Op-Ed: School Board Needs to Lower Its Reserves and Pay Its Teachers

Recently, the Board of Trustees announced the hiring of a new superintendent.  The teachers are excited about this news and look forward to working with , who is replacing the retiring Jan La Torre-Derby. What was not well received, however, was the fact that she was hired at an annual salary of $195,000 plus benefits. That is $10,000 a year more than La Torre-Derby was being paid after working in our district for eight years. 

It was also announced that Cunningham is making $150,000 in her current position.  That means she is receiving close to a 30 percent pay increase to come to Novato. Cunningham's salary increase is equal to the annual salary of a new teacher. We have to ask: Was this huge increase necessary?

This comes at a time when our state funding levels remain extremely tentative and uncertain.  This comes at a time when our district is making huge budget cuts and due to economic hardships.  This comes at a time when the teachers in NUSD have not received any pay increases since 2008.  During this time, our  health insurance costs have increased astronomically and the district hasn't raised its contribution to our benefits, so this has all been passed down directly to us.  We are all bringing home less money every year.

On top of that, we are under more pressure all the time to do "whatever it takes" to increase student performance.  As a result, more and more teachers in this district are becoming resentful and disillusioned.  Morale is slipping and we're losing teachers to other districts (or other professions) at an annual rate of 25 percent. 

The Novato Federation of Teachers has been saying all along that our board spends money on what they value.  It is very obvious that what is valued in NUSD is administrators and consultants.  Even California School Services, a conservative firm by all standards, showed us in their January 29 presentation to the board, that our administrative budget, when compared to comparable districts, is much higher than our classroom instruction budget when compared to the same districts.  NUSD administrators are paid on par with other Marin County administrators, while our teachers lag far behind our Marin County colleagues.

NFT is not asking for huge salary increases for our staff.  We're only asking for parity.  If times are so bad that teachers must lose their jobs and forego even the smallest of pay increases, then administrators should follow suit.  It is disheartening to see administrators making top dollar, while the teachers are struggling. 

The board claims there is no money for teachers, yet our reserves grow larger each year.  We now have a reserve of 27 percent, putting us in the top 15 percent of school districts in this state.  NFT contends that if the board would decrease their hefty reserves by just 3 percent, there would be plenty of money to compensate the teachers fairly and still have a reserve larger than the majority of school districts in California. 

I guarantee that if our board would spend the money to fairly compensate our teachers, the good will and renewed commitment that would be returned by our staff would be priceless.