Pay Hikes for L.A. School Officials Hit by State Legislators

A delegation of Los Angeles-area state Assembly Democrats on Thursday assailed the Los Angeles Board of Education’s decision to offer school district administrators “huge” and “unjustified” raises, and threatened an investigation if the wage offer is approved.

“This pay raise for administrators could not come at a worse time,” Assemblyman Dave Elder (D-San Pedro) said in a letter to school board President Roberta Weintraub.

The board has offered middle management personnel, such as principals, a 24% increase over three years. It has proposed giving top management, including Supt. Leonard Britton, a 16% raise over two years. That would increase Britton’s $141,000 salary by $23,000, “very nearly the amount of money a beginning teacher makes,” Elder noted. “That is outrageous. There is no hue and cry for additional salaries for administrators.”

Edler warned that Assembly Democrats from Los Angeles face an uphill battle to protect the district’s share of state education money stemming from Proposition 98, and that approval of the management raises “likely dooms our ability to resist” attempts to curtail the funding.

Urge Postponement

The Assembly delegation urged the school board to postpone action on the administrative wage increases until after July 1, when a new board member, Mark Slavkin, will take office. During his recent campaign, Slavkin, who was endorsed by the teachers’ union over incumbent Alan Gershman, criticized district administration as too large and overpaid.

If the board approves the increases--16% over two years for top management and 24% over three years for middle management--Elder said he will order a special hearing in Los Angeles of the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee, which he chairs.

“We will go line-by-line through the classifications and salaries and talk about how this (raise) can possibly be justified,” Elder said Thursday. “We will get into the question of why don’t we convert these positions to teacher positions and have budget reductions to get more teachers in the classroom.”

United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson said the Assembly Democrats’ letter “certainly sums up my feelings. They (school board and administrators) really overstepped the bounds of everything that could be construed as reasonable, and it blew up in their face.”

‘Obviously Very Angry’

Weintraub acknowledged Thursday that the Assembly members were “obviously very angry.” But she said the raises are fair and that she does not believe the letter will change the board’s position.

The board solidly supports giving school-based administrators, such as principals and assistant principals, the same 24%, three-year increase that teachers won after a nine-day strike in May, she said. “This year has been a very difficult time for those administrators, the worst in the history of the district,” she said, referring to the strike and a series of job actions by teachers. “They gave their all. No one has any argument over that.”

The offer to top management, she said, “is not the same raise we offered teachers.”