These included reduced class sizes, the return of instrumental music, school counselors, support for high school and middle athletics, support for English Language Learners, reopening of Holbrook Elementary, creation of College Now and many more. In addition to employee benefits, the Board made investments in other areas to support students. That $30 million represents about 10% of MDUSD’s budget (using round numbers for simplicity). Agreements with the other employee groups (bus drivers, custodians, office managers, etc.) resulted in equivalent yearly costs. We catapulted teacher compensation from being second to last in the county to being in the top 5. We had approximately 1,500 teachers at the time- increasing their compensation by an average of $10,000 (combination of salary and benefits) meant $15 million dollars annually. The resulting multi-year agreements in 2014 were both retroactive and added new costs each year.Īs a Board, we knew that the reserve would go down as we invested in our own employees. While the bargaining teams negotiated on the contracts, the budget reserve built up. These were the same employees who had been hit with furloughs, layoffs, pay cuts and reduced hours during the budget crisis of 2008-2009. Our Board prioritized raising compensation for all employees and restoring medical benefits for teachers. and nothing is more important to a great education than having great teachers. The result was that it was incredibly difficult for MDUSD to attract or retain teachers…. Even worse, teachers did not have medical benefits- their own union (MDEA) had negotiated that away in a previous contract. When I joined the Board in 2012, MDUSD teachers were second to last in the county in compensation. You may have heard that MDUSD had a $90 million reserve but now the District is in financial trouble- let’s explore that. If you’d like a deeper dive and pretty graphs on CA education funding, I recommend this article. Diablo has additional challenges based on being squarely in the middle- just below the threshold of low-income students to receive additional funding as part of the state’s Local Control Funding Formula and lacking a parcel tax that nearby districts (San Ramon, Acalanes, etc.) have in place. Recent funding increases helped with that some, but those increases have been negated by higher costs (especially in mandated contributions to shore up underfunded employee retirement programs) and the higher cost of living- a $70k salary goes a lot further in Arkansas than it does in the Bay Area. Until just a couple of years ago, California ranked in the lowest of 20% of state funding on a per pupil basis. There is really no excuse for it considering we are the 5th largest economy in the world and one of the most highly taxed states (the rare trifecta of having income, property and sales tax). California consistently and drastically underfunds public education.

No jibber jabber