CERRITOS : ABC Board Votes to Raise Teacher Salaries
The ABC Unified School board on Tuesday voted 4 to 3 to approve a 2% salary increase for teachers.
The raise is the first for the district’s 1,100 teachers since the 1991-92 school year. It is retroactive to July, 1994.
ABC President Sally Morales Havice and members David Montgomery, Howard Kwon and Cecy Groom were in favor. Members Robert Hughlett, Dixie Primosch and Jim Weisenberger dissented.
Weisenberger said Groom should abstain from voting since she and former teachers’ union co-president Don Saul were shareholders in a Cypress travel firm. Saul resigned in April.
Groom refused. “I did not benefit from any of these issues,” she said.
Board members who opposed the contract said the pay increase could create a budget deficit of $322,000 to $750,000. Primosch urged the board to defer the raise until the district can determine how much money it has when the current fiscal year ends June 30. “Let’s wait a couple of months to see where we are when we close the books,” she said.
ABC Supt. Thomas J. Riley said the contract allows the district to renegotiate if unforeseen fiscal problems arise.
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