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Pleasanton Unified School District substitute teachers recently shared their frustrations with the school board’s decision to cut their daily pay rates by $25 as part of the district’s 2026-27 fiscal year budget reductions, saying the change both deeply impacts them financially and makes them feel unappreciated.
Those feelings were only exacerbated by Trustee Justin Brown’s comments during a Nov. 20 special board meeting where he said the substitute pay rate cuts “doesn’t directly impact our staff.”
“To insinuate that substitute teachers aren’t staff, is just demeaning and felt insulting,” longtime PUSD substitute teacher Kerry Gallagher-Pickett told the Pleasanton Weekly. “The future feels uncertain for PUSD substitute teachers because it does not feel like we are important or valued.”
During the last half of 2025, PUSD’s board of trustees spent a lot of time discussing and weighing out different budget cuts and reductions in light of financial challenges that the district continues to face. In the last few months of the year, those budget discussions ramped up and the board began discussing a specific list of proposed reductions for the 2026-27 school year.
Teachers, parents, students and other PUSD employees across many departments and roles turned out in droves during those end-of-year budget meetings to voice their opposition to cuts to several staff positions and programs. And while the final list of roughly $11.2 million worth of budget cuts does have several notable reductions in staff positions, the board was able to limit most of the impact to district and site management along with other administrative changes.
However, one budget item that ended up making the list of proposed cuts at the last minute was the cut to substitute teachers’ daily pay.
At its Nov. 20 special meeting, the board agreed to reduce the district’s certificated substitute pay rates by $25, which is projected to save the district about $125,000.
According to the district’s website, the current daily rates for certificated substitute teachers are as follows: $225 for assignments that last from one to 10 days, $250 for assignments that last 11 to 60 days, and $275 for assignments lasting more than 61 days. The last two brackets require the substitute to work consecutive days in the same classroom for the same teacher.
“Substitute costs cover both sick leave and professional development absences,” PUSD Safety and Communications Coordinator Susanne Frey told the Weekly. “PUSD spent approximately $2.97 million on certificated substitute teachers in the 2024–25 school year. That year, the district made adjustments to substitute rates and decreased the use of designated substitutes, which helped reduce costs.”
According to Frey, the board came up with the $25 daily pay cut by comparing PUSD’s rates to neighboring districts.
“Staff conducted regional rate comparisons and identified a modest adjustment intended to keep PUSD rates comparable and competitive,” she said. “The substitute rate adjustment is expected to take effect June 1, 2026, for the 2026–27 school year.”
But for teachers like Gallagher-Pickett, who has spent the last 12 years working as a substitute, that pay cut is significant.
She said she first got into the profession because she wanted to make extra money in order to help with the “high cost of raising children in Pleasanton” while also being able to be with her children as much time as possible. But even now, she said the additional income is valuable to her family’s overall finances.
“I depend heavily on my substitute teaching salary,” Gallagher-Pickett said. “This is my job and career. This is not a side job or a way to earn a little extra spending money. My family and I depend on this income and any pay cut is a hard and serious financial hit.”
One substitute teacher, who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of losing work for speaking out, told the Weekly the income she makes from being a substitute teacher helps pay for her family’s health insurance and medical bills but that due to federal subsidies ending this year, her family will have to start paying thousands of dollars out of pocket. That’s why she said she was worried about her financial future when she heard about the pay cut to her substitute teaching job.
Another teacher who also wished to remain anonymous, said she was surprised to hear about the cuts, especially after the district cut their pay in 2023.
“When I heard that the PUSD substitute teachers were going to receive another $25 pay cut (2nd one in three years), I felt angry, disheartened and worried,” Gallagher-Pickett said.
Gallagher-Pickett and other fellow substitutes also said the cuts almost reflect how underappreciated substitutes feel and how they don’t have anyone to fight for them whenever the district needs to find ways to save money.
“We are not allowed to be part of a union, have no one advocating or protecting us, never get reviewed or rewarded for years of service or quality of our work, can have our jobs canceled (at the) last minute and then not be paid,” Gallagher-Pickett said.
They were particularly disheartened by Trustee Brown’s comments following the board’s discussion and approval of placing the substitute pay cuts on the list of budget reductions.
“The board president even went on record and said that cutting our pay was ‘actionable and doesn’t impact our staff’ which was not only demeaning, but also insulting,” Gallagher-Pickett said. “We should be considered staff. Most of us work really hard to connect with students and staff, carry out lesson plans, maintain a safe and orderly classroom, meet students where they are, and manage students and classwork to ensure the best learning continuity as directed by their permanent teacher.”
However, following the November board meeting, Brown replied to a Dec. 19 Letter to the Editor from a substitute teacher who wrote about their similar concerns regarding Brown’s comments where he clarified that he never meant any harm.
“It was never my intention to disrespect the great work done by PUSD substitute teachers as I know it’s a difficult job to follow up on someone else’s lesson plan and to do so with short notice,” Brown said in a statement to the Weekly. “The comment was made strictly in context to the public discussion of other reductions affecting ‘permanent’ staffing.”
Still, with the looming pay rate cuts set to take effect later this year, Gallagher-Pickett and her colleagues are unsure about their future being a substitute teacher at PUSD.
“What is to say that we will not get another pay cut if the budget keeps being an issue?” she said. “I love my job and I love the students and staff, but I am feeling underappreciated and after 12 years of being a substitute many times, I feel discouraged and demoralized.”
I know that $25 doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s the second pay cut in the past two years and at 10%, it is a larger percentage than any other department has to take. And a savings of $125,000 is a pittance of the $11M identified cuts. Let’s have management take the same cut to take the sting out of this insult (and the savings in that would be significant).
I know that $25 doesn’t sound like a lot but it’s the second pay cut in the past two years and at 10%, it is a larger percentage than any other department has to take. And a savings of $125,000 is a pittance of the $11M identified cuts. Let’s have management take the same cut to take the sting out of this insult (and the savings in that would be significant).
Frustrated voter-there were many opportunities for you to address the Board and make your case. While it’s difficult to digest any reductions in either personnel, or pay, your observation clearly suggests you did not watch any of the Board’s extensive deliberations, or the public’s input, on a vast and difficult array of means to reduce expenses, including and particularly management.
Oh, I’ve been in contact with all kinds of people on many levels in this discussion and I’m very aware of what’s happening. My point is that no other department is sustaining this 10% reduction. Management should be leading by example, and they are not.
I’m all for lean administration so I agree with leading by example, yet the facts here are if you count the reductions made to PUSD administration over the past two years of budget reductions, it is far above 10%. The facts are contrary to your assertion.