School District Pay Raise Inappropriate: Letter To The Editor

Dear Editor,

Tonight is a NUSD Board meeting. Due to the district being over $4 million in debt, they held a handful of “Budget Reduction Input Meetings” in the fall, open to community members to give input on how to deal with the budget crisis in our district. The consensus among all community members who attended (including teachers and parents) was that the cuts should stay as far away from classrooms as possible (no increase in class size and no teacher layoffs). The community asked the district to start their budget cuts at the top, in the district office. At the last Board meeting, the board members voted to have the power to increase class size, up to 29 students in grades K-3 and up to 35 students in grades 4-12. No cuts in salaries or positions at the district office. Tonight the Board will be voting on a $36,000 increase in ONE district office employee’s salary. Bringing him to approximately $190,000. Our teachers are given a 1.5% raise each year and they do not receive medical benefits. They are laying off both deans at the junior high and high school. They are decreasing our guidance counselors from 5 to 2. Two counselors to cover over 4000 students across three schools (NMHS, NJHS and McGregor). They reduced the number of special education aides per classroom. Our superintendent is one of the highest paid superintendents in the state of California, for our very small Newark school district. The cuts are directly negatively impacting the students and teachers, the very people we need to actually have a school. Our district has a very hard time obtaining and retaining teachers, one of our special ed classrooms at the elementary school has had a substitute since the beginning of the year, because they can’t find anyone to fill the position (for what they pay, we lost an amazing special education teacher last year to a neighboring district). The district can’t retain substitutes either, there is a shortage, because NUSD pays lower than surrounding cities. Given our current situation in Newark, with our district $4 million in debt, a superintendent making over $235,000/year and now another district member may receive a $36,000 raise this year? All while our teachers and counselors are laid off and more students are crammed into over-filled classrooms?

The district mission statement on their website states, “Newark public schools inspire and educate all students to achieve their full potential and be responsible, respectful, productive citizens.” The district’s decisions fly in the face of their mission statement. The students cannot possibly achieve their full potential when the district continuously increases class size, doesn’t fairly compensate teachers, lays off more than 50% of counselors our students very much need (these days, especially!), and their decision to increase district salaries can be categorized as nothing but irresponsible. And respectful? These decisions prove that they have NO respect for our teachers, counselors, or (most importantly) our students. They can’t follow their own mission statement. How do they expect our students to be high achievers when the district keeps removing the tools they need to do so?

Kimberli McCarthy
concerned parent