OXNARD : District Won’t Give Raises to Workers

Speech therapists and psychologists will be added to the list of Oxnard Elementary School District employees who will not receive a salary increase during the 1991-92 school year, officials said Thursday.

Budget cuts amounting to more than $3 million have effectively frozen cost-of-living increases in the district, and no raises will be considered until funding levels become stable, Assistant Supt. Bernard Korenstein said.

“No one in the district is getting a salary increase this year,” Korenstein said.

The support services union, which has 25 members in the 1,000-employee district, also includes migrant education coordinators and multimedia specialists. The union is expected to present its salary proposal in two weeks.

A variety of non-monetary benefits may be up for negotiation, union officials said.

The Oxnard Elementary School District, a year-round district with 17 campuses, serves 12,500 kindergarten through eighth-grade students.

The 500 teachers in the district were denied a raise in July, and a bargaining unit for classified employees, which includes custodians and secretaries, is expected to receive the same bad news at the end of the month.

Korenstein said the district experienced a 6% cut in its annual $50-million budget because of tough economic times at the state level.

“We had to cut $3 million in programs and services and personnel,” Korenstein said.

In addition, Ramona Elementary School was closed due to cuts.

For the new school year, which began Tuesday, 16 teachers were not rehired and a special reading instruction program was canceled.

The last support services cost-of-living increase came during the 1989-90 school year, when employees received a 13.5% raise spread over two years.