WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on April 5 heard a report on the salaries of its management-level employees such as principals and cabinet-level administrators.
The review was requested on March 8 by Board Vice President Georgia Acosta, during which the Trustees tabled a proposal to give managers a 4.5% pay increase.
Acosta explained that she wanted the teachers’ union to finalize their contract and salary increases before she approved raises for managers. They did so in early April.
Acosta also pointed out that an equal 4.5% pay bumps for managers were not equivalent, since teachers’ salaries are typically less.
Instead of a deep-dive discussion of the salaries, however, the four-hour meeting consisted largely of 79 principals, assistant principals, administrators and other managers justifying their positions during public comment—some of them in tears—and describing work conditions in which they are required to substitute for absent teachers, as well as variously filling the role of other school employees.
“We are stepping in as long-term subs, short-term subs, athletic directors, yard duties, mental health counselors, health care assistants and many many more, all while keeping up the rigors of being a site principal,” said Watsonville Charter School of the Arts Principal Amy Thomas. “I ask you, why should we continue in this voiceless, thankless job, day in and day out, when we are not properly compensated?”
During her presentation, Rodriguez said that 84% of the District’s $267 million budget is spent on salaries. A total of 58% of this is on certificated employees, while 33% is classified.
Meanwhile, just 5% of the salary budget is spent on administrator salaries, and 2% for certificated and classified managers, Rodriguez said.
She also pointed out that, since 2017, when the district had 174 managers, the number has been reduced to 157. This reduction has increased the burden on existing managers.
That means that upper-level employees are shouldering increased responsibilities with no commensurate pay increase.
Some principals, Rodriguez said, have gone back to the classroom.
“Often, we hear we are top-heavy, and that we have a lot of management,” she said. “But especially if you are in management it doesn’t feel like we are very top-heavy.”
In fact, Rodriguez said, administrators have received less in raises over the years—none from 2018-2020—even as teachers and other school employees did.
K-12 teachers in 2021-22 received a $4,000 increase to each salary schedule, and a 10% increase this year, with a one-time $2,000 payment. School employees received similar increases and payments.
Meanwhile, principal salaries in PVUSD come in last in comparisons of both similar-sized districts and of 18 districts in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says her own $222,832 salary places her in the middle range of similar-sized districts in a comparison for superintendent salaries.
The presentation also compared teacher and administrative salaries when broken down into daily pay.
The extra work days required of administrators—and the additional responsibilities—brings teacher and administrator pay closer to an even keel, Rodriguez said.
“What we’re saying now is that we too matter, and we too deserve the respect, because this district would not run without management,” she said.
Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers President Nelly Vaquera-Boggs said that the comments asking for salary increases sounded like those of teachers during contract negotiations.
“If I didn’t know this was a meeting to study the administrative salary schedule, I’d think this was a group of our teachers,” she said.
While Vaquera-Boggs agreed that site-level administrators deserve raises, she said during the March 8 meeting giving them to cabinet-level administrators should be a separate discussion.
“What we asked was for their salary schedules to be separated from the agenda item of the cabinet salary schedule,” she said.
Former Watsonville Mayor Betty Bobeda said that all three groups—managers, teachers and workers—are essential to district operation.
“The teachers have settled, and CSEA has settled,” she said. “Now it is time for management. Why would you not consider giving management a raise? There is sufficient funds in the budget.”
Starlight Elementary School Principal Jackie Medina says she wakes up at 4am to finish desk work before school starts, when she variously serves as custodian, yard duty, health assistant, substitute teacher and counselor.
“I call it my morning hustle,” she said.
Hearing the Board vote to table her pay raise on March 8, she said, “really stung.”
“Tonight, I feel like we have to prove our worth, and it hurts,” she said.
Board President Jennifer Holm said that taking a “Robin Hood approach” of withholding increases for those who earn higher salaries does not address the root causes of the district’s chronic underfunding issues.
“Having solid administrative support is key to the retention of our classified and certificated staff,” Holm said.
Trustee Kim De Serpa expressed concern that postponing the raises for administrators—or not giving them—could destabilize the district.
“These people that are sitting before you in our cabinet have advanced degrees and increased unbelievable responsibilities and they deserve a raise too,” De Serpa said. “They should not be separated.”
The Trustees will meet again on April 26 to consider approving administrator raises.
Acosta agreed that many administrative positions are important, and said she looks forward to continuing the conversation.
“It was an important meeting to have, it was an important conversation to have, and we can only have these conversations in public with the public,” she said.
