Teachers at the largest school district in San Luis Obispo County are now the highest-paid educators in the region, but their pay raise sparked equity concerns.
“In years past, when comparing other districts in our county, our superintendent was paid at or near the top, and our teachers were at or near the bottom,” district board member Donna Kandel said during the Lucia Mar Unified School District’s (LMUSD) March 21 meeting. “That was an untenable situation and caused a lot of ill feelings in our district in the sense of inequity.”
Those ill feelings persist among some.
The LMUSD board unanimously approved a 10.72 percent wage increase for 124 employees on March 21. While many parents touted the decision as much-needed compensation for teachers and other faculty members, they highlighted that the wage hike only bloats upper management’s already-hefty paychecks.
“I’m all for raises for teachers and the staff, but the fat cats in the district shouldn’t be part of the same package,” LMUSD parent Sandra Bocchicchio told New Times. “This 10 percent is so much bigger than the 10 percent someone working in the library makes.”
LMUSD’s top post has been held by Superintendent Paul Fawcett for three years running.
The district’s 2022-23 superintendent salary schedule breaks Fawcett’s income down by five “steps”. A step is an additional year of service that comes with an automatic pay bump. Starting at $212,669 the average pay increase from Step 1 to Step 4 is $6,570 per year per step. However, Step 4 to Step 5 jumps by $11,620. Approved last June, Fawcett’s current contract sets him at Step 3 where he’s receiving a base pay of a little more than $225,000.
Cody King, the union president of the Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association, told New Times that the 10.72 percent raise would be added to Fawcett’s salary. It would increase his earnings by nearly $25,000. In comparison, a district library technician who makes $37,644 annually, according to the latest available salary schedule from 2021-22, would receive a roughly $4,000 raise.
“The Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association does not agree with our district’s practice of giving equivalent raises across the board each year,” King said. “Our organization believes the district should prioritize increasing compensation for positions that are the most difficult to fill.”
King added that the district is struggling to fill positions for special education teachers and for specialized services like speech therapists. Anecdotally, he’s heard that there are shortages of food service workers and bus drivers, too. The higher paid positions, like in upper management, for example, are easier to staff. King told New Times that district superiors include themselves in uniform salary hikes during every yearly salary negotiation discussion.
“The board and upper management call themselves the ‘me too district’—whatever one group gets, every group gets it,” King said. “But they always get the top amount. We haven’t talked to all the board members yet, but we want to make sure this isn’t a recurring practice.”
Superintendent Fawcett told New Times that he has no comments on the concerns about the disproportion. He clarified that the school district, as part of annual discussions, negotiated wage increases for three employee groups—the teacher’s association to bargain for certified employees, the local chapter of the California School Employees Association to negotiate higher salaries for classified employees like custodians and bus drivers, and the management group to which he and other top officials belong. The second group qualified for a 9.25 percent raise, which became 10.72 percent after adjusting the salary ranges and schedules.
“I’m proud and excited to have competitive salaries,” Fawcett said. “There is a general educator shortage. Our hope is that these salaries will generate more interest [to apply]. This is the highest raise we’ve given to employees.”
District parent Bocchicchio presented her concerns about Fawcett’s salary at the March 21 board meeting. Board member Colleen Martin came to his defense.
“We have confidence in our superintendent. He deserves the same raise as the [teachers union] president does … and [as] the custodian who is going to clean this room tonight,” Martin said. “They all got the same amount of the pot.”
In 2015, amid an impasse between LMUSD teachers and district officials regarding fair pay, then-teachers association president Kandel told New Times that 15 percent of Nipomo High School’s teachers moved to Santa Maria for positions that paid $20,000 more. Bocchicchio echoed Kandel in March, telling both the board and New Times that raises for upper management should be a separate agenda item and adding that LMUSD’s teachers make $19,000 per year less than their Santa Maria counterparts.
“Why would teachers work here when they can go down south?” Bocchicchio told New Times.
LMUSD now ranks first among SLO County’s 11 school districts for wages. The district’s pay increase from the 2013-14 to 2022-23 school years totaled at 35.9 percent. Pleasant Valley Joint Union Elementary has the lowest rate over the same time period at 12 percent.
“Our staff deserves that 10 percent pay raise, but I don’t want them ever to strike because they didn’t get 30 [percent] like LA Unified,” Martin joked at the meeting while referring to the recent Los Angeles Unified School District walk out by its teachers and staff.
When asked by another board member how LMUSD contrasts with its Santa Maria counterpart, Martin said the two school districts can’t be compared.
The mass pay hike converged with discussions about the school district’s ability to meet long-term expenses in the future. Board member Eileen Pham said she was worried about reserve funding. According to state law, LMUSD is supposed to hold a minimum of 3 percent and a maximum of 10 percent in reserves. Pham announced at the meeting that financial projections show a reserve fund that exceeds the 10 percent threshold for the next three years. Fawcett told New Times that the school district will be identifying areas to commit surplus funds to.
“With the employee raises, we’re above 10 percent in the next year and the year after,” he said. “Usually, school districts make big purchases with the excess, like school textbooks.”
Board member Kandel commended Fawcett’s service to the school district, adding that the raises are also needed because LMUSD isn’t “allowed to keep a lot of money in reserve.” Like her fellow board member Martin, Kandel was apprehensive to compare.
“There’s still progress to be made but we’re moving in the right direction,” she said. “I’m not comfortable singling out one or two employees for not getting a pay increase that’s equal to what our other employees are getting.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Mar 30 – Apr 9, 2023.
“Equity” is currently a very leftist/liberal pillar of social justice. Equality be damned. Merit be damned too.
Curious, how you never see, or hear, of Teachers going on strike for more school supplies. However, you do always hear them weeping that they must pay for school supplies out of their own pockets, or “the children” will not have enough or any, and that’s why they go on strike for higher paychecks and benefits.
Ahh. But school supplies do not pay union dues, and there’s your pillar of “equity”.