Budget Interview

Instructional Leader Interview of Finance

Educ 406

Sunny Dawn

March 22, 2013

This interview in its hands on approach was great for me to understand basic issues about my union, UESF, budget. I was able to interview Ken Tray, UESF Political Director about the COPE or Committee on Political Education budget. Furthermore he enlightened me on the overall issues of the budget of SFUSD and union versus district communication. It was important to me to interview Mr. Tray because of my past semester union work in which I was pulled out of the classroom to work as a political member of the teacher’s union for CTA to not only defeat Prop. 32 but help pass Prop. 30.

When interviewing Ken, he let me know what that his position comes directly from members dues in which every member of the union pays 1.67 per month. This was only instituted in the past 5 years as well as a “Super COPE” membership in which some members can have 5 to 20 dollars per month deducted form paycheck per month. The priorities of this money Ken let me know is primarily campaigns. His role before campaigns is Look at money in COPE with Rick Watthan CTA regional/political organizer. His authorizes money for campaign for release time, food, literature for campaign: mailings, flyers, buttons etc. A good example of successful campaign was the Prop. H Campaign in which the entire campaign was hired and paid for by COPE money. In this campaign legal advice was paid for with laws concerning campaign with city and state laws around campaign finance. Most campaigns hire lawyers, UESF usually goes with the Olsens: Pro-Union Labor lawyers. Other campaigns COPE has had serious stake in was fighting Chris Daly’s effort to take Rainy Day funds from teachers and give to public workers as well help get Matt Haney into school board this past election.

Ken believes one of his main jobs right now is build up the COPE budget as he sites that in the last Los Angeles election 4 million dollars was spent on electing school board members. He believes we need to have the revenue now so we can fight corporate influence in public education. Ken has concerns that the grant from CFT, which pays close to 50% of his salary, expires soon and wonders where the money will come from to keep his position.

When asked about challenges in regards to district and budget Ken was very clear about two points; Unions having right to decisions at school site versus principals making all decisions, and that during bargaining time the district is never very cooperative. “Its always a battle to get transparency from district, and seeing raw data, district will always put spin on I and not give information in a timely manner” Ken stated. In regards to school sites Mr. Tray used to be Union Rep. at Lowell High School. During his tenure there he was able to make sure no budgetary decisions were made unless run by the Union Building Committee, which is a part of UESF contract. He let me know building representatives are supposed to have as much say as principals when it comes to how money is spent.

Last point of the interview that I found fascinating was challenges with our union membership who are the main stakeholders of the COPE budget. There was confrontation in our membership regarding increasing dues. However the assembly vote, which was close, passed the resolution to increase due membership. When asked how communication is relayed to members Ken stated, “ The pie chart is nothing new. The reality is most people don’t pay attention to it. They’ll see the money is well spent. We make good faith attempt to do that. People can ask any questions they want.”

I found the interview to be a very pleasant experience as I worked very hard to pass Proposition 30 and I know COPE money helped in that. I also am currently a part of the fundraising effort increase the budget for COPE in order to insure we are able to combat any types of big business monies that come into San Francisco for School Board races or Right wing campaigns such as Prop. H, which barely was defeated in 2010.