Teacher Pay in Hueneme Is at Head of Class : Wages: Most new instructors in the elementary district are starting at $26,700, which can nearly double in 12 years.

Sharon Schiro, the daughter of two schoolteachers, has always known that she wanted to follow in her parents’ path with a career in the classroom.

This month, Schiro, 24, began her first year as a full-time teacher, instructing fourth- and fifth-grade students at Fred Williams Elementary School in the Hueneme Elementary School District.

Schiro’s beginning salary is $26,700 a year, not exactly a king’s ransom. But one of the factors that led her to apply in the Hueneme district, she said, was the potential for eventually earning nearly twice that amount--and several thousand dollars more than in other Ventura County districts--if she remains with Hueneme for at least 12 years.

“The higher salaries are a symptom of the whole district,” said Schiro, who was a substitute teacher in Hueneme and other nearby districts. Schiro’s mother is a reading specialist at Williams, and her father teaches social science at Hueneme High School.

According to Hueneme district officials, Schiro is not alone in preferring a job with the Hueneme district.

For many of the past 15 years, the 7,300-student district has been the highest-paying elementary school district in Ventura County. School officials said the greater earning potential in Hueneme has made it easier to recruit good teachers.

“It is very attractive to teachers, particularly to new teachers coming in,” said Jeffrey L. Baarstad, administrative assistant for management and business services. “They look at the salary schedule and see how much they would be making five years down the road.”

With a 3.7% raise this school year, the starting salary in the Hueneme district is $25,400 a year for teachers with a college degree but without teaching credentials, Baarstad said. But most new teachers have both a degree and a credential and start at $26,700, Baarstad said.

The average minimum starting salary for the county’s other elementary districts is just over $22,000, according to figures compiled by the county’s superintendent of schools office in May. Some of those districts have since implemented cost-of-living raises averaging about 3%.

School officials cautioned that it is difficult to compare salary schedules among districts because the complex systems for computing pay are based on education and experience and vary widely.

However, officials in other districts acknowledged that Hueneme’s salaries have been at or near the top among the county’s districts for years.

“We’ve lost two to three teachers a year to Hueneme,” said Kent Patterson, assistant superintendent of the Oxnard elementary district. “They go because of the salary, they’ve told me. It’s hard to turn down when it’s $1,500 to $2,000 a year more.”

However, Patterson said a recent 6.5% pay increase may help the Oxnard district retain more teachers.

Other districts said teachers are not leaving to go to Hueneme.

“We’re not losing teachers to Hueneme that I’m aware of,” said Leean Nemeroff, assistant superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

Besides, Ventura County school officials said there is a surplus of credentialed teachers, although teachers with special ties in mathematics, science or special education or with bilingual credentials are still in short supply.

For teachers in the Hueneme district, the difference comes at the higher end of the pay scale: Teachers with a master’s degree and 12 years of experience make $49,500, Baarstad said.

The next closest district in the county is the Oxnard Union High School District, where teachers at the high end of the salary range make $47,561.

In Oxnard and Hueneme, as in most other districts, teachers with at least 15 years of continuous experience with the district also receive annual bonuses of $300 to $1,000.

Growth in other industries sometimes benefits the school districts. Some couples who move to the county include a spouse with a teaching credential, officials said.

Kristen Chadwell is one.

“The high salary is why I settled on Hueneme,” said Chadwell, who taught for a year in the Pomona Unified School District before her husband transferred to Ventura County because of his job. She began her first year at Hueneme’s Parkview Elementary School this month.

Chadwell, who also has a bilingual credential, earns $27,900 a year, about $5,000 less than she made in Pomona, she said. But Chadwell said the salary is more than was offered in Oxnard Elementary, Ventura Unified, Pleasant Valley Unified and Rio school districts. The offers were from $700 to nearly $3,000 less than she was offered by Hueneme, she said.

There are a number of reasons for Hueneme’s higher salaries, Baarstad said.

Among them is the amount of money the Hueneme district has received from the federal government over the past 15 years because the Naval Construction Battalion Center is in the district’s jurisdiction, Baarstad said.

Such federal impact aid is given to all school districts where there are military bases, federal prisons or other government property, and is intended to make up for property taxes that the districts would ordinarily receive from residential and other property.

When the district started receiving impact aid 15 years ago, it amounted to about $1 million annually, much of which was used for teachers’ salaries, Baarstad said.

Since then, the impact aid has dwindled to less than $400,000 of the district’s $27-million budget, but the district is still committed to the salary schedule, Baarstad said.

But Baarstad said higher salaries have a price.

“It costs us more in real dollars to give a 1% raise than if our salary schedule peaked at $5,000 to $10,000 lower,” Baarstad said. The district pays about $130,000 for each 1% in salary increases, he said.

Another reason for the historically higher salaries, both Hueneme teachers and district administrators said, is a strong teachers union, the Hueneme Education Assn.

“It has a lot to do with the attitude of the district and the school board,” said Donna Branstrom, president of the 300-member association. “They really realize that the teacher is the core of the instruction, and that’s where they want to put their money.”

But some teachers said that although the district pays teachers more on average, it is difficult for experienced teachers to get a job in the Hueneme district.

“It’s well-known that unless you have a bilingual credential it’s hard to get hired in the district if you have more than five years of experience,” said a teacher who has taught in the district for 17 years and who asked not to be named. She said she believed several highly experienced teachers seeking jobs in Hueneme have been turned down because it is more expensive to pay them than teachers with less experience.

However, Baarstad said the district’s only criterion is hiring the best-qualified person.

“We look at candidates based on credentials, experience and the needs of the district,” Baarstad said. “We try to get the best person for the job.”