Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers upset over SUHSD board’s contract approval
MMONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Parents reacted to the decision the Board of Trustees of the Salinas Union High School District made Tuesday night.
"Instead of paying two people for essentially doing the same job, why not pay the teachers more? they're the ones do the majority of the work." said Juan Hernandez, who has a daughter that goes to Salinas High School.
The Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers said the approved salaries come in a time of uncertainty. The Salinas Union High School District reacted to the claims of the Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers.
"This assignment will support the elimination of multiple outside consultants, saving the district over $300,000 each year…" said SUHSD staff.
The Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers President Kati Bassler announced Wednesday that the Salinas Union High School District (SUHSD) Board of Trustees decided to approve two contracts at Monday night's board meeting, totaling $615,000.
One of the contracts include a pay rate of $308,000 for the new superintendent, Dr. Zandra Galvan, in addition of up to 10 per diem days as well as health and welfare benefits, according to the Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers. Galvan's contract runs through September 2027 and, according to the teacher's federation, they support the decision.
The second contract involves Dan Burns becoming "administrator on special assignment" with a salary of $307,172 as of October 1, according to the teacher's federation. They say his contract also includes health and welfare benefits, and runs through June 2027.
"This contract was not developed in the public view and was approved before the public had any input whatsoever," wrote Bassler in an email to the public on Wednesday. The email included attachments with both of the signed job descriptions. "When you read the information below, you will start to understand why we need to be present in these School Board meetings."
Bassler lists Burns' duties in the email, stating that he will be in charge of leadership development for executive level leaders as well as structural leadership development with mentorship and coaching to veteran level district leaders.
She then lists the setback that Burns' leadership lacked during hit tenure: inefficiency with the Human Resources Department, parting ways with the former assistant superintendent, incompetence with the Instructional Services Department, a "toxic working environment," little to no progress of the Students Services Department and little support for site-based administrators.
"This was and will be the superintendent's responsibility and now it seems as an 'Administrator on Special Assignment' is NOW going to clean up his own mess retroactively for A LOT OF MONEY!" wrote Bassler.
The email lists the combined salary for both Galvan and Burns at being $615,000. They also say that this is really the work of one person, not two.
"Meanwhile, there are principals denying EWAs and referring to teachers as 'greedy' for wanting to be compensated for extra work, and, at the same time, are returning their grossly underspent funds at the end of each school year," wrote Bassler.
The Salinas Valley Federation of Teachers said that they begin negotiations on Monday afternoon, where they plan to bring up these points during negotiations and communications with the Board of Trustees.
The note finished with a note for the public to expect "press releases moving forward. Stay tuned."
