Santa Barbara Teachers AssociationBy the Santa Barbara Teachers Association
On April 11, the Santa Barbara community saw its teachers out in force to ask the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) Board to do the right thing for students.
Make no mistake: we were out in the street because the SBUSD bargaining team and Superintendent Hilda Maldonado are not listening when we ask for reasonable changes that will benefit Santa Barbara students.
When we asked to make our class size limits permanent, the District said no. Ultimately, we agreed to a temporary continuation for 2023-2024 because it was the best we could get for our students, but our students deserve more.
When we asked for hard caps for Special Education caseloads, to ensure that our most vulnerable students get the support they need, the District said no. The District said they need the flexibility to place even more high-needs students in our classrooms when they see fit.
When we asked to revisit our three-year-old agreement on salary for 2023-2024 to keep Santa Barbara from falling farther behind other area districts when it comes to attracting and retaining high quality educators, the District said no. Of the roughly 800 certificated educators in Santa Barbara, more than 100 were hired this year – educators are leaving Santa Barbara because they can’t afford to live here on what the District pays. Of course this disrupts the lives of educators, but it most severely impacts the lives of students who lose the experience and energy of educators who must flee the District to support their families.
We recently spoke with a colleague who saud her student-teacher is going to Los Angeles where it is more affordable to live and their district just agreed to a 21% increase in salary over the next 3 years. And it does not have to be this way.
At the end of the 2018-19 school year, the District Unrestricted Ending Fund Balance was $25.8 million – already a tremendous amount of resources sitting in an account instead of supporting the needs of students. By the end of 2021-22, the most recent Unaudited Actuals, that total was $39.9 million – another $14 million locked away from students. Rather than committing to spend that additional revenue in the classroom, the Superintendent and the school board has continued its commitment to spending in the District Office.
While saying no to students, the School Board, at the April 11 meeting, said yes to a new District office position – Director of Community Partnerships, a position that will cost more than $200,000 and will answer to the Chief Operating Officer, yet another recently added District Office position.
It does not have to be this way, if you speak up to your school board members and superintendent.
Op-Ed’s are written by community members, not representatives of edhat. The views and opinions expressed in Op-Ed articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of edhat. [Do you have an opinion on something local? Share it with us at info@edhat.com.]
I can understand teachers’ reluctance to strike. The students are the ones who suffer, and most teachers would go to great lengths to not harm their students.
This is a knee-jerk argument that is both anti-teacher AND anti-students in the long run. Strikes are important, necessary, and yes, do subject students/teachers/staff/parents to some short term pain in exchange for long term benefit. I support a teacher strike, parents should too. SBUSD leadership is abysmal, things need to change.
We don’t need to be martyrs. In the long run, this would benefit students by retaining experienced teachers.
You give up your bargaining power when you agree to SBUSD’s terms without a fight. Strikes have power, use them when you KNOW you deserve better. Is SBTA talking to LA union to strategize, learn, adapt?
Yes!
My wife is a teacher in the district and let me tell you things are really bad right now. The district is currently lead by an out of touch superintendent focused on her own PR and not the students. This is compounded by a weak board with no desire to challenge her. Unfortunately, the only solution is a strike. Will the students suffer? Yes. But they are suffering more now with many qualified teachers leaving. We have advised our own daughter not to take certain advanced classes as the experienced teachers who successful taught them are all gone.
The status quo isn’t working for teachers OR students. It apparently is only working for administrators in the district who don’t actually teach. I say do it. The long view is what really matters.
I fully support the teachers here. California ranks 40th in education nationally for K-12 education. California ranks 12th in the nation for highest taxes. There is a disconnect somewhere.
Correction- 40th to bottom in education and 1st highest in State Taxes.
Do a little factual research, and you’ll find that you’re pushing a lie. Here’s a hint – include sales taxes.
California has:
#7th highest state and local sales tax.
#1 highest income taxes
#16 highest property taxes
Years 2020 and 2021 CA lost $49 billion in income to other states.
CA projecting a $24 billion budget deficit next fiscal year.
California is still ranked 40th, (bottom) for K-12 Education.
I fully support the teachers. Something is seriously broken here.
