KHSD board member calls for teacher pay cuts
| Tuesday, Jun 23 2009 07:45 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Jun 23 2009 07:45 PM
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Ken Mettler called on the Kern High School District Board of Trustees Tuesday to "think outside the box" and consider cutting public school employee salaries, benefits and pensions due to the budget crisis.
Mettler, one of five members of the board and president of the Republican Assembly of Kern County, said the state's proposal to cut public employee salaries by 5 percent over the next three years could be a model for the district. He laid out his proposal in a press release on Republican Assembly letterhead.
KHSD teacher salaries range from $43,000 for a beginning teacher to more than $93,000 for a teacher with 33 years of experience.
The district employs approximately 1,700 teachers, who work under a contract collectively bargained by the district and the Kern High School Teachers Association.
The district said it must cut $30 million through the 2011-12 school year, in addition to $20 million in cuts it has already made this year from a budget of $342 million.
In other district news, Jay Sullivan was named the new principal of Frontier High School. Sullivan began his career in the district as a teacher in 1992; most recently he was Frontier's assistant principal for instruction.
Sullivan takes the reins from retiring principal Bill Bruce on July 1.
