This was prepared and reviwed by Alicia Rico and Cecilia Mendez. I hope this is a waste of time. The Three Crooks think the public is going to forget that the District is now having to deal with the issues created under their leadership.
Explanation: The California Education Code § 41372 requries that 55% of a unified school district’s current expense of education should go towards salaries of classroom teachers, which includes teachers and instructional aids. The idea behind allocating a significant portion of a school district’s budget to classroom teacher salaries is to ensure that resources are being directed towards front-line teaching, which is the core mission of the education system. By spending a substantial percentage on classroom teachers and classroom aids, the school district would be investing in the quality of instruction that students receive.
Comment from concerned citizen:
The State Department believes in Local Control which allows districts to identify needs and align funding to support local and unique needs. HOWEVER, the state also provides bumpers to ensure that special and per projects DO NOT take precedent before DIRECT SERVICES to students. One such bumper is the requirement that 55% of the budget be used for teachers in the classroom. The district continues to miss this target. One way to address this repeated gap is to target and hire INTERVENTION teachers to address the GLARING need in reading and math. Continued issuance of waivers fails to hold the district accountable to using funds as they should be to support student learning.
During a 2022-05-10 Board Meeting, Trustee Flores was the only person to vote against this exemption and the District has approved this waiver for several years now.
Although it is true that SUSD teachers make more than teachers in neighboring District’s, EdCode 41372 is not just about teacher pay, it includes instructional aids in the classroom. Compared to Manteca and Lodi Unified, SUSD teachers may make more, but they are forced to do the job 2 people because we lack the classroom aids that the additional funding would provide.
In the FY 20-21 Audit Findings Response, the SJCOE recommended “The District’s management should implement necessary internal controls to ensure that classroom teacher salaries exceed the minimum required percentage, of the current expense of education in the General Fund.” The District replied “Management concurs with the finding and continues to will work to implement necessary internal controls to ensure that classroom teacher salaries exceed the minimum requried percentage in future reporting periods.” This document was presented at the 2022-05-10 Reguar Board Meeting (see attached SUSD FY20-21 Corrective Actions and Recommendations.pdf attached).
To justify this exemption, and Joann Juarez (Interim CBO) and Willie Gutierrez (Director of Fiscal Services) are saying that without the waiver, they would be required to reallocate an additional $5.6M
What are other people’s thoughts on this long term issue? Do you think it has affected our ability to retain teachers long term?
SUSD FY20-21 Corrective Actions and Recommendations.pdf (5.9 MB)