WATSONVILLE — The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday unanimously approved a budget report that shows an improved financial picture from earlier in the year, with an ending fund balance of more than $57 million.
Trustee Georgia Acosta was absent.
PVUSD Chief Business Officer Melody Canady in June predicted the balance would be $45.9 million.
The so-called unaudited actuals report also shows that the district reduced its deficit from $19.3 million in January to $1.6 million in the current report.
PVUSD Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Chona Killeen said the improved deficit came from a “line-by-line” examination of the budget. That, she said, allowed district officials to delve money that was estimated, but not spent, on hundreds of items.
The budget discussion drew more than 300 teachers to the board meeting in Watsonville City Council Chambers, most of them demanding raises in the face of the latest budget.
Many also accused the district of historically underestimating its ending fund balance.
Teachers lined up to address the trustees for nearly three hours, talking about struggling with high costs of living and what they call low salaries.
The Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers and PVUSD are in the midst of negotiations, with K-12 teachers asking for a $4,408 annual salary increase, and an 8 percent increase for adult and early childhood educators.
Those raises would cost $6 million annually, said PVFT Grievance Officer Sarah Henne.
“We just want a fair increase on the salary schedule,” she said.
Micah Powell, who has been teaching history at Pajaro Valley High School for 12 years, said half of his income goes to rent, a hardship as a new father.
“I’m fighting to be middle class,” he said. “I’m a new father and I feel like I’m doing worse than my parents were.”
Watsonville High School English teacher Ronald Rhodes, a 20-year veteran, said that his research shows that a 13-year teacher in Salinas makes about $88,000, compared to $66,000 in PVUSD.
“I want my pay to be mediocre,” he said. “I want to retire comfortably.”
But the district officials say both the ending fund balance and the reduced deficit came largely thanks to one-time funds.
Much of the money, moreover, is restricted to specific uses.
Giving raises, therefore, would add to the deficit without replacing it, Canady said.
That worried trustee Willie Yahiro, who said he voted for a teacher raise as a new board member, a move he said sent the district into financial trouble.
“I voted for the raise right away, and three years later we were bankrupt because we did not have the money, and the CBO at the time told us we didn’t have the money,” he said. “I will never spend one-time money for ongoing expenses.”
The district in June offered the teachers a $1,600 “off salary schedule” payment, which would cost the district $8 million. PVFT has not yet ratified that offer.
Canady warned that giving teachers the raise they are seeking would cost the district $12 million per year annually, which would add to the deficit.
Even without giving raises, the district is facing financial troubles.
With facilities projects not covered by Measure L, replacing furniture and science labs and giving classified employees their own $1,600 bonuses, the ending fund balance will be reduced to $29 million by the 2019-20 school year, Canady said.
Moreover, the deficit will grow to just over $10 million by the end of this year, she said.
Mary Hart, Santa Cruz County Deputy Superintendent of Business, said that it is normal for a district’s budget to fluctuate through the year.
Hart also said that using the surplus for ongoing expenses would be a “mistake.”
Retired teacher Jack Carroll, who formerly served as PVFT’s chief negotiator, disputed the district’s predictions of deficits, and said that much of the surplus comes from ongoing revenue.
“We have a projection of an operating deficit in 17/18, but historically those projections have been grossly in error,” he said.
Carroll warned the trustees that the “pay freeze proposal” currently in front of the teachers could end in strike.
Trustee Kim De Serpa said that PVUSD is 45th in the nation for per-pupil spending, and said the board’s hands are tied by the budget.
“Everyone is very upset with the board here,” she said. “We don’t have enough money to do what we need to do. We want to pay everybody a lot of money. We want to do this. But we have to make sure we don’t go bankrupt.”
De Serpa pointed out that the district has granted raises to the union.
“In the last five years, the teachers have gotten an 11 percent raise,” she said. “They seem to forget that.”
•••
In other action, the trustees unanimously extended Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez’s contract through 2021. Rodriguez currently earns $210,000 per year.
