WATSONVILLE—A plethora of teachers addressed Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s Board of Trustees Wednesday night, asking for pay increases they say would help them live in Santa Cruz County and help the district retain its educators.
District officials, meanwhile, say there is not enough in the budget to give the increase the teachers are asking for.
The speeches came as the district and Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers negotiate this year’s contract.
Chief among the concerns was salary, which they say is driving teachers to higher-paying districts and forcing many to work through their contracted prep periods. Teachers also asked for better compensation for subbing, and for the district to limit the number of times teachers are required to serve as substitutes.
Teacher Donna LaFevre said that, since Nov. 16, more than 200 teachers have lost their prep time.
The problem has gotten so bad at Watsonville High School, said English teacher Bobby Pelz, that many classes are without teachers entirely.
Pelz said he was recently placed as a substitute teacher in the agriculture mechanics class after the teacher left for a higher-paying job. There, the lesson plan for the students to create shop safety posters was one they had done twice before.
“You have to recognize that we can’t keep losing our teachers to better paying jobs, to better paying districts, and retirement,” he said. “We have to compete.”
Speakers also rejected district claims that the district doesn’t have the money to give more than the 8% it is currently offering, and pointed to the current $20 million budget surplus.
“The money is there,” said Adult School teacher Pam Sexton. “When we don’t have enough teachers, we are doing a disservice to our community.”
PVUSD Chief Business Officer Clint Rucker said that much of the surplus consists of one-time monies such as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.
He also said that $6 million of the extra money was set aside for increases to classified workers and management—but that contract negotiations have not yet been settled.
“The amount the teachers want is more than we believe we can afford at this time, but we are dedicated to working with our union and we’ve been going through our budget trying to find ongoing increases anywhere we can,” he said.
In addition to a salary increase, the district is offering a one-time payment, although Rucker declined to give the amount, citing ongoing negotiations. The union and district will return to the negotiating table next week, Rucker said.
Later in the meeting, Rucker gave a first look at this year’s ongoing finances, including a positive budget certification that means the district can pay its expenses for the next three years.
The first interim budget report is a look at financial activities from July 1 to Oct. 31 and assumptions through June 30.
Like school districts throughout the state, PVUSD is facing declining enrollment and subsequent revenue loss for the foreseeable future, Rucker said.
That means a projected loss of $3.3 million in 2022/23, $6.3 million in 2023/24 and $9.5 million in 2024/25, he said.
With the State facing a recession and a $25 billion shortfall—$2 billion of that being education—PVUSD stands to lose at least an additional $6 million, Rucker said.
But PVFT Chief Negotiator Radhika Kirkman was skeptical of such claims by the district, saying its sky-is-falling predictions rarely come true. She pointed to a predicted $5.3 million ending fund balance last year turned into a surplus.
“For as long as I have been attending board meetings, it has been the same exact story,” she said. “We’re in a deficit, there is a recession coming, there is no funding. And every year at the end of the year we put money in the ending fund balance. How does that happen?”
Didn’t this county just pass measures to build low income housing for teachers? So now they also want a raise on top of that?
Edit to add: it’s Santa Cruz City who passed the affordable housing for teachers my mistake. It was measure K & L.
no, that measure is not directed at schools. Measure R is directed at our library, parks, senior center, youth center and city roads and infrastructure.
and your mistakes on this website are constant and glaring.
does your adult day caregiver know you are online ?
The teachers who voted for De Serpa have zero right to complain. The definition of insanity… Hopefully, Olivia Flores will bring about some positive change but most of the board is just like De Serpa so Flores will be out voted. So the schools will continue to get worse and ultimately fail. Our children deserve better!
the PVUSD board is made up of different individuals, with different backgrounds and they are NOT automatons, or robots. try attending a school board meeting and speak up.
attend the board meetings and speak. if you do not, the trustees will believe that the status quo is just fine. ger active.
I have spoken at meetings to no avail. The Board takes its marching orders from somewhere else. It is obvious the Board does not listen to parents or teachers. Maybe Rodriguez needs to be fired again? Nothing changes… It just gets worse and worse and our children suffer and get depressed. It will only change when enough parents say “NO MORE!” and demand change.
The teachers are not suddenly going to put more effort into their jobs if they get a raise. They will always be complacent and do just the bare minimum get the job done.
A successful business in private enterprise will give employees a raise when they are adding extra value to the company. This is done by either saving the company money or increasing net gains.
California teachers are not adding extra value. K-9 scholastic aptitude continues to plummet into the lower 20% of the nation.
Do we really need the Santa Cruz County Office of Education? It seems to be be an unnecessary layer of redundancy and school districts can run their own schools, Why not disband the SC COE and use the millions of dollars saved to pay the teachers a living wage!!!
the Santa Cruz county office of education, much as all the other 57 county offices of education in CA , provide the following: special education for students with needs that cannot be met by the regular school: lack of eyesight, lack of hearing, orthopedic impairment, delayed ability to learn or retain learning, severely emotionally disturbed , autism, Downs Syndrome and a host of other special considerations that the regular school cannot meet.
