Teachers Pledged Pay Boost as City Gets $18-Million Budget Windfall

The San Diego city schools will have about $18 million more for next year’s budget than anticipated when trustees pared $10.6 million from educational programs.

Supt. Tom Payzant will recommend to the board today that it reserve $8 million of the additional funds for modest pay raises for the district’s 11,817 employees, including 6,000 teachers, Payzant said Monday. He will ask that most of the remaining $9 million be used for government-mandated or unavoidable costs, Payzant added, with no money recommended for restoration of curriculum programs cut in March.

That decision resulted from Payzant’s belief that school district employees have a reasonable expectation of some salary increase based on the state budget allocation of 2.5% funding intended for wages, he said.

“You can’t do both (give salary increases and restore programs) and the expectation in this district is that an increase along the lines of the cost-of-living increase in the governor’s budget is deemed reasonable,” Payzant said in an interview.

Hasn’t Briefed Board

“If we were to say no to a salary increase, that would make for a very protracted year of negotiations with our bargaining units.”

Payzant said he had not briefed the five-member board on his new budget recommendations but had talked with them about the implications of the state budget allocation for employees. He has not yet presented the new budget picture to the San Diego Teachers Assn., the largest bargaining unit.

Payzant said he would not expect employees to forgo raises in order to restore programs, a suggestion made in February by some of the hundreds of speakers who came before the board to decry the educational cuts.

Under Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed budget earlier this year, Payzant expected only a $2.2-million increase in funding, far short of the $42 million received this year and $10.6 million short of the amount needed simply to maintain the current level of school services due to normal growth and inflation for an estimated 116,000 students projected for the fall.

The board trimmed programs, including instrumental music instruction in elementary schools, the gifted and talented teaching unit, districtwide counseling and special education for disabled students. It also eliminated a $1-million reserve and plans for revision of the math curriculum between grades kindergarten-through-eight, new drug prevention instruction and maintenance improvements.

Funds Carried Over

With the final budget now signed, the $422-million budget Payzant foresaw in March has risen to $438 million. A portion of the additional money results from the district carrying over some funds from this year’s budget and in health insurance savings not forecast earlier.

In addition to the $8 million Payzant wants reserved for salary increases, he listed these other general areas where the extra money would be used:

- $2.8 million for a lottery reserve, to assure adequate coverage of programs to be funded by lottery receipts. Lottery receipts have been running far below those estimated earlier by Deukmejian, Payzant said. If the receipts increase, the $2.8 million could be used for one-time educational programs later in the year.

- $1.8 million for items such as purchasing and staff development that were promised during this year’s budget but not completed before the June 30 budget year ended.

- $1.8 million for items that must be carried out next year but which had no funding until now. They include $600,000 for planning for year-round schools and $260,000 to give individual schools for additional English teaching for non-native speaking students.

- $1.5 million for fuel tank repairs as mandated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency but unfunded until now. Many schools still have unused underground fuel tanks on their grounds, despite a switch to gas many years ago. All tanks must be checked for leakage and those that have problems must be removed, Payzant said, at a cost now higher than that earlier estimated.

- $1.8 million in additional clerical help for elementary schools. Payzant said that teachers and principals are shouldering too much of the clerical load, resulting in less time spent on direct educational functions.

“I’m convinced that despite the gains made in salaries during the past several years, we cannot afford a year with no progress at all for employees,” Payzant said. “We want at least to stay even (compared to inflation), even if the increase is modest compared to previous years.”