WATSONVILLE — The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved the contract for a Chief Business Officer, a position at the financial helm of the massive district, and in charge of a $230 million budget.
Joe Dominguez takes the seat vacated by Melody Canady, who left late last year. He starts on April 9.
Dominguez will be paid a salary of $168,588, plus a $4,297 stipend for his master’s degree. The contract includes a longevity increase of 2.5 percent after five years, and another 2.5 percent after 10.
Dominguez will also receive a $500 driving stipend per month.
His contract was approved 5-1, with Trustee Georgia Acosta dissenting. Trustee Willie Yahiro was absent.
Acosta said she did not want to approve a new contract while those of the district’s teachers remain in limbo.
The district has offered all full-time teachers a $3,200 bonus and a 2 percent raise this year. It has also offered a 6 percent raise to special education and adult education teachers.
Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, meanwhile, points out that the raise comes with two caveats.
First, both increases become effective only upon ratification by the union. This means that an agreement in April would set the increase into motion for only the last two months of the school year.
In addition, to get the increase, teachers must agree to raise their copays for doctor visits from $10 to $20, and by switching to generic prescription drugs.
PVFT President Francisco Rodriguez has described this as “cost shifting.”
“The district is trying to make the offer seem more generous than it really is,” he said.
While stressing that her vote was not a personal attack on anyone, Acosta said she voted no because the district’s teachers are currently fighting for a new contract.
“I cannot support or condone a new contract or renewing contracts for administration when we have teachers working without a sense of job security and a contract,” she said Friday. “I’ve been consistent in that position.”
In other action, the trustees gave their stamp of approval to the district’s current budget.
The “positive” certification for the second interim budget report means that the district can pay its bills for the next three years under its current financial state.
According to PVUSD Director of Finance Helen Bellonzi, the district will end this school year with a $46.1 million ending fund balance. The number climbs to $47.8 million next year, and drops to $44.4 million ending fund balance in 2020.
The same report shows the district spending more than its revenues to the tune of $11.4 million this year, and $3.36 million in 2019-20.
These numbers are likely to change when the district concludes contract negotiations with Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers.
Trustee Jeff Ursino pointed to retirement benefits of $20 million this year, $22 million next year and $25 million in 2020.
“How are we paying for these increases?” he said. “This is a significant increase every year.”
While these increases by the state to the district’s Local Control Funding Formula have bolstered the district’s finances, Bellonzi cautioned the trustees that the increasing retirement costs will mean financial troubles in the long run, and force the trustees to make budgetary concessions.
“It’s not going to be sustainable,” she said. “Revenues do not outweigh the expenditures.”
Reiterating what district officials have repeatedly stressed in the past, Trustee Leslie DeRose said the district needs to keep a healthy reserve to help weather future financial troubles.
“We need to get a rainy day fund, because when we go into that recession it’s going to mean we’re laying off or we’re not laying off,” DeRose said.
The budget passed 5-1, with Acosta dissenting.
Acosta said her vote came from what she described as the district’s history of “grossly” underestimating its ending fund balance, and in keeping an unnecessarily high reserve.
“I’ve had trouble with that, and I’ve consistently brought it up,” she said.
The budget will now go for approval to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education, the agency that oversees the budgets of all the county’s districts.
The trustees also began to update a policy that previously allowed some employees to retire from the district, and then take a job in another district while drawing benefits from PVUSD.
Under the current policy, certain classified and certificated managers and confidential employees can receive 10 years of full medical benefits after they retire. But nothing in the policy states that they cannot continue to work in another district while receiving the benefits.
The update, Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez said, is a way to fix that problem.
“Our interpretation is that retirement means retirement, so that you’re not just retiring from the school district, you’re retiring from PERS too,” Rodriguez said.
Trustee Kim De Serpa called the benefit “unbelievably generous.”
“That people could retire at 55 and then stay on the district’s dole essentially paying for very expensive and Cadillac benefits for 10 years until they are Medi-Cal eligible, this is a benefit that people dream about,” she said.
Wednesday’s discussion was a first reading of the new policy. It will return for approval at the next meeting.
Rodriguez said she will continue to bring district policies that need possible revision.
“I am trying to get clarity, so we stop doing things on just past practice, and we actually have approval from the board,” she said.
