The Ripon Unified teachers will be getting raises next year.
The unrepresented employees will have to wait their turn.
At Monday’s meeting, the school board made it official, voting 5-0 with the recent agreement that RUSD struck with the Ripon Unified District Teachers’ Association. Included is an 8 percent ongoing salary increase coupled with other provisions and a memorandum of understanding.
Douglas Crancer of School Business Consulting – he’s been financial consultant for the district – noted the raise is effective for 2014-15 school year at a cost of $783,000 from the unrestricted general fund.
The elementary school teachers will get a $500 stipend at $2,800 per year.
Crancer added that $600,000 rather than $1.5 million will go to deferred maintenance projects in order to help out with budget estimates.
“We will have a better idea (May 16) on our funding for the year,” he said.
During the 2015-16 school year budget development process, Crancer noted that the department budgets will be developed based on expected needs. He said this also could impact the projected deficits for 2015-16 and the subsequent year budgets.
“In the event that the significant deficit spending trend continues as projected, the district will need to implement expenditure reductions for subsequent years in order to maintain its minimum reserve levels,” he added.
Meanwhile, the RUSD unrepresented employees led by Ripona Elementary School Principal Dante Alvarez and Lisa Cheney, the district’s Director of Student Services, hope to see better pay for assistant principals.
Those administrative positions are among the lowest when compared to the three surrounding counties, Alvarez said.
“Their pay needs to be adjusted in order to be equitable,” he added.
Ditto that for instructional aides, yard duty aides, school psychologists, speech therapists, confidential secretaries, account technicians, classified management, and school nurses, to name a few.
Cheney and Alvarez pointed out that for over 30 years, this unrepresented group were granted a “me too” with regards to salary increases following settlement with RUDTA or CSEA (California School Employees Association) with the classified folks.
“The unrepresented are asking that the practice of granting the ‘me too’ with other bargaining unit continues,” Cheney said.
The impact to the unrestricted general fund in giving the unrepresented an 8-percent salary increase would be about $350,000 for some 103 employees.
For Trustees, the request by the unrepresented employees for a salary increase was a discussion item, and is expected to be brought back at an upcoming meeting.
