Debateable: Should KHSD teachers take pay cuts?
| Saturday, Oct 17 2009 12:00 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Oct 17 2009 08:42 PM
HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER AVERAGE SALARY
Kern High School District vs. Kern County-wide
2007-08
KHSD: $63,074
Kern County: $62,625
2003-2004
KHSD: $52,047
Kern County: $52,041
1999-2000
KHSD: $45,001
Kern County: $45,305
Other districts
2007-08
Fresno County: $57,015
Merced County: $63,168
Sacramento County: $60,149
Los Angeles County: $65,719
Ventura County: $70,961
San Bernardino County: $72,333
California: $69,362
Source: California Department of Education
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Alex Horvath / The Californian East High School teacher David Lollar lectures during one of his class periods. In light of Ken Mettler's call for a 5 percent salary cut for everyone in the Kern High School District, we asked just how much are teachers making? First year teachers start at $43,000. A 33-year teacher makes $93,000. Who's in the middle, and how much experience do they have? Data from KHSD shows experience and salary levels for all KHSD teachers. Compared to other counties, Kern teachers make less, but cost of living and the need to recruit teachers to move to Kern is also a factor to consider when looking at pay.
Alex Horvath / The Californian East High School teacher David Lollar lectures during one of his class periods. In light of Ken Mettler's call for a 5 percent salary cut for everyone in the Kern High School District, we asked just how much are teachers making? First year teachers start at $43,000. A 33-year teacher makes $93,000. Who's in the middle, and how much experience do they have? Data from KHSD shows experience and salary levels for all KHSD teachers. Compared to other counties, Kern teachers make less, but cost of living and the need to recruit teachers to move to Kern is also a factor to consider when looking at pay.
Alex Horvath / The Californian East High School teacher David Lollar lectures during one of his class periods. In light of Ken Mettler's call for a 5 percent salary cut for everyone in the Kern High School District, we asked just how much are teachers making? First year teachers start at $43,000. A 33-year teacher makes $93,000. Who's in the middle, and how much experience do they have? Data from KHSD shows experience and salary levels for all KHSD teachers. Compared to other counties, Kern teachers make less, but cost of living and the need to recruit teachers to move to Kern is also a factor to consider when looking at pay.
Michael Fagans / The Californian Carol Durst, left, and her brother Stephen Goldwater stand behind the counter at The Emporium Western store in Bakersfield that is celebrating its 100th anniversary this month. The store was purchsed by the siblings grandfather in 1928.
In the near future, Kern High's 1,500-plus teachers will find out how invested the district, board and teacher's union are in cutting salaries when contract negotiations conclude.
On one hand, teachers in the Kern High School District make pretty good money, especially considering how many days a year they work.
On the other, we need to recruit really good teachers and pay can be a big carrot.
It's a debate that's been going on behind closed doors during contract negotiations and publicly erupted in June when Trustee Ken Mettler proposed a 5 percent employee pay cut.
As part of balancing next year's budget, the board has instructed the district to find ways to reduce personnel costs, either through cutting salaries or staff or finding other efficiencies, said board President Joel Heinrichs.
"We have to work on finding a way to save on personnel costs. We haven't defined a number," Heinrichs said.
WHAT THEY MAKE
Kern High salaries range from $43,597 for a new teacher to $93,470 for one with more than 32 years of service and a master's degree.
Teachers make more depending on their level of education and number of college credit units earned. They can also pull in extra-duty pay for things like teaching summer school and an extra class during their scheduled prep period.
The average salary for a Kern High teacher was $63,074 in 2007-2008, according to the most recent data available. They aren't the highest paid: Taft Union High teachers averaged $73,403.
Kern County high school teachers earned on average $62,625.
Mettler estimated a 5 percent pay cut for all district employees would save $15 million. All workers, including teachers, should share the budget pain, he's said.
If salaries get whacked, it would not happen until the 2010-2011 school year.
Other schools have made pay cuts.
The Orange Unified School Board voted to reduce teacher salaries 2 percent last month, and in April Poway Unified teachers took a 2.7 percent pay cut in exchange for 10 fewer work days over two years.
Cal State Bakersfield faculty took a 10 percent pay cut via furloughs this year.