Lots of excellent points raised here. I am concerned that we have already lost tremendous institutional knowledge in admin with the mass exodus of staff last year. To learn that last year alone we lost 100 out of 800 teachers is also alarming. On top of all this instability our students went through a pandemic and are experiencing learning loss when they were not doing well in reading or math proficiency before the pandemic. A lack of collaborative leadership that has some institutional knowledge and commitment to teachers and students is missing. The organizational chart has gotten bloated in admin. And the amount of change is students outcomes is granular and incremental.
Our teachers who have risked speaking out against their employer deserve our support. Do we want our student to have a disproportionate amount of young, inexperienced teachers because all qualified have been driven out.
It is so important for our community to own this. Teachers need affordable housing.. How about transforming the armory to work force housing a la Cottage Health.
Special ed case loads need to be capped, class sizes need to be reduced and teachers need support, raises and professional development if we expect them to improve student outcomes.
It is no mystery how to improve the achievement gap. Smaller classes, lack of instability in our teachers, and a proactive culture for reading and math. Far too many students are not proficient.
Many in secondary can not read proficiently and are not able to take classes that allow them to even apply to a UC. So from what I can see the only ones benefiting are those in admin and our Superintendent who makes more than our Govenor. I would be OK with that if she had the respect of teachers and had more than incremental pockets of hope for our students.
Whether you have students in SBUSD or not this impacts you. If 60% can’t read and there is a revolving door for teachers all we have let are over paid admin and failing students and chaos in the classroom because of a mass exodus of teachers on top of the mass exodus of admin we have already endured.
Time for community to understand and demonstrate their support for public education.
Teachers need and are asking for smaller case loads in special ed.
Teachers asking to be paid like their peers not 25% under or more.
And I think teachers need to see that community respect them and empathizes with their difficult dilemma.
As with the previous Superintendent it is frightening how much damage can be done in such a short time. Perhaps our community should step forward and support teachers in capped special ed caseloads, capped classroom sizes and a proactive approach to reading that results in 95% proficiency by end of third. This is a reasonable goal that other districts are attaining while our school district is dragged down by conflict over collaboration and little care for our most vulnerable students. The health of our schools are a major influencer on the health of our community. I hope we respond to the teachers and dont stop there… but respond to our students and give them the support they need especially those that struggle with the basics like reading and math. Best practices would turn this around as would enlightened leadership….
Our school district is not longer an effective employer for teachers, nor is it or an effective educational institution for students. The school board that is charged with the task of hiring a superintendent seems more committed to the “success” of that single person than anything else. This is not what success looks like. They manage to ignore the terrible rest scores and the low morale among the teaching community. And when the scathing reviews of the the superintendent’s performance came out last year, compounded by the loss of so many educators, clearly, the school board was unprepared and/or unwilling to address the continued leadership issues that have caused so much pain for so many. If the school board cannot address these fundamental issues, and continue to go along to get along as the superintendent continues to wreck havoc on the educational system, then what choice do the teachers have except to walk out? Nothing else seems to get their attention or arouse their interest as our teaching force and our students fall further and further behind for reasons that are all-too apparent to community members who want so much better for both sides, but who are regularly ignored by those in their “executive’ positions. So so sad.
$1,800/hour paid ti the consultant “Coffee with a black guy”. No credentials in counseling or psychology. No competing bids.
But he had “friendly” relations with a board member as his qualifications.
Programs like these lining the pockets of the board members & their friends, hiring a multitude of administration staff & misspent funds in other extra programs have been robbing the teachers & students.
Meanwhile school building are falling apart & have been for years.
Wake up & vote the board out. They are all using their position to profit their personal “consulting” firms.
Wake up kids have been poorly educated in SB for over 20 years but the oriole jeep voting the failed board members back.
Apparently the parents of the 60% of kids who cannot do academics at grade level are totally fine with their kids not being educated.
There are a lot of people hired by the school district for consulting and other jobs, why do you continuously point out the one that is black?
Because SBWOMAN is notoriously anti-inclusion
A fair bit of word salad with that “Wake up kids have been poorly educated in SB for over 20 years but the oriole jeep voting the failed board members back.”
Someone must have been poorly educated to produce that.
Also, getalong, please provide evidence or at least a clear explanation of how board members are “lining their pockets” and “using their position to profit their personal “consulting” firms.”
But 5:46, we’re replying to sbletsgetalong. Ironic name…
It’s not too early to plan for negotiations.
From the article linked in the first sentence of this op-ed:
“During public comment, SBTA President Joyce Adriansen brought up the SBTA’s most recent contract negotiations with the district for the 2021-2024 school years, which included a guaranteed salary increase of 8 percent over those three years.
