Oxnard Teachers Demand Bigger Raise

More than 150 teachers armed with protest signs and sharp words marched into the Oxnard school board meeting Wednesday night to demand administrators give them a 4% pay raise.

Teachers dominated the Oxnard School District meeting for about 30 minutes with chants of “Show us the money!” and “We want more! We want 4!” while school trustees waited somberly for the crowd to quiet.

They blamed board members for mismanaging the district’s $96.7-million budget this school year, leaving no money for cost-of-living raises.

“Once again, we find ourselves at the bottom of the district’s priority list,” said Gracie Soliz, president of the Oxnard Educators Assn., during a speech to Supt. Richard Duarte at the board meeting.

After eight months of negotiations, talks stalled March 16 between the district and the educators association, which represents 738 elementary and middle school teachers. A state mediator is expected to bring the two sides together May 11 to help reach an agreement by June 30, when the teachers’ current contract expires.

The dispute centers on how best to spend $2.6 million the state provided the district for cost-of-living raises and operating expenses related to student growth for the 1999-2000 school year.

Teachers say all the money should be used for higher salaries and would cover a 3.44% cost-of-living increase. They emphasize that Oxnard elementary and middle school teachers, who earn an average $50,000 annually, receive less than their counterparts in five other Ventura County school districts. Salaries range from $32,000 to $61,000 depending on a teacher’s experience.

But administrators say the district can afford no more than a 1.4% annual raise, because the rest of the money is needed to pay salaries for new teachers, psychologists, aides for physically disabled students and other state and federally mandated special education needs.

Money for a 4% raise “isn’t there, so in order to grant it we would have to do major cuts in programs,” said Sandra Herrera, assistant superintendent of business and fiscal services.

Teachers originally asked for a 7% annual pay raise, but reduced that demand by nearly half, while the district has remained firm on its original offer of 1.4%, said Soliz. Last year, Oxnard elementary and middle school teachers received a 5.5% pay raise.

“We want our fair share,” said Soliz, an eighth-grade teacher at Frank Intermediate School. “We hope the community understands what we’re going through. Many of these teachers recycle their pay raise into their classrooms.”

Several teachers at the protest said they spend as much as $1,000 each year of their own money on classroom materials, holiday parties and paper supplies. Others said they don’t have the books they need and are forced to photocopy lessons for students, which means they have to pick up some of those expenses.

“It’s very frustrating,” said Nancy Obryan, who teaches second grade at Rose Avenue Elementary School. “We come in early. We stay late. We’d like to be compensated.”

Although pay raises for principals and other administrative staff will be the same percentage that teachers receive, teachers say there is a huge discrepancy in the salaries and the workload. A severe shortage of classrooms means teachers must change rooms every three months. Those shifts have created an organizational nightmare, teachers say.

“Try to pack up and rotate your offices every three months without assistance,” said Soliz to Duarte.

David Gomez, the assistant superintendent serving as the district’s chief negotiator, said that giving teachers more than 1.4% would endanger the district’s ability to operate. About 86% of the district’s annual budget is spent on teacher salaries, administrators say.

“We believe the teachers should receive fair compensation,” he said. “But a district legally cannot give more than what it has to run its school district.”