What began as drama turned into a head-scratcher earlier this week, when Shoreline Unified School District’s board of trustees flip-flopped on a decision that would have ended free health benefits for its elected members.
With only five out of seven trustees present at last week’s meeting, the board cast a 3-2 vote to strip its members of the option to participate in the district-funded, $10,000-a-year health insurance package offered to teachers and their families. That vote followed bouts of prolonged, heated discussion and came to represent something of a vindication for many in the Shoreline community, who since December have been calling on their board to give up its benefits in the wake of a year-long budget crisis.
But mere days after approving the vote, board president Jill Manning-Sartori told the Light that the board’s decision, actually, did not count. With two trustees absent, Ms. Manning-Satori said that the board’s three “yes” votes fell one short of the necessary four-vote majority, as stipulated by California’s education code.
“I was wrong,” Ms. Manning-Sartori said. “I thought it was a majority of board members present.” She said that legal counsel for the trustees concurred with their interpretation.
Longtime trustee Jim Lino did not attend the Oct. 15 meeting; nor did Kegan Stedwell, who resigned this summer and will be replaced in December by the lone candidate in the race, Avito Miranda. Currently, only two trustees receive health benefits: Jane Healy and Monique Moretti, though Ms. Moretti will also step down in December.
Ms. Manning-Sartori added that unless members broach the subject individually, the board has no plans to put benefits back on the chopping block.
“I can’t control what people do,” she said. “My position is, the board voted and the motion didn’t pass.”
Having not yet been sworn onto the board, Mr. Miranda could not cast the fourth “yes” vote, though he surely would have if given the opportunity.
“This is a voluntary job,” said Mr. Miranda, who will be the only Latino representative on the board for a district whose student body is comprised mostly of Latinos. “You need to put the kids first, and then your own interests after.”
Shoreline’s other trustee-elect, Vonda Jensen—who trustees appointed to replace Ms. Moretti after a brief interview at the meeting—disagreed.
“I think the board is an important part of the school district,” said Ms. Jensen, who has lived in Valley Ford for a year. “It would be good to have an incentive to join the board.”
Prior to the highly anticipated vote on whether to end benefits for trustees—though they could still have paid into the health package at their own expense—two trustees baldly laid out their support of benefits.
“Saving the small amount of money we would save would be shortsighted,” said Ms. Healy, who has been the staunchest advocate for the board to keep its benefits. “I think it’s the wrong message to send.”
But the bylaw revision’s original sponsor, Ms. Moretti, echoed the notion popular with many in Shoreline’s community that to relinquish benefits serves as a gesture of solidarity during tough budget crunches.
“I have to disagree,” Ms. Moretti said. “When we are asking others in our district to do more with less, it would be a sign of good faith.”
But just before the bylaw was put to a vote, Ms. Healy had an outburst that questioned not only the authenticity of the Shoreline community’s values, but hinted at its cowardice.
“It’s disingenuous for people who haven’t ever taken the oath of office and to serve to tell us what it’s like,” Ms. Healy said. “I don’t know if you know what it’s like to take that oath. It’s like marriage.
“And what you are all saying is cloaked in hypocrisy,” she continued. “None of you want to step up and do what we do when it’s time to take office.”
Predictably, Ms. Manning-Sartori and Ms. Healy voted against the change, while Ms. Moretti and trustee Tim Kehoe—who does not take the benefits—voted to scrap them. Ms. McDonald, the only other trustee besides Ms. Healy who has held onto her benefits, cast the last vote.
She paused, sighed, and said, “This is hard,” before giving an answer.
“Yes.”
Tension that had been building for hours inside the Tomales High School auditorium suddenly rushed out, like a deflating balloon, and the meeting was adjourned. But, ultimately, none of it mattered.
Following Monday’s reversal, Shoreline’s community expressed deep displeasure and more than a little bit of jaded sensibility.
“I still find it amazing that a board that claims to put kids first is clinging tightly to their own benefits and cutting staff benefits,” said Laurie Monserrat, who has a nephew in the district. “I guess after 10 years I shouldn’t be surprised, yet I expect better.”
Mark Armstrong, the husband of a first grade teacher at West Marin School and who participated in an ad hoc budget committee last year, was also frustrated. “For the Board to not know how many votes they needed to change their own bylaws even though it was discussed at the September Board Meeting is inexcusable,” he said in an email.
This latest episode in Shoreline’s health-benefits saga came just as the district’s administration and the local teachers union—the Shoreline Education Association—agreed to cap teachers’ health benefits by imposing deductibles rather than footing the bill for everything except a $20 co-pay. The move is projected to save the district over $50,000. In return, teachers scored a four percent salary raise for this school year, with two-percent increases through 2018.
Despite the pay raise, one teacher noted that accepting the deductible cap has constituted a leap-of-faith for a great many teachers, particularly those non-married. The district’s chief business officer, Bruce Abbott, echoed that sentiment during the meeting.
“[The union] took a tremendous risk,” he said. “They have trusted this board, and they’ve gone through an understanding that it’s time to put a cap on the health benefits.”
Correction: In last week’s edition, we incorrectly included Clarette McDonald as one of three people on Shoreline Unified School District’s board of trustees who take health benefits. Ms. McDonald ceased taking benefits on Oct. 1. Now only two receive benefits: Jane Healy and Monique Moretti, although Ms. Moretti will leave the board in December. The Light apologizes for the error.