For their part, teachers will suggest that the 6.5% closed the gap on where their wages should be, but more pointedly they site figures suggesting that the school district spends more on consultants and legal counsel than they do on health benefits for the teachers.
Twice now at recent school board meetings, teachers have protested the contract offer of a one percent pay raise.
Wearing green T-shirts with the emblem, “2+2” on their chests to refer to their contract demands of a 2 percent salary increase and 2 percent toward improved health benefits.
From the standpoint of the school district, they just do not have the money.
School board President Jim Provenza in September:
“The state does not give us a 4.5 percent COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) just for a salary increase — I wish they did. They give us 4.5 percent for all cost increases, whether it’s utilities, building costs or books. … Everything that increases in cost has to be covered by that. (And) it also has to cover what we lose from declining enrollment… We were happy to provide a 6.5 percent (salary) increase last year; we knew that would put us in a deficit this year.”
Bruce Colby is the associate superintendent for business services.
The school district is facing declining enrollment that could lead to the districting losing around $600,000 in ADA next year. According to Mr. Colby, a one percent pay increase would cost the district $368,000 per year, while a 2 percent increase would be double that amount, or $736,000.
The question for teachers however; is, what is the best expenditure of money by the school district? They cite statistics that show that the pay for administrators has gone up much faster than that for teachers. They cite that the pay for the new superintendent was increased far more than that for teachers, and while the amount given to the superintendent may be a drop in the bucket compared to the teacher’s salaries, it is emblematic of where the priorities of the district lie.
On the one hand, you are paying your top executive, the new superintendent nearly $200,000 per year in salary alone.
One the other hand, DTA President Tim Paulson argues:
“We have 125 members paying over $900 a month [toward health coverage]. Many are single parents, and 25 percent of their salary goes to health benefits. That is ridiculous.”
That kind of disparity in a public institution is bound to create resentments come contract time.
The Teachers have a delicate path to walk at this point with the upcoming Measure Q vote. From the teacher’s perspective – – over whom 98% voted to recommend endorsement of Measure Q – – is absolutely essential as it provides the district with around 16% of its funding. Without the passage of Measure Q, we will see deep cutbacks in programs and that would mean equally deep cutbacks in the number of teachers and possibly their salaries.
However, the teachers also have to recognize that the district needs and desires that money just as badly as they do, and they hope that that will give them a bit of leverage.
The school district felt that they had a good round of negotiations with the teachers last week, and at one point it felt like this would defuse the current situation.
Keven French at the school board meeting said as much:
“We did have a positive meeting (with the DTA) one week ago.”
He claimed that they made a new offer which included a cost-of-living increase and upgrades to the current health benefits package, but it appears from the response by teachers at the school board meeting that this was not enough.
We shall continue to monitor this situation here on the Vanguard.
—Doug Paul Davis reporting
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
Is this the same teacher group that couldn’t endorse Joe Spector for School Board? Spector is a DTA member and former negotiator. The teachers want more money but they don’t want to support the canididate most likely to back their requests. I think these teachers who need an education in politics.
Is this the same teacher group that couldn’t endorse Joe Spector for School Board? Spector is a DTA member and former negotiator. The teachers want more money but they don’t want to support the canididate most likely to back their requests. I think these teachers who need an education in politics.
Is this the same teacher group that couldn’t endorse Joe Spector for School Board? Spector is a DTA member and former negotiator. The teachers want more money but they don’t want to support the canididate most likely to back their requests. I think these teachers who need an education in politics.
Is this the same teacher group that couldn’t endorse Joe Spector for School Board? Spector is a DTA member and former negotiator. The teachers want more money but they don’t want to support the canididate most likely to back their requests. I think these teachers who need an education in politics.
If I read the post correctly, last year’s increase ‘was supposed to be for both years’? What happened….sounds fishy as most of this school district’s schemes…..sorry, I don’t support them.
If I read the post correctly, last year’s increase ‘was supposed to be for both years’? What happened….sounds fishy as most of this school district’s schemes…..sorry, I don’t support them.
If I read the post correctly, last year’s increase ‘was supposed to be for both years’? What happened….sounds fishy as most of this school district’s schemes…..sorry, I don’t support them.
If I read the post correctly, last year’s increase ‘was supposed to be for both years’? What happened….sounds fishy as most of this school district’s schemes…..sorry, I don’t support them.
We need a school board that is supporting the teachers as opposed to simply providing big increases for administrators.
The David Murphy regime did this…I thought the school board was not going to do a “business as usual?”
I plan to vote for Joe Spector and Bob Schelen for the School Board. I believe that they will give teachers the pay and respect that they deserve. Our Davis teachers are underpaid.
We need a school board that is supporting the teachers as opposed to simply providing big increases for administrators.
The David Murphy regime did this…I thought the school board was not going to do a “business as usual?”
