By Peter Day
Staff Writer
One down. One to go.
The Lucerne Valley Unified School District last week successfully completed negotiations with its classified employees, and during a lengthy meeting last Thursday heard concerns regarding ongoing negotiations from several teachers.
For the last six years, school district employees have making do with less since.
"I love my job," said Cyndy McDonough, a longtime teacher and president of the Lucerne Valley Teachers Association. "My family has paid the price for my dedication."
Teachers took a 4 percent salary rollback, a raise freeze, eight furlough days and a 50 percent cut to the stipends given for extracurricular activities. Classified agreed to a 4 percent salary cut, a raise freeze and 6-8 furlough days. Management took a 3.5 percent pay cut, an adjustment to the pay scale for some of its positions and 12 furlough days, according to a 2010 Leader article.
Now that the school district has more reserve funds, many teachers believe it is time the district to raise teacher salaries. Early during the summer, the school district notified teachers through a memorandum of understanding that they would be receiving a 5 percent "on schedule" salary increase.
But they believe they deserve more.
"Teachers could have left to higher-paying districts," one veteran teacher said. "But they stayed. I'm close to retirement. This is a big issue for me.... "I want to leave this district with a song in my heart and a skip in my step."
Several other teachers spoke, sharing personal stories of taking two jobs to make ends meet and being strapped with expensive student loans.
According to McDonough, the effective starting salary for Lucerne Valley teachers is $44,415 while the median starting salary of a sample of other area school districts is $47,349.
"Our teachers work longer, harder and for less money," said teacher Kay Hall.
On Monday, school board president Jim Harvey said the negotiation process has a ways to go and that the district is is giving "thoughtful and thorough analysis" to come to the best result.
"We all need to work together," he said.
While negotiations with the teachers union has had its challenges, the district and the Lucerne Valley Chapter #743 of California School Employees Association virtually sailed through negotiations.
Effective July 1, 2016, the classified salary schedule was increased by 5 percent. In addition, the district agreed to give "off schedule" bonuses from 1 percent and up to 3 percent if the district's Average Daily Attendance increases to set numbers.
Additionally, the district agreed to raise the health and welfare cap from $7,400 to $9,100. The district will pay up to $13,500 for two-party and family plans.
"Health costs are rising," Harvey said. "We want to help them cover those increased costs."