LAUSD Salaries

* I believe “Pay Hike for Top School Officials Postponed” (Nov. 18) does a disservice to the administrators by not presenting the whole story. Board member Barbara Boudreaux is probably correct in calling the teachers union “mean-spirited.” The teachers, whose beginning salary starts just below $30,000, want to deny the deputy superintendents another 6% raise so they would have only received raises totaling 36% since July 1996. The teachers’ raise of 6% is the first raise since 1990. Incidentally, the teachers received a 10% pay cut in 1991.

The deputy superintendents deserve to make $146,052. And Supt. Ruben Zacarias deserves to make $188,860. They do an outstanding job making sure that all students have a textbook (oops!). As a teacher, I’m ashamed that our leaders do not make more money. But if I really wanted to be “mean-spirited,” I would have brought the board down to spend a day last October in my 104-degree classroom in Boyle Heights.

JONATHAN WEISBART

Fifth-grade teacher

Malabar Elementary