I plan to vote for Joe Spector and Bob Schelen for the School Board. I believe that they will give teachers the pay and respect that they deserve. Our Davis teachers are underpaid.
We need a school board that is supporting the teachers as opposed to simply providing big increases for administrators.
The David Murphy regime did this…I thought the school board was not going to do a “business as usual?”
I plan to vote for Joe Spector and Bob Schelen for the School Board. I believe that they will give teachers the pay and respect that they deserve. Our Davis teachers are underpaid.
We need a school board that is supporting the teachers as opposed to simply providing big increases for administrators.
The David Murphy regime did this…I thought the school board was not going to do a “business as usual?”
I plan to vote for Joe Spector and Bob Schelen for the School Board. I believe that they will give teachers the pay and respect that they deserve. Our Davis teachers are underpaid.
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
A charter school will only use more resources. There is no way that a pool of external students would provide enough money to cover the cost of the charter.
The charter may be worthy for other reasons, but certainly not as a net fundraiser.
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
A charter school will only use more resources. There is no way that a pool of external students would provide enough money to cover the cost of the charter.
The charter may be worthy for other reasons, but certainly not as a net fundraiser.
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
A charter school will only use more resources. There is no way that a pool of external students would provide enough money to cover the cost of the charter.
The charter may be worthy for other reasons, but certainly not as a net fundraiser.
The DJUSD and School
Board should do everything in their power to implement the Valley Oak Charter School concept that will attract non-Davis students(and State $$) into the system .
A charter school will only use more resources. There is no way that a pool of external students would provide enough money to cover the cost of the charter.
The charter may be worthy for other reasons, but certainly not as a net fundraiser.
Does anyone know what happens if the teachers’ contract is not settled before the two new board members are selected? Am I correct to guess that it then goes to the new board to settle?
DTA members should carefully choose to vote for individually.
The two that I see being most favorable to teachers at this time are Spector and Schelen.
If you look at who is supporting the others they have people who have not been favorable to teachers in the past.
Does anyone know what happens if the teachers’ contract is not settled before the two new board members are selected? Am I correct to guess that it then goes to the new board to settle?
DTA members should carefully choose to vote for individually.
The two that I see being most favorable to teachers at this time are Spector and Schelen.
If you look at who is supporting the others they have people who have not been favorable to teachers in the past.
Does anyone know what happens if the teachers’ contract is not settled before the two new board members are selected? Am I correct to guess that it then goes to the new board to settle?
DTA members should carefully choose to vote for individually.
The two that I see being most favorable to teachers at this time are Spector and Schelen.
If you look at who is supporting the others they have people who have not been favorable to teachers in the past.
Does anyone know what happens if the teachers’ contract is not settled before the two new board members are selected? Am I correct to guess that it then goes to the new board to settle?
DTA members should carefully choose to vote for individually.
The two that I see being most favorable to teachers at this time are Spector and Schelen.
If you look at who is supporting the others they have people who have not been favorable to teachers in the past.
The school district is facing declining enrollment that could lead to the districting losing around $600,000 in ADA next year.
This is a direct consequence of development policies, with which the school board in the Saylor/Asmundson era acquiesced, that emphasized single family dwellings for initially middle, and then, increasingly, upper middle income people, throughout the 1990s into the early part of this decade.
If people think things are bad now, the enrollment numbers could go over a cliff in the next decade, with Davis lacking sufficient housing for young people as well as middle and lower middle income workers. This is an issue that requires immediate study to find out if a Titanic size iceberg lies out there.
The Covell Center article is down thread, but one type of development that would be entirely acceptable there would be something along the lines of cooperative housing created by unions in New York City (I mean in terms of purpose and financing, not necessarily design). Unions there, like the garment workers one and others, participated in the financing of projects that provided permanent homes for their members. Many of these projects still exist, and people live in them quite comfortably, people who could not otherwise afford to live and work in New York City to provide essential services.
Imagine a Covell Center development with development funds contributed by SEIU, CTA, AFSCME, just to name a few, to create affordable housing for their members who work in the school district, at the university and in lower wage service jobs throughout the region.
Of course, it would require a density that has been historically anathema to the city and its residents, but it would integrate the workforce of Yolo County into the city, with environmental benefits, less car trips, and shorter ones when necessary, while providing a new generation of students to maintain the DJUSD in its current form.
Union involvement in the project would result in the delivery of housing to local workers in a way that would otherwise be legally difficult if not impossible for private developers and governmental entities.
–Richard Estes
The school district is facing declining enrollment that could lead to the districting losing around $600,000 in ADA next year.
This is a direct consequence of development policies, with which the school board in the Saylor/Asmundson era acquiesced, that emphasized single family dwellings for initially middle, and then, increasingly, upper middle income people, throughout the 1990s into the early part of this decade.
