Dear BUSD Teacher,
We value and respect your outstanding and demanding work in providing an excellent education for our children. Your efforts are greatly appreciated and should be well rewarded.

We understand how difficult it is to accept paying increased health benefit costs because it's something nearly every family is
experiencing. Virtually all California employers have passed some of the substantial health care cost increases along to employees. Everyone is feeling the pinch of higher health care costs in diminished take home pay and higher co-payments.

We understand your desire to receive raises beyond your normal annual years-of-service increases. We would love to support pay increases for teachers. The district budget simply cannot support the raises you request without creating an unbalance that is not allowed by the Alameda County Office of Education. Our school district must comply with the state requirement for an increase in reserves in the current budget. There is no hidden supply of unspent funds. Measure B money cannot by law be used for teacher raises: it must be used for the stipulated programs and class size reduction. Increased teacher compensation must come from an increased financial commitment to education by the State of California. We all have to continue to work
together to strenuously lobby for essential increases in state funding for teacher raises.

Another concern we have is that local taxpayers who have traditionally been unfailingly supportive of Berkeley school tax measures have begun to feel the pinch of the tight economy. Last fall the good citizens of Berkeley passed Measure B, but by the smallest margin that a school measure has ever passed in Berkeley. Also, 2004 was the first year ever that a library parcel tax failed to pass in our community.

We must go back to the voters in 2006 to renew both BSEP and Measure B. If these measures do not pass, BUSD will face layoffs of 25% to 30% of our teachers and the entire loss of many programs, probable school closures, and very possibly the total bankruptcy of our district. We are concerned that a teacher strike could dramatically decrease the prospects for the renewal of these measures.

Your union leadership has acknowledged that a strike would be horribly destructive for students, families, and the community, but at the BFT Information Meeting last week, union leadership insisted that, as bad as a strike is, teachers taking pay cuts is worse. Is contributing to increased health care costs worse than the layoffs that will result as families leave the district during the strike? Or worse than 25% to 30% layoffs in two years?

We understand your concerns and desires, but we cannot support a strike given all that could result. We urge you to press your union leadership to work with the school district to reach a settlement without a strike. Let's work together to show our Berkeley community what an enormous return on their investment is delivered by our outstanding Berkeley public schools.

We endorse the above Letter to BUSD Teachers:
(Several people who sent endorsements of the letter to be delivered to teachers asked that their names not be posted here, and we have respected their wishes.)

Julie Holcomb
Wanda Stewart
Jon Squire
Susan Payne
Tom Adams
Debbie Woods
Laura Menard
Glenn Shor
Mary French
Steven Donaldson
Chris Hudson
Cindy Chang
Ashley Kayler
Brett D'Ambrosio
Calvin Eng
Barbara Gilbert
Carolyn Capps-Broshar
Sarah Stadler