The results of the February primary election and the April general election have been a resounding success for BTA’s independent campaign for school board candidates. Voters unseated all three incumbents and elected two of our three recommended candidates, Dave Kemp and Paul Krekorian.Our third candidate, Larry Applebaum made an impressive showing but was edged in the final tally by former teacher Ted Bunch. While we are disappointed that we didn’t get Larry and his outstanding leadership ability this time, we are pleased with the voters’ selection of Ted Bunch – a man BTA knows is dedicated to making BUSD the best place for students, teachers, and staff. We are fully confident that Bunch will join Kemp and Krekorian in helping bring a new direction of leadership, partnership, and accountability to the board.The April 8th election results were:
Paul Krekorian 4,822 (53.2%) Ted Bunch 4,487 (49.5%) Larry Applebaum 4,038 (44.6%) Mike McDonald 2,306 (25.5%)
9,059 ballots were cast in the race (the percentages exceeded 100 because each voter could vote for two candidates).We wish to thank all the teachers, spouses, and parents who helped make our campaign such a huge success. We have tried to list all the names of those who contributed their valuable time in the adjoining article. Our heartfelt thanks go out to each and every one of you. Your efforts DID make a difference. You took the issues to the voters and they resoundingly agreed that ìIt’s Time For A Change.î
The first task that will confront the new board when they are seated on May 15th is to deal with potential teacher layoffs. It is the position of BTA that no teacher layoffs need occur as a result of budget cuts. More than enough savings can be achieved through reductions in other areas of the budget — areas that have a minimal impact on students, teachers, and instructional programs.
We have been meeting with other members of the newly appointed Budget Committee — a group appointed by Dr. Bowman to continue the work of the previous Budget Advisory Committee. The new Budget Committee will soon make recommendations to Dr. Bowman on budget reductions that can be accomplished ìaway from the classroom.îNone of these reductions will be easy or painless, but BTA believes we must not only avoid cuts to credentialed teachers, we must avoid the ìthreat of cutsî in order to keep our teachers from fleeing to other districts for more secure jobs.Therefore, we will continue to urge the present board to rescind all preliminary layoff notices to credentialed teachers prior to May 15th. If any final layoff notices are sent before the new board is seated on May 15th, we will request that those notices be rescinded based on alternative cuts that we believe will be recommended by the Budget Committee in the next few weeks.