Sacramento City teachers urge board to provide competitive salaries
If the Sacramento City Unified School District expects to recruit and maintain top teachers, it has to offer salaries and benefits that are competitive with those in other districts, teachers told board members.
Teachers turned out in force for Thursday night’s district board meeting. With the board room filled to capacity, the overflow crowd watched proceedings on a television in an adjoining cafe area at the district’s Serna Center.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association is asking for a 5 percent retroactive pay raise for the current school year. The pay increase was triggered by an increase in state funding that enables the district to provide higher salaries to teachers. The district has offered a 2.5 percent raise.
Teachers speaking during the public comment portion of the the meeting Thursday told board members they must do better if they expect to keep current teachers and attract new ones. Nikki Milevski, SCTA president, said 53 percent of district teachers responding to a recent survey said they were considering taking a job in another district.
Other speakers cited the number of teachers in the district nearing retirement and argued that the Sacramento district would have trouble competing for new hires with districts like San Juan and Elk Grove, which offer higher salaries.
Board President Christina Pritchett told the audience that the board has to look at all the demands on its budget. The last thing its wants to do is spend beyond its means and have to lay off employees, she said. She stressed that in considering raises, the district must also make sure it can fulfill its current commitment to lifetime benefits for employees.
There is disagreement over whether increasing pay means the district should reduce the teachers’ health and welfare benefits, which are the most generous in the Sacramento region.
Priya Jaggi, a first-year teacher at The Met Sacramento High School, said she was offered jobs in Folsom and Woodland, at a higher salary. Although she chose the Sacramento District, Jaggi said she has to be able to be able pay off student debt and meet routine expenses such a car insurance.
“I’m not here to ask you to pay me what I’m worth, because you can’t,” Erin Duarte, a sixth-grade teacher at Pony Express Elementary School told the board.
But Duarte asked board members to talk with her about the challenges teachers face before they make a decision. She concluded her comments by handing trustees cards with her phone number and email address.
