Guaranteed the only one who might be worth any of that is (was?) the head of business. Superintendent is not worth any of it, and I would like to understand how this board got us into this mess.

I'm actually ok with the pay rate IF they are doing the job and keeping PUSD a top tier school district. You should expect to pay for performance.

I see this as less of an issue with the pay, and more a problem with the individuals that have been approved/hired into these roles not performing to expected levels of achievement.

They botched the return to school opportunities last year, failed to resolve union issues, failed to meet minimum educational requirements during school from home, and failed to be prepared for in school learning this year. Not to mention the increased union administration tension.

Nope. Time to start picking off the low performers as well as the individuals that hired them into these positions.

Do they get longevity bonuses? I thought that was also in their agreement to retain the cabinet.

@Jimmy - Yes, they made sure to give themselves a longevity bonus. In comparison, teachers who reach their 20th year of teaching are stuck at the same pay rate for the rest of their career. There is no such bonus for teachers.

I'm a teacher and am stuck at the same pay rate. In fact, I take home less money each year because I'm single and must buy the PUSD benefits. Those benefits have increased every year - often as much as 10% per year. PUSD hasn't offered a COLA in years. You can imagine how frustrating it is when the administration gives themselves a raise, but offers teachers .27%. It is insulting.

PUSD has also increased the teacher workday (without negotiating) and wants to take away a teacher's lunch period at the principal's discretion. Yes, you read that correctly. Recently, a teacher had to give up their lunch to supervise a classroom. That teacher was going to grab lunch off campus. When they were required to stay on site, they asked to purchase a school lunch...and were told that teachers were not allowed to purchase a school lunch because all lunches are free and for students only this year.

Before you say "just change districts", it is often not financially possible. Teachers are pretty much stuck in a district after 7 years. So if I have taught for 25 years (and am on the pay scale at 20 years), as soon as I move to another district, I am bumped down to year 7. That is a huge pay loss, especially for single parents.

The combined salaries bonuses health benefits perks (all in the contract public record ) for the superintendant and 4 assistant superintendants conservatively is well over $1.5 million a year. The Annual budget does not reflect this because the Superintendant is in charge of the budget. There are discretionary funds that can be moved around to suit the needs of the superintendant. Please go to the pusd website and see for yourself their board of trustee approved salaries/ contracts. How are they considered successful if our teachers have no contract or increases? There is no mention in their contracts specifically outlining what is expected of them. I sure hope they can cover the classroom teaching for the astronomical salaries they are making.

Sounds like it’s time to rethink this union thing. Non union employees have benefits, mobility, and competitive salaries.

Union membership voted away benefits to increase their salaries, apparently inhibits mobility, and sacrifices new teachers. It’s obviously not a union power problem as they succeeded in holding education hostage last year to get teachers vaccinated first……and only to now fight any mandates for teachers to get vaccinated…..but they support bills that force children to.

Perhaps it’s time to end a union system of repression and replace it with an equitable solution that favors and values teachers based on their results

Just to be clear. They have a built in 3.5% raise every year no matter what. That is in addition to the 4.5% raise given last year.

After receiving an 8% raise, they offer teacher 0.27% raise.

Let's also be clear:

Teachers do not get ANY benefits paid for by the district. The cheapest healthcare option this year (for a family) is over $2200/month.

CA teachers do NOT get social security. True, they do not pay into social security, both any teacher that changes careers midstream is screwed.

Teachers pay at least 8% of their salary into the pension. Most of the US pays 6.2% into social security (up to $142,000). A teachers pension is close to social security in terms of value. So if you think teachers are getting rich off the pensions, think again.

In addition, social security increases faster than a teacher pension. So if two people retire today and one is a teacher pension and the other on social security, the teacher today would likely be making substantially more. In 20 years, the person on social security would be making more.

Did I mention that Pleasanton teachers receive $0 dollars in ANY benefits. There is no health care, there is no life insurance, there is no nothing. In fact, they are forced to pay for dental insurance whether they want to or not.

I point these things out only to make the playing field level. We have leadership people that don't even live in northern california making decisions about our student's lives. Critical decisions.

We have leadership that hates teachers. It has been said from the district leadership team that teachers are "warm bodies"

If I still had children going through PUSD I would be wanting the current leadership team to hang.

As a Pleasanton homeowner, I'm worried about my property values and this current administration is destroying the fabric of this community.

