|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
More than 40 Las Lomitas Elementary School District educators and supporters gathered at the school board meeting in La Entrada Middle School’s atrium on April 17 to call for increased compensation. Educators, who are in the midst of pay negotiations with the district, spoke up during the public comment section on the need for competitive salaries and benefits given the high cost of living in the area.
While holding posters and wearing black T-shirts saying: “LLEA (Las Lomitas Education Association) Strong,” teachers came up to the podium and called on the district to reconsider and reassess its budget allocation to prioritize teachers compensation. The district’s contract with the union expired in June 2023. The district gave teachers a 5% for the 2022-23 school year, according to the contract.
Members of the California School Employees Association attended in support of the Las Lomitas union. The Las Lomitas union represents certified staff from the district’s two schools: Las Lomitas Elementary School in Atherton and La Entrada Middle School in Menlo Park.
“This unity shows our powerful voice advocating for equitable compensation and benefits for all of our educators,” said LLEA co-president Tara Berta, a first grade teacher as Las Lomitas Elementary. “It’s clear that we need a significant increase in compensation and benefits to be competitive with our neighboring districts that are attracting qualified teachers. This is the year that change in our district is needed and to prioritize our teachers”
Berta urged the school board to look at ways it can invest in its educators when crafting the district’s budget.
Union co-president Jennifer Montalvo, a school counselor at La Entrada, pointed out that without competitive salaries it will be more difficult to retain educators. She added that compensation “ensures that our schools are staffed with the best professionals who can deliver high quality instruction and support the academic success of all students.”
Montalvo mentioned that the compensation is also necessary with the high cost of living in the Bay Area. Las Lomitas teachers make less than the cost of living index and have not received an annual cost of living adjustment, according to Montalvo.
The starting salary for teachers at LLESD is around $71,000 and according to the 2022 U.S. Census the median household income in San Mateo County is about $149,000.
“Working as an educator is not an easy job,” said Montalvo. “We all need to adjust to this reality and shift our priorities to support our people who impact the lives of the future generations.”
Judy Ackerman, who teaches second grade at Las Lomitas Elementary, spoke on the discrepancies in budget allocations, which show the district’s “prioritization of administrative roles over frontline teaching positions.”
Ackerman compared the district to Menlo Park City School District, which spends 42.6% of its total budget on their teachers, while LLESD spends 34.4%.
Las Lomitas Elementary fourth grade teacher Kim Behrens highlighted that the district currently has an excessive reserve that amounts to more than the recommendations of the state for public schools. Behrens said the state recommends schools maintain a reserve of 4% of the school’s total budget but the district’s reserves are at 47%, a total of $18 million.
“The surplus suggests an overly conservative approach to budgeting and resource management, potentially depriving critical funds from immediate educational needs and investments in teachers and students,” said Behrens.
Parker Kelly, eighth grade technology teacher at La Entrada, said that data shows that the district has received more than an 87% increase in property taxes over the last 14 years.
In the 2021-22 school year the projection was 5% but the property tax increase was 10.76%. For the year of 2022-23, the projection was at 5% and the district received 7.39%.
“Why are these increases not included in the following year’s negotiations and where is all the extra property tax revenue going?” asked Kelly. “The community is supporting the district. The district needs to support the teachers as well.”
Where is all the extra property tax revenue going?
Eight grade teacher parker Kelly
One parent expressed her support for increased teacher compensation.
“As a parent and a taxpayer, I don’t know where all the money goes. I truly have no idea,” she said. “I feel like we pay a huge amount and then donate a huge amount and my property taxes are insane. All I want is for the teachers to be taken care of.”
On Wednesday, April 24, the district released an announcement in response to public comments made during the meeting. In the message, Superintendent Beth Polito made clarifications around what educators called for.
She explained that property tax revenues have been used to increase staff salaries, cover the increased costs of benefits, pension contributions and to fund the newly implemented transitional kindergarten program.
As for district reserves, the message explained that “decreasing our reserves would only provide a one-time cash benefit; the savings across each year are marginal and would not support sustained salary increases over time.”
Polito added that the reason a higher percentage of the budget is spent on administrative staff is because LLESD is a smaller district that has to meet the same operational requirements as larger districts. Allocations for administrative staffing are necessary for the operation of IT, special education, maintenance, accounting and more, according to the district.
“Please know that members of the board and district leadership team are committed to compensating our educators in a way that attracts and retains the best and brightest teachers and staff for our students,” said Polito in the message.
Change of plans: Research campus to leave Menlo Park, make way for more housingJune 12, 2026 6:46 pm
Teacher salaries should rise along with property tax increases. 47% reserve is wrong. They should not be holding taxpayer money in savings. They should be spending at least half that reserve down. 20% is what their neighbors are setting aside, and (as noted) even that is significantly higher than the state mandate. I support teachers and staff getting more money.
Teachers deserve better!
Write your county and state representatives.
https://www.smcgov.org/district-1
https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/
Our teachers are our most valuable resource. The community indicated in the most recent district survey that academic excellence was a top priority. Let’s ensure that we compensate our teachers in a manner that is commensurate with their value and competitive with neighboring districts.
#dotherightthing
It’s easy to say we support our teachers. I do.
But it’s misleading to say note that starting pay is $71,000 a year without noting that teachers also receive three months of vacation time. Ask someone in the private sector working 48 to 50 weeks a year making $71,000 if having a full summer off is a benefit. It is and it should be noted. $71,000 “grossed up” for nine months of work is equivalent to $95,000 a year without the three months off. That’s not bad for STARTING pay.
It is certainly true that property tax receipts have gone up. But teaching at a public school isn’t a profit sharing job where their compensation is tied to property tax receipts.
I do support our teachers and living here is very expensive. I also support more pay for them. But let’s be honest about current pay levels.
Living in MP is very expensive, and we should pay our teachers well. But we should also recognize that teachers receive an extremely valuable perk: their kids attend MP schools even if they live outside the district (almost all of them do). This means that they can live in areas of RWC, for example, that are quite nice—except for the schools.
How would one quantify the value of this perk? Given the cost of private school tuition around here, it’s perhaps worth $40k per year, per child, in post-tax dollars. For a teacher with 1.5 kids in the district, that could perhaps be $90k ($40k post tax ~ $60k pre tax per kid, times 1.5 kids) in additional value. Considering the teachers work 9 months out of the year, that grosses up to $120k in additional comp on an annualized basis.
That isn’t to say that teachers shouldn’t make more. But we shouldn’t ignore the value of their total comp packages as they currently exist.