West Contra Costa Unified has a plan to attract teachers
As a way to stem high teacher turnover, West Contra Costa Unified School District has taken a daring leap to boost teacher salaries and address escalating housing costs that drive teachers away.
But the pay raises come with potential risk. The district will have to cut from some programs and find other savings to pay for the $37 million in salary increases for all employees over three years.
The pay raises, which also include salary boosts for non-teaching staff such as administrators, secretaries and bus drivers, commit the district to drastic cuts through 2020-21 that the board has not yet identified.
The Contra Costa County Office of Education warned that the district could be unable to pay for the raises if it continues deficit-spending. To ensure that the district could afford the union contracts, the board agreed to adopt a resolution requiring it to identify spending cuts in 2019-20 and 202021 that would show it will have enough money to pay for the increases.
“It is our expectation that this and any future salary settlements will include expenditure reductions necessary to maintain a balanced budget without structural deficits for the current and two subsequent fiscal years,” Bill Clarke, the county office of education’s associate superintendent of business and administrative services, wrote in a letter to the district.
Teachers are slated to get a 17 percent boost through 2020, which includes a 5 percent raise that began in March. The substantial hike will increase the salary of a beginning teacher from $44,152.20 before the March raises to $50,921.72 by July 1, 2020. It also puts West Contra Costa teachers at the top of the teacher pay scale in Contra Costa County over the next three years for beginning teachers with 30 additional educational units, as well as for more experienced teachers.
The higher pay is just one part of a district strategy to attract and keep teachers. Other features include four days of intensive training for all new teachers before school begins and the possible development of new housing for teachers and other employees on surplus property.
“Our efforts to increase compensation and find solutions to the housing challenges are among the solutions we believe will be most effective to recruit and retain the most highly qualified educators for our students,” Superintendent Matthew Duffy said.
The teachers’ contract also includes caps on class sizes, more paid time for teachers to collaborate on lessons and a more generous maternity/parental leave program in the district, which serves about
28,000 students in Richmond and surrounding communities.
In response to the county’s concerns about the district’s ability to afford the pay increases, the board voted 4-1 to approve a resolution on June 27 that requires it to identify by Dec. 31 spending cuts of $10 million for 201920 and $3.5 million the following year. Clarke had assured the district that his office would agree that West Contra Costa Unified would be able to pay for the salary hikes “with the approval of this resolution.”
Board President Valerie Cuevas said district leaders are allocating more discretionary money to schools, giving them greater spending autonomy. This means the board may cut some programs it has paid for districtwide — such as the Playworks recess program and Graduate Tutors — but individual sites could still fund them.
The board made these budget tradeoffs to prioritize “investment in people,” Cuevas said.
The salary increases are part of a larger plan aimed at keeping 80 percent of teachers for five years or more by 2022. District leaders see a stable teaching force as a way to improve student achievement, which is far below state averages on standardized tests.
To reach the teacher retention goal, school board members on June 27 approved a “Roadmap 2022” that includes five areas of focus for staff: Competitive compensation, extra support for new teachers, exploring the development of employee housing, cutting down on duplication in programs or services and launching a “Teach West Contra Costa” website and social media campaign to attract more teachers.
To enable more teachers and other staff members to live in the district, the board also agreed to continue exploring the idea of converting surplus property into workforce housing. The district hired a commercial real estate firm to evaluate four district-owned properties to determine whether they would be appropriate development sites. After DCG Strategies determined that two sites warranted further study, the board directed the firm to continue analyzing their suitability for district-developed rental housing or sale to an outsidedeveloper to raise money for workforce housing.
A district survey returned by about 25 percent of staff reveals that 70 percent of employees who are renters have considered leaving the district because of high housing costs and 62 percent are interested in living in a district-owned rental unit at below market rents.
Of those renters, 51 percent pay more than 35 percent of their incomes toward rent, including 12 percent who pay more than 55 percent of their income to rent.
“It’s a critical issue,” board member Madeline Kronenberg said. “We’ve raised salaries, but we’re all aware that we’re in a housing crisis. If it weren’t for that, we wouldn’t even be thinking of this.”
The district also has partnered with startup Landed to provide down payment assistance to employees, which must eventually be repaid.