Teachers Expected to Keep Raise

By Teresa Rochester

With local schools facing painful layoffs and program cuts, district officials are waiting to see if teachers will defer their pay raises in an effort to make a dent in the district's $5 million potential shortfall.

But one month before the raises kick in, it doesn't appear likely the teachers will follow the lead of school principals and management, who last month voted to voluntarily defer their 3 percent raise. The teachers are slated to receive a 5.6 percent raise.

"They have not asked me to make a decision," Beth Muir, president of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said when asked if district officials had approached her about deferring the teachers' raise. "We have not had a survey or anything, but the people who have heard this have said, 'No way.'"

School Superintendent Neil Schmidt said that he has not approached any of the district's three employee groups about deferring their raises. All three groups, however, have asked him to speak with them about the budget shortfall, he said.

"The employee group leaders need to discuss it with their members," Schmidt said about raise deferments. "That's their choice."

Juli Di Chiro, president of the 80-member Santa Monica/Malibu Association of School Administrators, said her group made the decision to defer their raises because they wanted to help limit the impact the district's shortfall will have on students. Di Chiro, whose group is not a union, said SMMASA is also encouraging the district's other employee groups to take a similar stance. The deferment will last indefinitely.

"We want this to have the least impact on students in the classroom," Di Chiro said. "Giving a raise to anybody doesn't make sense. We don't want to be in the position to have a negative impact on district finances. You could say it is symbolic, but we still feel it was an important decision."

SMMASA's raise of 3 percent over 12 months would have gone into effect on Jan. 1, 2000. It would have cost the district $180,000 this year and $360,000 during the 2000-2001 school year.

By comparison, the teachers' raise, which also goes into effect Jan. 1, will cost the district $939,000 for the remainder of this school year and $1.8 million next year, said Art Cohen, assistant superintendent for fiscal and business services.

Santa Monica and Malibu's 776 teachers -- which also include substitute and part time teachers -- secured a 5.6 percent raise following contentious negotiations with the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board earlier this year.

The raise was ratified by the school board on Oct. 21 - eight days before Schmidt sent a memo to the board announcing the impending shortfall, which he described as "an absolute disaster."

The teachers' raises are covered in the district's operating budget for next semester and next year, but with the district's potential $5 million shortfall, staff and program cutbacks may be inevitable, Cohen said.

Schmidt and Cohen said the district hired more teachers this school year after enrollment projections showed an estimated increase of 455 students during the 1999 fall semester. When actual enrollment was calculated in late October, however, it became clear the student body had fallen 480 students short of projections -- resulting in the loss of approximately $2 million in revenue.

"We have an excess of teachers," Cohen said.

"When we cut programs we could also have to cut staff," Schmidt said.

But Muir doesn't buy that layoffs are inevitable.

"We've gone through similar situations with $2 ½ million problems in the past and no body was laid off," Muir said. "What makes this different this time is the timing of everything. They knew they were 100 students short last spring. Then they find out their short 400 additional students. Who made that gaffe?"

Cohen said that projections are always estimates that can never be predicted exactly. The difference is that projections usually underestimate the number of students enrolled in the district, resulting in more money for the district.

While the district has started looking for more permit students as a means to bolster cash flow, officials have urged community members to expect cuts.

Di Chiro said one of the reasons her group voluntarily deferred the pay raise was to avoid layoffs.

"I would personally take a pay cut than face a layoff," she said.

Service employees, such as janitors and food servers, received a 5 percent raise scheduled over 18 months this year. It is also scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1. Group leaders have not yet said whether they will defer their raise.