According to Adriansen, 24 teachers have resigned so far this year, following 50 who resigned last year. The average teacher salary in Santa Barbara is around $65,000, she said, while the minimum annual salary to afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Barbara is about $178,000.
“At the time we got it, the 8 percent over three years, it was one of the best settlements in the area,” Adriansen said in an interview with the Independent. “But since then, other districts have been getting a whole lot more. We could not have foreseen how prices were going to go up in Santa Barbara; I mean, some rents have almost doubled.”
…
Adriansen noted that next year’s 2 percent raise does not match the nationwide projected inflation rate of 6 percent. She mentioned that the SBTA’s negotiating team has met with the district around five times — they requested the district to mutually agree to reopen salary negotiations at the bargaining table but the district refused, she said. “Part of the three-year mutual agreement was no reopeners on Wages or Benefits,” SBUSD relayed in a statement. “The district and SBTA will negotiate wages and benefits anew for the 2024-2025 school year.”
https://www.independent.com/2023/04/17/santa-barbara-unified-educators-rally-for-higher-pay-amid-inflation-turnover/
I urge y’all to read the entire article.
Apt. Rents
apartmentsdotcom: “As of March 2023, the average apartment rent in Santa Barbara, CA is $1,902 for a studio, $1,943 for one bedroom, $2,762 for two bedrooms, and $3,767 for three bedrooms.”
zumperdotcom (whatever that site is): “Over the past month, the average rent for a studio apartment in Santa Barbara increased by 31% to $2,550. The average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment increased by 1% to $2,801, and the average rent for a 2-bedroom apartment increased by 7% to $4,500.”
Rentdotcom: “studio apartment in Santa Barbara, CA, the average rent is $2,000. 1-bedroom apartments, average rent is $3,495. 2-bedroom apartment is $4,595.”
House Rents
Zillow: Houses in Santa Barbara, CA rent between $1,850 – $70,000 with a median rent of $5,950.
Redfin: In March 2023, Santa Barbara home prices were up 12.8% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $2.3M.
Census.gov
Income & Poverty
Median household income (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021$84,356
Per capita income in past 12 months (in 2021 dollars), 2017-2021$40,634
Persons in poverty, percent15.2%
I’ve lived here all my life and this is mind-boggling, even as I sometimes spent almost half my pay on rent. Yeah, I inherited my childhood home 8 years ago. Don’t hate me cuz I’m lucky…
This Op-Ed only touched the surface of the wasteful spending and creation of unnecessary jobs at the district office. A PR firm was hired to do damage control which cost tens of thousands of dollars. When almost everyone quit who worked directly under our superintendent last year, an outside firm was hired to do exit interviews. Every high ranking position has has costly positions under them to do their jobs. Recently, the district paid a boatload of money for another program called Ellevation, which is unlikely to help student achievement and most likely won’t be used by teachers who have been thrown too many of these programs. Rather than raise salaries to retain qualified and experienced teachers, admin keeps purchasing outside programs. Someone should do an audit of who in the district office stands to gain from these purchases. It would not be the first time that district officials have their financial interests in programs that have been purchased against teacher recommendations (Integrated Math.)
I fully support a strike if the district will not agree to raise our salary to the level of surrounding districts and allow teachers to be able to afford to live where they teach. Our support staff should be able to do the same. Rather than raise salaries for our para educators, admin hired an outside firm to hire these positions at a huge cost. Why are we outsourcing when we have an HR department?
It’s time for us to get serious and strike. In the long run students will benefit, and maybe our leaders at the district office and the school board will stop wasting tax payer money. I ask community members to demand an audit of the district finances and spending and support a teacher strike.
To increase student performance, we need to retain excellent teachers. To do so, they need financial incentives, for example higher salaries and housing assistance. To reduce burn-out and improve student outcomes, class size reduction is a no brainer, followed by emphasis on the 3-R’s in primary grades. Learning to read well NOW, enables reading-to-learn later. Number sense NOW enables grasp of subsequent concepts later. Stop pulling teachers out of the classroom for in-services or added teaching material that nobody has time for. Avoid the latest curriculum fads and instead provide the tools for the future.
I have noticed many are just continuing home schooling. There are a lot of options for this now. The kids seem to do well. High rents and buying a home here is a huge problem.UCSB employees make less than other universities. So many commuters or work remotely.so just how much do we need to make to afford a million dollar home here.
