Four representatives of Bakersfield College’s union were present for a Feb. 27 informational protest coordinated by the Bakersfield City School District.
BC’s union representatives were present to show solidarity amongst teachers’ unions.
The BCSD union, called the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association, is part of the California Teacher’s Association, of which BC’s union, the Community College Association of the Kern Community College District, is a member.
The umbrella organization of all teachers’ unions is the National Education Association.
“We were out there until it started raining,” said Lynn Krausse, Treasurer of the Community College Association of the Kern Community College District and a business professor at BC.
BCSD teachers have been working without a contract since July. While salary issues have been resolved, teachers are having the difference of their increased benefits rates not negotiated in the previous contract deducted from their paychecks. According to Krausse, this was done as a “tactic” to “get everybody mad.”
BCSD teachers gathered in front of the BCSD Board of Trustees meeting at 1300 Baker St. carrying signs and chanting “BETA, BETA, BETA,” the acronym for the Bakersfield Elementary Teachers Association.
Participants in the protest walked in a circle that continued growing as more people arrived. Eventually, the circle grew to encompass an entire square block.
As BCSD teachers are not on strike, the protest was purely informational. The protest was designed to inform the public about the Bakersfield Elementary Teacher Association’s collective bargaining woes.
Also present at the event was representatives from Casa Loma School, who were there in support of their principal, Gwen Johnson.
BCSD Superintendent Michael Lingo is proposing that Johnson be moved from the principal’s position back into a teaching position, even though the Casa Loma School has met student assessment requirements several years in a row under Johnson’s leadership.
Teachers are alleging that the Board of Trustees wants to demote Johnson because she questioned the district’s use of funds.
After the Board of Trustees meeting, Johnson told the Bakersfield Californian that she was still principal and hadn’t been removed “yet,” declining to comment further. Lingo also declined to comment to the Californian, saying that his suggestion was based on a personnel issue.