A new state law that allows public school superintendents to sign off on giving themselves larger budgets has raised alarm bells across San Diego County — and the debate over how much is too much may soon heat up in communities with severe budget deficits across California.
The Carlsbad, Cajon Valley, Escondido and Oceanside school districts have all approved or budgeted increases for trustees between 300-400%, according to NBC San Diego. Meanwhile, districts in the region are facing layoffs and school closings, but trustees’ salaries are still being pushed forward.
Passage of AB 1390 – sponsored by Assembly Member José Luis Solache, Jr. and was signed into law last year by Gov. Gavin Newsom – started with what many say are good intentions to provide better pay after decades of low pay for hard work.
But the debate raises — now up to $3,000 a month depending on the size of the district — in the face of a huge deficit has become a hot button issue. The original draft law showed Solache initially tried to collect monthly payments of up to $7,500 a month.
In places like Cajon Valley, where county administrators raised their monthly paychecks from $600 to $2,000 while county employees were laid off, pay cuts have come as a priority.
“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” said Mark Reagles, a school bus mechanic who has worked for the Cajon Valley Unified School District for nearly two decades.
Reagles, the district’s union president, told The Post that school districts throughout San Diego County are facing shortages that require layoffs and cuts. He noted that trustees may deserve less money, but not if his district cuts jobs.
Cajon Valley will lose $120K a year in the general fund to pay for trustees’ raises, Reagles said, which comes on top of health benefits for trustees and their families.
“I’m losing three people to layoffs,” Reagles said, “and that $120K would have paid their entire salary.”
Officials from the San Diego County Office of Education declined to comment, as did officials from the San Diego Education Association and the California Teachers Association.
Scott Davison, an attorney and parent in Carlsbad who now leads the Carlsbad Education Alliance, told The Post that trustee pay gaps are a serious issue.
The topic could quickly become a hotly contested one depending on the state of labor negotiations and whether or not the teacher unions gain control of the school board.
“We have seen the alignment of the opposition parties decrease whether the teachers’ union has a good or bad relationship with the board,” said Davison.
The trustees in Carslbad County recently registered a raise, but they are not facing the same fury as elsewhere in San Diego County.
“The funny thing is, in our life [Carlsbad] school district, we have a majority of unions – the three trustees are sponsored and elected by the teachers union,” said Davison. “When this issue came up, we didn’t see anyone opposing it, because it hasn’t been a year since they negotiated contracts.”
Brandi Krepps, president of the Escondido Elementary Educators Association, told NBC San Diego that teachers raising themselves by 400% in her district would make things “bad.”
“Our website budget has been reduced, meaning there are budget constraints, however we have money to give school board members more money,” Krepps said. “That’s right, it’s really annoying.”
Reagles warned that many school districts in California could see similar steps being taken to increase trustee pay even though it’s only a few dollars to spend.
“This time of year is layoff time in the state of California for thousands of school districts,” Reagles said. “This is not the time to do it.”
