For the last month or so, School Board advocates have been talking about how on August 8th, Arlene Ackerman, School Board Superintendent, vests for Health Care benefits with the City and County of SF. If you work for the city for 5 years, you can have full health care benefits when you retire. So I say she announces in early August.

They have also been talking about the fact that Arlene is never in town and some are suggesting that she is looking for another job.

Well, today she floated a trial balloon saying that she is going to retire this year, blaming the Bay Guardian and the School Board members who oppose her. The Chronicle mentioned that it was “another” paper in town, but anyone who follows local politics knows that it is the Bay Guardian’s cover story earlier this month that probably sent her over the edge. The cover of the paper and feature story suggested that Arelene was having a “meltdown.”Or maybe Arlene flipped because of the opinion piece in the Bay Guardian by LaWanna Preston, staff director of SEIU Local 790? LaWanna is negotiating the contract for the school district employees and has tons of stature and standing in the African American community in San Francisco. Well, LaWanna tore it up in the Bay Guardian because the school district employees haven’t gotten a raise in over 3 years but Arlene was sure to give herself a raise last year. Arlene is now making close to $25,000 per month, including salary and her expense account.

Preston wrote, “Ackerman refuses to give us, the lowest-paid workers in the district, a raise, while giving herself a hefty raise, to $270,000 a year. That means she is making $22,500 per month! She also got a raise in her expense allowance, which went from $800 to $2,000 a month. So every month, she takes home close to $25,000, while the lowest-paid workers get no raises, pay more for retirement and health, and get three unpaid days off over the course of the next year.”

According to the School District rumor mill, Arlene wasn’t in town when the opinion piece by LaWanna was published and Arlene only heard about/saw it last week.

As most know, I work for SEIU Local 790 which represents the school district employees. I’m not working on this issue, but I did stop by a meeting last week of school district members. 200 members showed up. Anybody who does union organizing knows that 200 members don’t just show up unless the #$%* is about to hit the fan. There are grumblings about a strike. So we will see. More later…