SANTA PAULA : Teachers Win 5.62% Rise in Salaries

After a yearlong labor dispute, teachers in the Santa Paula Elementary School District ratified a salary increase Thursday, and the board of trustees approved the agreement at its regular meeting.

Teachers will receive an overall 5.62% increase in salaries and benefits, retroactive to September, 1989, union and district officials said.

The salary increase falls under a contract that expired June 30. Negotiations for a new contract will begin this fall, probably in October, said Randall Chase, assistant superintendent of business services.

The new schedule includes incentives such as higher salaries for new teachers and bonuses for bilingual teachers, designed to make Santa Paula schools more attractive to teaching recruits.

Carolyn Ishida, president of the Santa Paula Federation of Teachers, which represents 134 teachers, said most teachers will receive an increase that will amount to about 5.42%. The rest of the increase will boost salaries for beginning teachers, she said.

Of the 99 teachers who voted, six opposed the pay proposal, Ishida said.

Chase said the district’s salary schedule “was redesigned because we need to increase entry-level and lower-level salaries.”

According to the Ventura County superintendent of schools office, teachers at the Santa Paula Elementary School District earned less under the old schedule than those in three other school districts in the city.

The increases will bring minimum salaries for most new teachers--depending on their education and experience--to more than $24,000 a year. The previous minimum was slightly more than $20,000 a year. The new maximum salary for teachers with 11 years of experience and a master’s degree will be $42,331 a year, Chase said.

Annual anniversary bonuses for teachers with at least 15 years of experience will increase from $975 to $1,000 a year, Chase said. The district will continue to pay full health benefits, which have risen by about 6% over the past year, he said.

In addition, the new salary schedule includes a $500-a-year bonus for bilingual teachers with full credentials, Ishida said. That bonus will increase by $100 annually, she said.

Costs of the salary increases are expected to be close to $400,000 and will be taken out of this year’s budget, district officials said.