Gilroy
– Even after reaching an agreement on how much to pay teachers,
the Gilroy Unified School District and the Gilroy Teachers
Association continue to disagree.
Gilroy – Even after reaching an agreement on how much to pay teachers, the Gilroy Unified School District and the Gilroy Teachers Association continue to disagree.
Earlier this month, the GUSD Board of Trustees approved a tentative agreement that gives certified employees in the district a 6.425 percent increase in salary and added fringe benefits for a total raise of more than 7 percent for the 2006-2007 school year.
The teacher’s raises will cost the district an additional $2.6 million annually, bringing the total compensation to certified employees for 2006-2007 to nearly $43.5 million. This comprises more than half of the $76 million general fund budget, used to pay daily expenditures, including teacher salaries.
Even though the pay increase was greater than the 4.5 percent of 2005-2006 and 3 percent raise of 2003-2004, Michelle Nelson, president of the GTA, said the pay increase was not enough.
“It didn’t bring us up to level” with comparable school districts, she said.
According to September 2006 figures from the California Teachers Association, both salary and total compensation for a Gilroy teacher with a bachelor of arts and 30 credit units ranked eighth out of eleven comparable, competing districts, including Hollister, Morgan Hill Unified, San Benito High School and Milpitas. GUSD teachers’ maximum compensation ranks ninth for both salary and total compensation.
February 2007 data from the California Teachers Association, yet to be verified by GUSD, shows that with the new tentative agreement and a soon to be ratified June 2007 contract between Hollister teachers and their school district, Gilroy teachers’ base salary ranking will come in at seventh in the area and total compensation will rank sixth. Compared to similar school districts, the salary at the level of maximum compensation will rank 10th while total compensation will come in seventh.
GUSD Superintendent Edwin Diaz said the numbers were misleading.
“We don’t compete with Hollister (for teachers),” he said. “We compete with Morgan Hill. Our total compensation is much higher than Morgan Hill.”
“Would I love to have Gilroy teachers be the best paid in the county?” asked Linda Piceno, assistant superintendent of human resources, who negotiated with the GTA on the tentative agreement. “Yes. Is that reasonable to expect at this point? No.”
Compared to 2005-2006, annual salaries will rise in the 2006-2007 school year from $40,017 to $42,588 for teacher with a bachelor’s degree and from $74,889 to $79,701 for a 25-year veteran with 75 credit units.
Fringe benefits for the teachers include a higher monthly cap on contributions by the school district to medical insurance programs offered by Kaiser Permanente and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
Because the new agreement covers the current school year, teachers will see in their March paycheck a retroactive payment for the money they would have received had they been paid at the newly negotiated monthly rate during the period of September through January.
Teachers will see the first of their elevated pay in their Feb. 28 paycheck.
“It’s long overdue,” said Carol Marques, literacy facilitator at South Valley Middle School. But, she added, “It’s better than nothing.”