I just need to point out that over that last few years, Pleasanton went from "THE" place to work to the place to avoid. Not too many years ago, teachers would do ANYTHING to work in PUSD. Today, we can't even attract mediocre teachers to fill positions. There are students at our schools that have had subs the entire year.

Teachers talk. No teacher is going to want to come to PUSD these days unless they are desperate. This is what our current leadership wants. And since they are the leaders, they get what they want.

Pleasanton schools are being destroyed by our current administration. This is not some slanted point of view, go talk to teachers. GO ask students who have a substitute teacher for months on end in their math class.

Our leadership wants only one thing and that is to win. To them, if they beat down the teachers and reduce the budget, they win and get a raise. In the end, the students suffer. But this administration will be gone, taking their raises and bonuses and living high off the hog, while students, teachers, and Pleasanton residents suffer.

@Pleasanton Parent - I understand your concerns, but even the arguments you attempt to make really are superficial. It doesn't matter what "the union" did or union membership as far as mobility. In the real world, if you have 20 years experience, that is valued. In education, 20 years experience is spit upon as district may give you "credit" for 0, 7, 10, 15 or whatever they choose not matter if you are/were a union member or not.

Somehow you think that the teacher union got teachers vaccinated earlier, yet you are a person who as actively fought AGAINST vaccination...can you explain that????? Did teacher force themselves to the front of the line or did you get out of the way???

So in the end, WHAT IS YOUR PROPOSAL????? You want some system that pays teachers more if they do better...who gets to decide what is better? Is this a free market??? Because if so, you will be paying teachers A LOT more than they are making now.

Be careful what you wish for.

What’s superficial about facts?

Pleasanton teachers voted away benefits to salary stack. The decision was made based on the fact the majority received benefits through a spouse. The union supported it - seems the union wasn’t really helping look out for its current or future population. But blaming the administration sure sounds better.

That seniority / transfer issue is another union protectionism problem. I agree it’s stupid, so let’s get rid of the system that creates and protects these archaic protections.

Your last statement is flat out wrong, I don’t fight vaccinations. My statement was a pre emotive statement to combat any rebuttal that the union is too weak to influence change - last years activities proved the teachers union is too strong as it held return to school efforts hostage for negotiations.

The irony, is one of the items in those negotiations was prioritizing teachers for vaccinations. Fast forward to today, and the same union is now fighting vaccination mandates for its membership. You can’t make this stuff up.

Point is, teachers aren’t happy, the union isn’t doing what it was supposed to, education is suffering. It’s time to start over, and we should target a compensation package that rewards teacher performance and pays them favorably for it. We don’t need a third party to achieve that.

"last years activities proved the teachers union is too strong as it held return to school efforts hostage for negotiations." - ?????

PUSD was one of (if not the) first district in the Bay area (and CA) to return to in person. The only thing the union asked for was to try to get a safe environment.

And how did that work out for them? They are still negotiating. Perhaps you had a typo when you said "strong"

And the mobility issue is not a union thing as your proclaim is a "fact" - I guess everything you want to believe is considered a "fact"

What are concrete actions I can take to help remove administration officials from their jobs?
What do they fear?
Are there existing organizations I can join?

Superintendents and Cabinet members in The Bay Area make a lot of money. PUSD's salaries, however, are not out of line with comparable school districts (see link below) and in fact well below some Districts.

I think this post is more about teachers' salaries than Superintendent and Cabinet salaries. "Us" versus "them." Sadly, the current strategy for all political discourse in America.

As I've stated before I support paying our teachers at or above what teachers make in comparable districts. That will, however, result in substantial cost increases.

The only way to fund increases is with staff reductions and/or a parcel tax. Alternatively CA could increase education funding except the state is going broke because of OPED benefits (see link). Spending $100B on the bullet train doesn't help either.

If you really want our teachers to get paid more then stop voting for representatives who refuse to address CA's budget problems that divert money away from education (both K -12 and higher education). Additionally support a parcel tax that will fund higher teacher salaries.

"We have leadership that hates teachers." Seriously? Our Superintendent and Cabinet, who are all former teachers, now hate teachers? Our Trustees (two of whom are former teachers) ran for office because they hate teachers?

Let's at least be honest in our debate and avoid pejorative comments about those with whom we disagree.


Web Link
Web Link

LanceM - not sure how you can claim pusd went back first or was one of the first in Ca. Orange County districts and other northern and southern schools did so - some even filed for the waiver which pusd did not. Not to mention private schools that returned much earlier.

