a tough position as it seeks to attract qualified teachers to work in some of the Bay Area's poorest schools. But if the district goes broke, it's likely that a state receiver would impose more job cuts and benefit reductions.This is a district with a shortage of teachers willing to work in underperforming schools for lower salaries than in many neighboring districts and with many employees who have worked for decades in part because of the promise of these benefits and Borenstein thinks they just need to "wake up"? There are nearby districts facing the flip side of this problem - union's that gave up health insurance in exchange for salary increases (deals which appear foolish in hindsight). Would he tell those unions to "stand firm" about changing those deals?
There's no easy solution here but it isn't right to expect teachers to just accept broken promises that they've relied on in good faith for so many years.
