Teacher Negotiations Update

No.  With the District’s offer, it has the highest salaries of comparative districts in both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Please see the chart with salary comparisons below and at the top of the page.

No. The Superintendent has received the same salary increases as the teachers. There was a flyer posted asserting the Superintendent has received a 29.2% increase, which included the Superintendent’s step increases and the raises that all other certificated staff received.  The flyer asserted that teachers received only a comparative 21.8% but did not include any step increases in making that assertion.  In analyzing EVERY teacher that began working for the District in 2019/20 at the same time as the Superintendent, the District found that the lowest increase for teachers starting in 2019/20 to today was over 37% with the highest teacher increasing 93% due to step, column, longevity, and negotiated increases. 

No. Starting before the pandemic and accelerating during and after it, the District has hired many bargaining unit members to provide additional services to students who need them.  This includes additional counselors, nurses, speech and language pathologists, school psychologists, instructional coaches, and TOSAs to help best serve our students and support classroom instruction. Under the 1977 law, high school districts must expend 50% of the district’s current expense for the payment of salaries of classroom teachers unless the district receives a waiver.  The district followed the waiver process and was granted the waiver.

The District has received approval for a waiver for the 2024-25 school year, specifically citing that the District maintains highly competitive salaries. In the official approval, the county noted our “Payment of classroom salaries that are in excess of those paid by other comparable school districts.”

This recognition reflects our ongoing commitment to our educators. While a 1977 statute dictates certain spending percentages, that law was enacted before the expansion of modern student services. As a result, 82 of our bargaining unit members representing a $13 million investment are not counted as "classroom teachers" under this outdated calculation.

By securing this waiver, the District continues to demonstrate that it values its staff by maintaining the highest compensation levels among comparable districts.
 

No.  The average high school district reserves are 26%.  As of Second Interim, the District’s reserves are 27%. While this seems significant, they only provide approximately 2-3 months of operating expenses, including payroll, utilities, special education, transportation, and basic school operations.  These reserves help protect against the volatile educational funding system which includes federal funding which has been delayed and/or revoked. Our reserves are a financial safety net that protects jobs and programs during challenging times.  Thanks to the reserves and careful planning, the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District has successfully avoided layoffs while maintaining highly competitive salaries.  Meanwhile, many other districts have had to implement serious reductions over the last few years.

District reserves from across the state have been higher in recent years due to a historic injection of long-term one-time dollars since the pandemic such as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, Learning Recovery Block Grant, Arts, Music & Instructional Materials Block Grant, and Student Support and Professional Development Block Grant.  None of these can be spent on ongoing raises and they all raise the District's Ending Fund Balance or reserves. Most of these one-time dollars have come to an end and, given current deficit spending, will cause the reserves to be greatly reduced over the next two years.