I could not believe that the governor of California, the Attorney General, and others, make less than our superintendent who started at $250k in 2020. Well…
https://www.calhr.ca.gov/cccc/Pages/cccc-salaries.aspx
Me either, educator! Thanks for looking that up for us.
I realize governor probably gets a house and other perks.
And sadly, the pay for our school supe position will never be decreased.
I don’t want my tax monies spent on extreme administrator salaries!!
Front-line employees and behind-the-scene scut employees, the little people, who make things work and keep them working, are never recognized or fairly compensated.
A lot consensus here, which is great to see – other than a couple of consistent arguers Sac and GT who always wanna hassle, as well as Chevy (what’s wrong with diversity, equity and inclusion? I’ll answer that, it’s no substitute for real education of out kids, in other words that’s just PR wallpaper). The vast majority of us have a real problem with the way the District is being run by Hilda and the Board, and support teachers who are the only ones who are doing their best day to day to educate our kids. In our school, it’s obvious there are huge problems keeping teachers year to year. It looks like a musical chairs situation.
It’s fine to criticism administrators for the way they run districts, but throwing teachings of diversity, equity, and inclusion under the bus as well is just ignorant.
The District has been squandering its resources by heavily staffing up downtown, creating new programs for teachers to implement, hiring consultants, and concentrating on anything but supporting the teachers that actually educate the students. This tradition has been going on for many years, but has certainly accelerated during Hilda’s tenure.
Time for a new Board and Superintendent, and a vision focusing on supporting actual classroom education.
The school board has not been leading. The members are more interested in social services and consulting businesses rather than education. Putting money into the schools competes with other services. Agencies like SBCEO and First 5 compete for Ca. State funding as well and delete school budgets. Ultimately, the school board sets the priorities. They hired the current superintendent from LAUSD, which has been mismanaged for decades. Unfortunately, the public education system is outdated. The bureaucracy has taken over. School funding needs to go directly to the schools and bypass the school boards, but politically that won’t happen for decades.
TUESDAY May 9, 5p, be at SBUSD school Board meeting! Be there!! Education as we once knew it is being systematically destroyed locally. This op-ed reads “the union”…. the very people behind all the destruction.
The article is for show, and it will probably bring about a pay raise for teachers…from the union’s actions. Then again, this community will think we gained and will stop complaining as the takeover continues.
The SBUNIFIED GOAL is to reduce proficiency to advance mediocrity via DIE: Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity.
COMMUNITY TAXPAYER GOAL: Academic High Level Proficiency for ever student; high quality program offerings & extracurricular to engage and motivate every student.
Students need every one of us to DEMAND excellent schools, equal opportunity for every student to learn to be prepared for adult responsibilities including civi engagement. THERE IS PLENTY OF MONEY! Stop wasting it Hilda on administrators and consultants.
Hilda: Immediately put 2 adults in every classroom to ensure teachers can focus on instructing academics and vocational skills, engaging their students. Retired Senior Volunteers (federal program) will even pay for qualified elders to help students, enhance classroom safety, and be an extra set of eyes for local teachers.
Ironically, that is the same night the Board is supposed to adopt a new ELA curriculum based on the science of reading that Hilda and the administration have opposed for so long. It’s doubtful they will show the kind of necessary leadership such a transition requires, with appropriate investment in professional development for the teachers and a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of such a change. The likely consequence is more of the same low level achievement for students and continued lack of support for classroom teachers who will be left adrift. Not a single admin has come out in public to state how important literacy is, or come up with a goal the want to attain, which is just more evidence of how out of touch they really are. (And of course, they won’t admit that the Lucy Calkins approach is the basis of so much classroom failure and teacher frustration.) This is another way the administration fails the teachers, students and the community. And it’s beyond time to get all of this a good airing in public. I want my taxes invested wisely, and that’s not happening with the current “leadership.”
@SBWoman – It’s DEI, not DIE. And what is your problem with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion?
I think it’s Christy Lozano posting under another name.
A little confused here. The teachers want to strike over a contract they agreed to and signed off on?
We have not gotten a pure cost of living increase (not a raise) in years. The district is supposed to pass that along to us as all public employers do. Money is either given by the state for this or in our case, by property tax revenue. Where is this money going?
That was before 6-7% inflation. Each year teachers real earnings go down. Getting a 2% raise is still a 4-5% decrease per year.