David:

Run for their position on the board!

This isn’t about being out of line, it is about paying for people who aren’t/can’t/won’t do their jobs. One question I have is the “me too” clauses—if the board gives any raise, does it also go to cabinet members as in the past? So if teachers are given 1, 2, 5%, does cabinet also get that increase on top of the 3.5% they already got?

Unions aren’t against vaccines for teachers:

Web Link

California Teachers Association President E. Toby Boyd: “Teaching and learning are most effective in person, and the COVID-19 vaccine is a proven measure to prevent life threatening illness, keeping schools safe and open for in-person instruction, and will get us closer to being able to put this devastating pandemic behind us. Since the beginning, CTA has called for access to vaccines, testing and multi-layered safety measures in order to be reunited with our students in our classrooms. As the science advances and COVID vaccines are approved for younger students, this is the next step toward ensuring the health and safety of our schools and communities consistent with other vaccine requirements in schools. While recognizing the need for medical and religious exemptions, we believe vaccinations are key for both student and educator safety, keeping our schools open for in-person instruction and for combating this pandemic. Ninety percent of CTA members are vaccinated, and an overwhelming majority supports a vaccine mandate for students and staff. Several California school districts have already worked with educators and families in announcing vaccine mandates and will not be impacted by this new order. Phasing in the implementation timeline will allow local districts to prepare with families and educators and offer schools a vaccination site. Working together we can and will beat the deadly coronavirus that has claimed nearly 70,000 Californians and 700,000 lives in the U.S.”

The discussions on these boards are wonderfully informative. Thanks everyone !

Not sure why they deserve such kind of salaries. It looks you scratch my back and I will scratch yours and lets together milk the city, aka tax payers, at the expense of students, teachers, schools...

Unions are fighting vaccine mandates, they support teachers that want vaccines, but they are actively fighting the vaccine mandate. nice try though.

Web Link

How did you all manage to vote in former educators to the school board and end up with a teacher strike? Sounds like you just wanted rubber-stampers rather than critical thinkers.

The board only hears the cabinet's reports at board meetings. The board is not in the room during negotiations. More often than not the board rubber stamps what the district asks for and not what teachers ask for.

Bay Area Native
You cannot compare Apples to Oranges your web links are for 2019 Salary data.
The entire Superintendants cabinet renewed their contract(s) in June 2021 with hefty raises and several bonuses.

I would love to provide a link but for some reason this website will not allow it.

All you need to do is go to the PUSD website look up superintendants office - Senior Management Contracts -for most recent contract also you can see what they made from 2017 forward under Archived Senior Management Contracts.

If you actually read the contract you will see the issue.

The teachers do so much for the children in their classrooms. The sharp contrast with Management salary, built in raises, benefits and perks. It shows a clear discrepancy between what the district purports to do and what they actually value.

For a prime example of how this negotiation and communcation process should be handled all you have to do is look at the San Ramon Valley School Districts website there is transparency in how they are handling the teacher "negotiations" in their district.

I hope that most parents understand it is not about booting the administration. It is about VALUING what is important to the Students and their future. When we value what is important to a child(s) education and future it has to do with the teachers they had, the lessons they have imparted and those are the experiences that will be remembered.

Nothing in life is 100% so yes there are some teachers that may not be the best. However I would guess that most parents can say that there are far more Great Teachers than not.

Thank you

Why are the board of trustees and The Negotiator for PUSD meeting in closed session with no public access to written or video transcript????

@Teacher’s Spouse:

A previous post mentioned that salary information is hard to find. I posted a link to a site showing salaries for all Districts in CA not just PUSD. 2019 is the most current data they have. If you know of a site with 2020 data then please provide that link.

I’m not sure why you target me then go way off track with what I posted (PUSD Superintendent and Cabinet salaries are not out of line with comparable districts). You validate my point about an “us” versus “them” mentality and pejorative comments “if you read the contact…”

As previously stated I think PUSD teachers should be paid at or above comparable Districts. I still don’t see ANY posts that offer solutions on how to do that. My previous post notes two ways to enable salary increases. I would like to see some other ideas on how to accomplish that rather than rants that offer no solutions.

There is a problem with what most of the cabinet earns—it’s a scale that slides up every year, with things teachers don’t have and most cabinet members don’t deserve for what we receive. I’m not sure how you can give cabinet raises and then want to know how to give them to teachers (and classified).