Compensation and health benefits for the seven-member Gilroy
Unified School District Board of Education currently comes at a
taxpayer cost of about $85,000.
Compensation and health benefits for the seven-member Gilroy Unified School District Board of Education currently comes at a taxpayer cost of about $85,000.
But it could be worse – $55,000 worse.
Trustees in a district the size of the GUSD are entitled to take up to a $400 monthly stipend, according to California educational code. However, Gilroy trustees have opted to receive a $240 monthly stipend instead.
“We don’t take the full amount,” said trustee Rhoda Bress. “In these budget times, it’s not the time to.”
Additionally, three trustees do not take advantage of the district-offered health benefits.
If each board member received the maximum $400 monthly stipend and took full advantage of the district’s health benefits, the cost of their compensation and benefits would be more than $140,000.
A petition recently filed with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters by the Gilroy Teachers Association aims to reduce the board by two positions. GTA President Michelle Nelson said the proposal intends to reduce costs in tough budget times. But there are no guarantees that this move will save money, trustees said.
Given the fact that three trustees don’t take the benefits anyway, “it’s going to save a very token amount of money,” said trustee Jaime Rosso.
Rosso, Bress and trustee Tom Bundros do not take advantage of the benefits offered through the school district.
“It’s a personal choice,” said Bress, who also donates her $240 monthly stipend back to the district.
Trustees are offered the same medical, dental and vision benefits that teachers receive. The entire package costs the district about $1,500 per trustee per month.
“It’s a perk of the job,” said trustee Francisco Dominguez, a small business owner who does take advantage of the district-offered benefits.
Still, “I don’t think anybody is doing this for the health benefits or for the pay,” he said.
Trustees Mark Good, an attorney, Denise Apuzzo, a part-time employee at Gavilan Community College, and Fred Tovar, an administrator at Stanford University, also take the district’s health benefits.
With an already heavy workload, if the voters were to approve a ballot measure reducing the board from five to seven members, Apuzzo said she would consider increasing trustees’ compensation from $240 to the $400 for which they are eligible by law.
If trustees did vote to give themselves raises – even if there were only five of them – the cost of their compensation could exceed $100,000, if all five took medical benefits as well.
Trustees said the time they put into researching education issues and attending board meetings and school events amounts to the equivalent of a part-time job. After the trustees that do use the district’s benefits pay their own contribution, the paycheck they receive is minimal, Good said.
With a take-home amount of $33, “nobody on the board does it for the paycheck,” he said.