KHSD has already reduced payroll costs. Teachers now have less opportunity to earn extra-duty pay because of such things as summer school cuts.
And 20 teachers with at least 33 years of experience accepted the district's early retirement offer. Their cumulative salaries -- a minimum of $86,000 -- amounted to more than $1.7 million.
Many of their positions were filled by teachers lower on the salary schedule.
TEACHERS' TAKE
Teachers contacted said they don't favor a pay cut -- who would? -- but weren't ready to quit over the matter.
Bakersfield High government teacher Jeremy Adams, in his 12th year of teaching, described the pay debate a "difficult duality."
"On one hand there are very few jobs (where you) make as much as we do with a bachelor's degree and the amount of time off we get," said Adams, who makes about $70,000.
But cutting pay isn't a good long-term investment, said Adams, who got his master's at CSUB and moonlights as an American Government lecturer there.
"What we pay teachers is a way of measuring what we want to invest in the future of a civil society," said Adams.
Teacher pay, especially in Kern County with its lower cost of living compared to other parts of California, is "pretty fair," said East High English teacher Randy Hamm.
With 20 years of experience, he takes home more than $86,000.
But during the 38 weeks of school, Hamm often works 60 hours a week and brings work home.
Hamm is against a pay cut.
"Paring back the salary schedule is something you never get back," said Hamm, who said he could support a temporary salary adjustment.
David Lollar left a job working on TV in Los Angeles to go back to school and earn the credentials to become an East High English teacher.
In July he wrote in an editorial published in The Californian that everyone had been "suckered" by Mettler into a sideshow that would hurt children. But Lollar actually agrees with cutting back.
"I'm all about taking a pay cut because the economy has tanked," Lollar said this week. "But if you tell me you want to value kicking a ball around more than becoming educated, I've got issues."
Regional Occupational Center teacher Daniel Binsfeld earned $75,000 in base salary last year based on his 16 years of experience. Working extra duty -- from teaching an additional period every day to working nights and summer school -- added to his master's degree and extra credit units earned during summers, Binsfeld earned more than $106,000.
"We are in dire budget straits these years, we have cut everything back to the bone," Binsfeld said.
Cutting teacher pay could hurt recruitment, he said, but he wasn't totally against the idea of a pay reduction.
"If we don't have money, we shouldn't spend it. I can't say that's unfair," he said.
Mitch Olson, president of the Kern High School Teachers Association, said a majority of members feel their pay is adequate.
"But I think that people strongly feel that they are worth their salary for the work they're doing in the community," Olson said.
Although teachers fare well with average salaries and a lower cost of living in Kern, they are underpaid when compared to people with similar credentialing and education requirements, Olson noted.
An American Federation of Teachers survey in 2005 drew on seven national surveys in finding that teacher pay had increased only 1 percent in the previous decade, compared to professors and attorneys, whose pay rose 13 and 21 percent.
As for the next generation of teachers, Alisa Carlson said a steady teaching job with benefits is more important than a big paycheck. Carlson will graduate from CSUB's School of Education in April.
"I would like to make enough, but not squander any talents that I have," she said.
The public might think teachers are all aggressive union wonks, said Lollar, who admitted he's always been outspoken.
"(But) I have a baby to feed at home too," he said. "I'll figure out how to do it too, like you do."
DECISION MAKERS
Board members don't take part in collective bargaining, but they will vote to ratify the final contract, as will the teacher's union.
There is little doubt there will be more budget reductions handed down from the state this year.
"We just can't increase class size, fire the new teachers and cut programs as the only solution, we need to look beyond that," said Mettler.
"I still think a top-to-bottom cut should be an option," he said.
Trustee Bill Perry said he felt it was inappropriate to comment given that contract negotiations are ongoing.
Trustee Bryan Batey said there was no way to sugar coat a possible 10 to 15 percent cut from the state, when the district budget is 85 percent salaries.
He said it's premature to talk about specific numbers for pay reductions, but the bottom line is that cuts from the state will impact teachers, either with larger classes or with lower salaries.
"My goal is to be supportive of our teachers so even in tough times, they understand we appreciate what they're doing," Batey said.
