Lodi teachers air grievances about class size, pay
Lodi Unified School District teachers are unhappy that class sizes on campus are beginning to increase, but no additional instructors are being hired to help take on the extra loads of students.
Accompanied by dozens of coworkers and colleagues, a handful of Lodi Unified teachers accused the district and its Board of Education of not listening to their concerns of being overworked and underpaid during the public comment portion of Tuesday night’s board meeting.
Their comments were made as the district begins labor negotiations with several bargaining units, including the Lodi Pupil Personnel Association and the California School Employees Association.
Laurie Kraljev, a speech and language pathologist at the district, said she addressed the board two years about a potential staffing shortage among her colleagues that has caused students go weeks, sometimes months without services.
Now, she said there is a crisis in the district, as there are six vacancies for speech and language pathologist, but no applicants to consider hiring.
“In response (to my warnings), you have done nothing,” she said. “Your district has scrambled around, trying to fill gaps without solving the problem. You’ve overwhelmed your speech and language pathologists with overwhelming, unreasonable case loads, far in excess of the California Educational Code that negatively impacts their physical and mental health, as well as their view of you and the district.”
Kraljev accused the district of recruiting SLP contractors and adhering to the maximum case load requirements for them, rather than hiring full-time employees. She said it was harder to approach the board with respect every month when it seems the district doesn’t respect its teachers.
Kimberly Freberg teaches a combination class at Lockeford Elementary School, and began the semester teaching 24 students English and Math, with no additional help from another instructor.
She said her class size will increase to 31 next year, which will require another table in her already limited-capacity portable classroom.
In addition, she said a current labor proposal to have teachers work before and after school will hinder their ability to attend district and state-required workshops and meetings designed to help them better teach the students.
“I urge the board to think about what is best for the students,” she said. “Is giving more students to a teacher really what is best? I can guarantee you that my current students already feel they don’t have enough time with me. Extra students will make it more difficult to have successes in the classroom.”
Anne Swehla Garcia, a teacher at Julia Morgan Elementary School, said she no longer tells prospective instructors graduating from the Teachers College of San Joaquin to apply for positions at Lodi Unified because they are finding higherpaying positions in other communities.
“Only so many people from Lodi want to come back to Lodi,” she said. “What are you going to do to get teachers here and keep them here? The thread of success is in your staff. If you can’t figure that out, I don’t know what to say.”
Board member Courtney Porter, a former teacher at Tokay High School, said he admired the passion the speakers displayed in airing their grievances.
Porter said he attended the NorCal Science Festival at Tokay over the weekend, said was told by two teachers that they had to clean their own classrooms and mop the floors the night before the event to make the school presentable.
“Teachers are doing extra work, but they are doing so silently,” he said. “I’m glad you’re being vocal about it, because you should be recognized for it, and you should be paid for it. We need to bring the number of classified people back but to the numbers they used to be.”
Board president Joe Nava, also a former teacher at the district, said there were three years he taught students without pay because he was told there was no money to give employees. He said he still came to work because he loved teaching his students.
“You’re not telling me anything new,” he said. “But any concerns you have, that you talked about today, the board of education will take care of it. I guarantee you that.”