Negotiations happen every year, with the exception of salary and wages. Each side agrees to open certain contract language. However, in the past, when state monies didn’t come in like projected and “circumstances changed” the district declared emergency status and teacher’s contracts were instantly changed. Veteran teachers chose to take furlough days instead of the district laying off new teachers to help with the district’s “rainy day.” This reduced contractually-agreed-upon salary in a non-negotiated year. Therefore, it is not unprecedented to open up salary or pay scales in non-negotiated years. The difference this time it is the teachers that are having rainy days, and the district doesn’t seem to care.
If pouring money into our K-12 school system, then they would be graduate Einstein’s! The issue is that over 50% of our K-12 students are not fluent in English and do not have a grasp of basic math. Most of these children are Mexican/Hispanic, because far too many English speaking whites have been pulled out of schools by their parents that are predominantly attended by Mexican/Hispanic students. White flight! Cleveland School is a prime example. The school board has become a political launching platform for Democratic Party members running for higher office. Both Laura Capps and Monique Limone quit half way through their elected term on the school board to run for County Supervisor and State Senator respectively. They abanned the children that trhe claimed were their reason for seeking school board seats. The sad thing is that Santa Barbara at one time had among the best K-12 schools in the state. It’s the children that are cought in this endless education disaster trap who should go on strike!
I just want to say us parents with kids at SB unified 100% support the teachers if it takes going on strike is the only way for the board to listen I say go for it. It will hurt the student’s short term but with the correct contracts and more teacher retention the students will recover and have a way better outlook.
I don’t know how Hilda is still working here. There has been so much negative press about her, they even hired someone to follow her around yet can’t pay our teachers fairly or give our students smaller class sizes? Shouldn’t money be spent first on student impacting issues like class sizes, small class sizes, special ed and teacher pay than to create new jobs? This distract is a joke. I’m so sorry to the teachers being treated this way.
93108: The teachers are considering a strike because they have asked to reopen talks. The cost of living increase previously negotiated does not cover COLA in fact teachers loose money. Currently our district pays 25% less than others. Also as you read in these comments there is a lot of waste at the top with jobs that this district never had, and basically should be done by the Superintendent. Also you may remember we lost all but one of our admin last year and 100 teachers. The salaries at SBUSD are not competitive. Given these consideration , and trust me it is a partial list.. it seems reasonable to open talks which the district can do if it wants to. It certainly is in the best interest of our students. Para educators make 17 an hour which is not sustainable and why so many leave. No big surprise that students in special ed are doing horribly. Our Superintendent makes more than our Governor yet our para educators can’t afford to even rent here. Bloated salaries at the top, anemic salaries at the bottom. Caseloads are way too big and out of compliance in special ed. So yes … the district needs to talk to its employees and fix this. You’re lucky you live in 93108 where teachers make over 100k and the district spends 32k per student instead of 8K in SBUSD.
I will never understand why so little value is placed on professions that are vital for a healthy thriving productive society. Quality K-12 educators are everything. Without them we are setting kids up to fail. A teacher can make or break a child. Teachers are shaping our future. It is a difficult job that takes skill, patience and the ability to foster curiosity and a desire to learn in an entire generation. Teachers are undervalued and deserve so much better. We shouldn’t have to have this conversation. These teachers play a far more important role than any college professor. The lay the foundation for all future learning. We have to do better.
We pay people twice as much to fix our cars and three times as much to fix our toilets. The city of SB pays maintenance employees and landscapers more than teachers. Time to fight for what is right.
Let’s hope for improvements.
Teachers please don’t give up you are worth so much more. Most parents will support a strike if its what is best for teachers and students in the long run. The union needs to fight for all these points now. Even looking at the Goleta Bargaining agreement they recieved a 5% retroactive pay increase for one year and a they were already being paid higher. SB unified needs to do better for our teacers and all staff for that matter. How can you watch kids at a play ground and get paid less than working at Mcdonnalds ? Something here is way off. Pay a living wage
I think at the lot of the District’s failings is the belief by top administrators that schools, in addition to a place where children are educated, function as de facto social services agencies for kids. This stems from the fact shat so many of kids’ needs are going unmet and there is no other system in place that can provide the services that these kids need. While laudable, these efforts detract from the District’s primary purpose, to deliver. high. quality classroom education. Furthermore, school districts are not really very good at being social service agencies, so they end up doing a hundred things and none of them well.