Winston Braham refused to sign a document endorsing a proposed 5 percent raise for the district’s teachers. The school board vice president said his resignation letter, which was not made public, did not mention this.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
Less than 10 days after refusing to endorse the school district’s tentative agreement with the teachers union to give instructors a 5 percent raise, the SMMUSD’s chief financial officer resigned. Winston Braham handed in his resignation letter last Wednesday. It was not made available to the public.
School Board Vice President Kathy Wisnicki said the letter stated personal reasons for Braham’s stepping down, and she said it made no mention of his disagreement with Superintendent Dianne Talarico over the proposed teacher salary raise. The Malibu Times made a request for a copy of the resignation letter. A person working in the superintendent’s office said the district would provide the letter within 10 days.
Paul Silvern, the chairman of the district’s Financial Oversight Committee, said he was not surprised by Braham’s resignation.
“My general understanding is that there have been some differences among the senior staff at the district, and that Winston disagreed with [the proposed increase.]”
Two weeks ago, a tentative agreement between the district and the teachers union was released. It called for a 5 percent raise beginning this school year, costing an estimated $7 million over three years. On a document certifying the district’s ability to pay for the new contract, Braham checked a box next to the statement, “I am unable to certify.” Talarico signed the document in support.
All the Board of Education members except Shane McLoud, who was attending his final meeting because he lost the November election, said at the Nov. 16 meeting that they supported the proposal. But the board decided against voting on the contract until January, following a financial review by a private company and a two-part workshop that will determine where the money will come from to fulfill the contract.
“We know that we can afford anything from 3 to 6 percent from data we received in the past,” Board Member Oscar de la Torre said in an interview this week. “Anything beyond that we know is impossible.”
The Financial Oversight Committee thought otherwise. Several members at a meeting that took place two days prior to the school board meeting said they were concerned the deal did not include a plan to pay for the higher salaries.
“The numbers do not suggest that the district can afford an increase,” Silvern said this week. He added, “There are always certain flexibilities in all public budgets, and it is possible, I suppose, that expenditures could be trimmed in some areas in order to make the proposed teacher increase easier to accommodate over time, but so far we haven’t seen that.
Harry Keiley, president of the teachers union, said in an interview on Tuesday that the money is there. When asked about Silvern’s comments, he said, “Good people can disagree.”
“This district needs to provide a competitive compensation package for teachers,” Keiley said. “Our teachers deserve compensation that is competitive in L.A. county… You cannot say we cannot afford to provide the teachers with a competitive salary for 2006-07 because it might have financial implications on [future years.]”
The school district will hold a workshop on the contract at the SMMUSD headquarters on Monday at 4 p.m. An official from the Los Angeles County Office of Education will attend the meeting. Another workshop will take place in January; at that time the district and the public will hear the results from the private company’s financial review of the contract proposal.