Monica, all students in CA, whatever their mental capacity or physical capacity, are GUARANTEED the right to a free public education . it they have an IEP, the guarantee last until they are 22.
County education also has programs for students who have been expelled from regular school. guess what? they TOO have a right to an education. getting into trouble with the law enforcement institutions do NOT veto their right to have a public education. it continues, although in a much more restrictive environment.
this is just SOME of what the county dept. of education has responsibility.
I know. I worked for the Santa Clara county office of education from 2000-2013.
so, Monica, the county office of ed is NOT redundant. they are a highly valuable resource.
we are not going to disband county office of educations in CA.
We should be cutting administrative jobs and benefits for those jobs to prioritize funds for teachers.
perhaps if you changed your attitude, noneof your business, and attended PVUSD board meetings, things could change. otherwise, it will not change.
Huh? “Noneof” is not a word. Your response makes no sense. Educators like yourself are the reason California K-9 ranks in the lower 20% nationally. We have a bunch of teachers that are not intelligent. Teachers that do not know how to write a basic sentence without spelling, syntax, and prose errors.
PVUSD is seriously short of teachers. with the low pay they offer, do you really think that new teachers just out of college will select our district to apply to first? the salaries are woefully inadequate. I applaud the teachers’ union for their advocacy on behalf of our teachers.
by the way, this same condition existed when i was the guidance counselor at Rolling Hills Middle School. when i left in 2000, i obtained a job with the Santa Clara county of education and my salary went up by $20,000 a year.
Teachers do not deserve more money. They are the laziest lot in the work force. What extra value are teachers suddenly bringing to the table that warrants a raise? The answers is none.
Becoming a teacher is the easiest path for a college student. It requires basically little to no STEM. Anybody can become a teacher and put very little effort into it.
California pays the highest teacher salaries but ranks in the lower 20% in education. California Teachers Association is able to strong arm our complicit government into ridiculous salaries. They are basically a political front that exudes mob mentality through their agenda.
Pajaro Unified School District teachers make between $49-$82K per year. They get about 17 weeks off vacation time each year with 10 accumulable sick days.
Most private section employees get 10 days off each year. California teachers get 129 days off each year. That’s 1,290% more time off than everybody else.
Teachers only work 35 weeks per year. When you subtract weekends teachers only work 175 days per year. Average working class citizens work 260 days per year excluding weekends.
There is no justification for PVUSD teachers to get a raise, including the 8% increase they are currently being offered.
your falsehoods stated above I will correct now: 1. teachers, at minimum, work a 40 week year. that is state law. many work weeks beyond that. they do NOT get paid for the weeks they do not work. many teachers have alternate employment during their vacation leave.
2. 10 days of sick leave comes out to be 1 day per month for the 10 month school year. when you have students , many of whom come to school sick , up in your face every day, you are subject to every virus carried by those students.
3. $49 thousand a year means you can perhaps afford a cheap one bedroom apt. but not in Watsonville. $82 thousand is also low , taking into consideration the cost of housing. many teachers cannot afford to buy a home. some share rent together to save money. and the months during summer vacation make saving up money during the year essential to pay for rent in the summer.
4. CTA is the only reason why CA teachers are able to negotiate higher salaries. they also donate to elected leaders, just like every other union is able to do.
5. as far as having endless administrators, our school district serves thousands of students. many of them are in poverty. it takes time and effort to establish that the needs for these kids are met. that requires people to do this. that is not the classroom teachers’ job. they have their hands full meeting the educational needs of their students.
6. schools are not a corporation. we are not producing widgets or reams of paper or cars. schools have the task of preparing students for adulthood, a goal that you have never reached.
7. teachers throughout the state are better paid than PVUSD. go to edjoin.org and do the comparison for yourselves.
in short, Booger snacks, you have no clue. and you will never be a classroom teacher. why? you have no class.
Folks, you get what you vote for and put up with. If you vote for clowns, then the educational system becomes a joke. That is where we are today. Our schools’ priorities are about everything BUT education! Schools are now medical centers, food distribution hubs, sex ed starting in Kindergarten. Back in the day, CA had one of the top educational systems in the country. What happened?? Now our kids cannot read, write or do math because funds are spent elsewhere and not on teachers’ salaries or the educational basics. There is a bloated bureaucracy throughout the system which robs funds needed to pay teachers the money they deserve. It’s shameful and there needs to be a change in management.
the pandemic has hurt all students, nationwide. we know that many students are better off with the teacher and fellow students beside them, not learning in isolation.
there is bloated bureaucracy in every branch of government. the military is the most notorious.
you are right, in one aspect, you get what you vote for. the USA elected a hater of public education in 2016 (trumpty dumpty) , and we are all paying for it. it will take years of concentrated effort, and higher teacher salaries , to get us out.
PVUSD teachers are grossly underpaid. compare their salaries to other districts in CA. the comparison is obvious.
The PVUSD has a huge budget aimed at administrators (with lifelong pensions) and their support staff.
I agree with Monica below…