If people think things are bad now, the enrollment numbers could go over a cliff in the next decade, with Davis lacking sufficient housing for young people as well as middle and lower middle income workers. This is an issue that requires immediate study to find out if a Titanic size iceberg lies out there.
The Covell Center article is down thread, but one type of development that would be entirely acceptable there would be something along the lines of cooperative housing created by unions in New York City (I mean in terms of purpose and financing, not necessarily design). Unions there, like the garment workers one and others, participated in the financing of projects that provided permanent homes for their members. Many of these projects still exist, and people live in them quite comfortably, people who could not otherwise afford to live and work in New York City to provide essential services.
Imagine a Covell Center development with development funds contributed by SEIU, CTA, AFSCME, just to name a few, to create affordable housing for their members who work in the school district, at the university and in lower wage service jobs throughout the region.
Of course, it would require a density that has been historically anathema to the city and its residents, but it would integrate the workforce of Yolo County into the city, with environmental benefits, less car trips, and shorter ones when necessary, while providing a new generation of students to maintain the DJUSD in its current form.
Union involvement in the project would result in the delivery of housing to local workers in a way that would otherwise be legally difficult if not impossible for private developers and governmental entities.
–Richard Estes
The school district is facing declining enrollment that could lead to the districting losing around $600,000 in ADA next year.
This is a direct consequence of development policies, with which the school board in the Saylor/Asmundson era acquiesced, that emphasized single family dwellings for initially middle, and then, increasingly, upper middle income people, throughout the 1990s into the early part of this decade.
If people think things are bad now, the enrollment numbers could go over a cliff in the next decade, with Davis lacking sufficient housing for young people as well as middle and lower middle income workers. This is an issue that requires immediate study to find out if a Titanic size iceberg lies out there.
The Covell Center article is down thread, but one type of development that would be entirely acceptable there would be something along the lines of cooperative housing created by unions in New York City (I mean in terms of purpose and financing, not necessarily design). Unions there, like the garment workers one and others, participated in the financing of projects that provided permanent homes for their members. Many of these projects still exist, and people live in them quite comfortably, people who could not otherwise afford to live and work in New York City to provide essential services.
Imagine a Covell Center development with development funds contributed by SEIU, CTA, AFSCME, just to name a few, to create affordable housing for their members who work in the school district, at the university and in lower wage service jobs throughout the region.
Of course, it would require a density that has been historically anathema to the city and its residents, but it would integrate the workforce of Yolo County into the city, with environmental benefits, less car trips, and shorter ones when necessary, while providing a new generation of students to maintain the DJUSD in its current form.
Union involvement in the project would result in the delivery of housing to local workers in a way that would otherwise be legally difficult if not impossible for private developers and governmental entities.
–Richard Estes
The school district is facing declining enrollment that could lead to the districting losing around $600,000 in ADA next year.
This is a direct consequence of development policies, with which the school board in the Saylor/Asmundson era acquiesced, that emphasized single family dwellings for initially middle, and then, increasingly, upper middle income people, throughout the 1990s into the early part of this decade.
If people think things are bad now, the enrollment numbers could go over a cliff in the next decade, with Davis lacking sufficient housing for young people as well as middle and lower middle income workers. This is an issue that requires immediate study to find out if a Titanic size iceberg lies out there.
The Covell Center article is down thread, but one type of development that would be entirely acceptable there would be something along the lines of cooperative housing created by unions in New York City (I mean in terms of purpose and financing, not necessarily design). Unions there, like the garment workers one and others, participated in the financing of projects that provided permanent homes for their members. Many of these projects still exist, and people live in them quite comfortably, people who could not otherwise afford to live and work in New York City to provide essential services.
Imagine a Covell Center development with development funds contributed by SEIU, CTA, AFSCME, just to name a few, to create affordable housing for their members who work in the school district, at the university and in lower wage service jobs throughout the region.
Of course, it would require a density that has been historically anathema to the city and its residents, but it would integrate the workforce of Yolo County into the city, with environmental benefits, less car trips, and shorter ones when necessary, while providing a new generation of students to maintain the DJUSD in its current form.
Union involvement in the project would result in the delivery of housing to local workers in a way that would otherwise be legally difficult if not impossible for private developers and governmental entities.
–Richard Estes
I think the teachers pay too much of their health care costs. I hope the district will make this a high priority in the next couple years…higher than anything else I can think of. We clearly cannot afford to approve any new programs/spending such as a charter school….
I think the teachers pay too much of their health care costs. I hope the district will make this a high priority in the next couple years…higher than anything else I can think of. We clearly cannot afford to approve any new programs/spending such as a charter school….
I think the teachers pay too much of their health care costs. I hope the district will make this a high priority in the next couple years…higher than anything else I can think of. We clearly cannot afford to approve any new programs/spending such as a charter school….