Teachers can expect hefty increase next year, due to an
education budget called the best in 20 years
Gilroy – Teachers should expect to see substantial pay increases come next year, thanks to the rosy fiscal forecast sent down from the state.
“The budget that is proposed by the governor is the best budget proposal on paper in 20 years, so it would be reasonable to expect a significant portion of that increase to be applied to compensation,” said Gilroy Unified School District Assistant Superintendent Steve Brinkman.
That promising budgetary outlook – along with the desire to finally wrap-up 2005-06 negotiations and take a break before jumping into 2006-07 talks – was one of the reasons teachers decided to put their request for a significant raise on hold.
On Friday, the contract received 87 percent approval from 336 of the district’s 520 or so teachers. A total of 291 voted yes, while 45 cast no votes. Gilroy Teachers Association President Michelle Nelson said there are still some votes pending but it won’t change the outcome.
Nelson has already made it clear that the request for a salary bump won’t go away anytime soon. The exact amount of a raise the union plans to ask for depends upon the final state budget and the one adopted by the district.
“Salary and health benefits are always money items,” Nelson said. “But, hopefully, they won’t be as much of an issue this year because of the budget.”
The substantial raise is essential in Gilroy where teacher pay is “significantly” lower compared to surrounding school districts, Nelson said. GUSD has increased teacher salaries over the past five years, moving from the very bottom of 11 districts for both new and veteran teachers; to fifth, or $40,017 for beginning teachers; and fourth, or $74,889 for veteran teachers with master’s degrees, according to the district’s first Accountability Task Force report.
When medical and dental benefits are factored in beginning teachers earn $52,045 and veterans with master’s make $86,917.
But district officials and the teacher’s union appear to be in tune on the raise issue. Jim Rogers is no exception. The GUSD school board member said after hearing Brinkman’s positive budgetary predictions, setting aside cash for employee compensation makes perfect sense.
“It’s always scary to say ‘I’m optimistic,’ but there’s no question this is one of the better budgets we’ve seen,” Rogers said.
But Rogers does have one concern.
The trustee’s worried the district will make promises based on Proposition 98 repayments – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vowed to repay the money borrowed over the next seven years – and end up in the hole.
“That’s the only caveat I have,” he said. “My philosophy at the moment is to make sure all employees get a fair increase.”
The board already gave the district permission to allocate more than half a million dollars to hire nine new teachers after approving the extension of the middle school day. The decision to tack on an additional period onto the middle school day was made in an effort to improve the district’s low math scores.
With the extra period, middle school math classes will jump from 45 to 90 minutes.
“The board’s No. 1 priority, other than compensation, was middle school math,” Brinkman said.
While district officials are receptive to the idea of a raise, it’s doubtful the class size request, will be embraced. The union wants to place a 34-student cap on grades six through 12. Currently, grades kindergarten through third participate in class size reduction and have a student to teacher ratio of 20 to 1.
District officials point to the fact that capping class sizes would be a nightmare, particularly at the high school level. If the contract was drawn up with such stipulations that would mean an extra classroom and teacher for a class with one-too-many students.
“We would like to continue to try to get a class limit of 34 because it makes it hard to reach all the students in one period,” Nelson said.
But even the union president admits the likelihood of that happening is slim.
“Probably not, but we’re going to keep asking anyway because it’s good for the students,” she said.
