Response - La Canada Valley Sun 05-02-24

Commentary on "Teachers Want COLA Raises; LCUSD Says District Doesn't Have Funds", La Cañada Valley Sun, February 24, 2005

The contention of the LCUSD's chief business officer, John Kramar, that the "step and column" raises constitute an automatic raise for LCUSD teachers is generally untrue. Based upon district filings with the California Department of Education (CDE) as reported online at Ed-Data, the average level of experience of LCUSD teachers is 15.5 years. None of the columns in the current salary schedule indicate an increase in salary as teachers "step" into another year of experience at 15 years. In fact, only the column for those teachers with the greatest recognized level of continuing education ("Class VI") has any raise at all after 15 years of experience, a single increment at year 25.

The LCUSD salary has been static since 2001-2. Over the intervening 4 years inflation has averaged 2.5% per year (as noted by the Federal Reserve Bank), which means the LCUSD salaries have effectively declined by 10% over that time frame.

You do the math:
No cost of living increase plus no purported "step and column" raise means the take-home salaries of your LCUSD teachers have steadily decreased by 10% over the past 4 years.

Finally, the quote at the end of the column by Mr. Kramar indicating incoming teachers can get credited for 25 years of experience, while "theoretically" true, has not been the actual practice of the district. Since this provision was added to the teachers' contract with LCUSD, none have been hired at the top of the salary schedule.

In addition, there were other errors in the Valley Sun article by Jacqueline Chen. Below are just a few of the corrections that we would like to call attention to:

Kaiser prescriptions – Teachers voted to increase their co-pay for prescriptions to $5.00 last September so that the district did not have to reimburse them for the extra $4.00 per prescription that following the current contract would have necessitated.
Cost of health benefits - Health benefits did rise from between 2001 and 2002 because the teachers settled for an increase in their Blue Cross coverage rather than a salary increase. Since both the administrators and the classified employees received full family coverage, the District presented the argument that full family coverage was due the teachers, but that a raise would not be possible, if the District spent the money on the increased benefits. Blue Cross premiums have not increased in the last two years and the teachers have not received a salary increase in those two years, either.
Starting salaries for new teachers – While it is theoretically possible for a teacher to start at the top of the salary schedule in LCUSD, that has never happened. In addition, the article stated that it was not possible for veteran teachers to earn over $40,000 when transferring to other districts when, in fact, the median starting salary for veteran teachers in LA County is $65,601 (Reference: 2003-04 District Survey of Salaries and Fringe Benefits in Los Angeles County).

Did You Hear?

The district claims that most teachers receive a $2000 raise per year because they get step and column improvements. The reality is that about 25% of our teachers do not receive step and column raises because they are either at the maximum step of their column, at the top of the salary schedule, or stuck for five years on an anniversary step.
The district claims that a 2% step and column costs the district 2% which uses up the cost of living adjustment (COLA) received from the state. However, when the District gets a 2% COLA it is based upon their Base Revenue Limit, which for year end June 2004 was $25,612,716 (from the District's own website). Therefore a 2% COLA from the state equals $512,254 [2% = 0.02*$25,612,716 or $512,254]. The cost of a 1% raise is only $140,000, because teachers salaries only account for 46% of the general fund, not 100% of the general fund. So if step and column increases actually did cost the district 2% (we believe it is more like 1.5%) then the cost to the district would actually be $280,000.
John Kramer, CBO for LCUSD, states in the article, “Figures can say a lot of things and depending on who gave them to you, they can say different things.” LCTA agrees wholeheartedly and would like the district to use the figures to tell the truth.

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