By Todd Maddison
We know pre-covid our schools had huge financial problems. Many of you have touched on that, and as Kristen Taketa put it in her excellent UT article (2/20), “Nearly every San Diego County School District may be spending more than it can afford…”
There have been plenty of stories from many of you since then. “Hold harmless” and covid mitigation dollars are covering up what will likely be a budget crises ahead. When enrollment declines hit and one-time money is gone, decisions made today that increase operating costs are going to make trouble for our kids. Districts that ignore that are going to be in even deeper trouble.
We’re now going to see that in action in Oceanside. OUSD has been continuously at “qualified” status since March 2017 with one exception – Fall 2019. They came out of “qualified” for one period. They used that opportunity to give everyone extra bonus raises, which raised the ongoing labor costs by about $5M (plus future growth…) and put them right back in “qualified” the next period. They’ve been there ever since.
Only two SD county districts were on the March 2017 list and are still on the list today – Oceanside and San Marcos Unified.
OUSD is now projecting deficits of $1.75M this year, $17.7M the next year, and $19.3M the third year. They’re are also projecting a need to cut $16.3M, which would have huge impact on programs and services for our kids.
Despite projections of “fiscal distress” ahead, OUSD just reached a tentative agreement with it’s teacher’s union. I have no idea what’s in that agreement but in the last meeting we saw a parade of teachers speaking that all discussed the need for a “4-5% increase”. I expect something like that here. If true, would add at least $5M or more to that deficit spending.
We would also expect updated agreements for support staff, and the usual “me too” raises for administrators to follow. Adding even more to the cost. As a side issue giving your employees a raise knowing you’re going to get the same increase yourself is totally unethical, but acceptable in our schools.
For reference, you all should know that the median total compensation for a full time teacher in OUSD in 2020 was $124,688, and for an administrator $164,598, but we saw a parade of teachers at the last OUSD board meeting talking about how difficult it was to make ends meet. NO one mentioned a word about the actual compensation levels.
Summarized data for the county for 2020 attached, as well as for superintendents statewide. Transparent California is in the middle of data collection for 2020 right now, it’ll likely be late this year/early next before we’re done but I’ll update that periodically if anyone is interested. Median total for teachers in the county is $122,413, for administrators $171,038.
One of the fundamental problems here is not just the “driving themselves into bankruptcy to increase the pay of employees” but the fact that they completely ignore laws that are supposed to bring at least some transparency to the process while doing it.
We all know CA 3547.5 requires the district to file a disclosure to the county when considering a labor group raise (the Collective Bargaining Disclosure). That disclosure requires the district to give “the specific impacts on instructional/support programs”. Almost every single CBD filed with our COE routinely says either “NA” or says “budget solutions to be determined”. Not a single one I’ve ever seen gives “specific impacts”, because if they told parents “we’re going to cut busing for poor kids” (as they did in OUSD in 2019) they might get some opposition to giving themselves raises.
We all also know when a district is “qualified” CA 3540.2 (c) requires notification of “each parent…. organization of the district” but that is NEVER done, because again, if they had to tell the DPAC’s and PTO’s they’re going to cut from their kids so they can all make more money that might put a different spin on the response from the community.
The VOSD was nice enough to publish an op-ed from me on this a few years ago – https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/opinion/districts-couldnt-stop-raising-employee-pay-now-kids-will-pay-the-price/ and we’ve seen bits and pieces from others out there, but this really deserves some focus from the media, especially now.
If they’re going to cut from our kids to line their own pockets (and then blame those cuts on “lack of funding from the state”), someone needs to point out the lack of clothes on that argument.
School choice is the real answer. Just so you know, in addition to being an activist here in Oceanside, a founder of the Parent Association, and the Research Director for Transparent California, I’m also the San Diego County Chair of Californians for School Choice. We’ve got an initiative about to come out of the Attorney General’s office for signature, if anyone’s interested in that I’d be happy to talk! http://californiaschoolchoice.org
