The District’s offer is as follows:
* Maintenance of existing health benefits.
* Employee only health benefit coverage for retired employees hired on or after July 1, 2006.
* A 1% salary increase retroactive to Sept. 1, 2004.
* A 4% salary increase retroactive to Sept. 1, 2005.
* Additional increases for longevity (Class IV: $500/ year; Class V: $500/year).
* Additional extra duty pay for teachers in Grades 4 and 5 for parent conferences that extend beyond the regular work day.
* An increase to $2,000 per year for teachers who have earned a Doctorate degree.
* $3,000 per year for teachers who receive National Board Certification.
* Stipends of $2,835 for each of the Boys’ and Girls’ Head Coaches of the Culver City High School lacrosse teams.
* Paid leave of three days for any teacher serving jury duty.
Fact 2
The District’s latest offer would bring School District teacher compensation to No. 3 among the nine comparable benchmark districts. The latest independent study by the Los Angeles County Office of Education compared and ranked the compensation of teachers against the same positions at 47 unified school districts within the County. Over the years, Culver City teachers have routinely been at or near the bottom of the list. However, if teachers accepted the District’s current proposal, 10% of the teaching staff will make over $84,000/ year, including 2% who will make more than $100,000/year. Entry level teachers would move from $38,450 to $40,388/ year. This would put Culver City teacher compensation at No. 3 among comparable benchmark districts that have similar enrollments and other characteristics: Beverly Hills, Bassett, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Peninsula, Redondo Beach, San Gabriel, Santa Monica-Malibu and Temple City.
The composition of a teacher’s salary contains subtle nuances that make comparisons across districts complex. These nuances include the number of work days, the number of years it takes to reach the maximum salary, longevity bonuses, the cost of total compensation that includes health benefits, class sizes, and more. Because of the various complexities, comparing the teacher salaries of neighboring school districts will almost never provide a perfect comparison.
Fact 3
The School District’s administrative salaries are among the lowest in L.A. County.
The latest independent study by the County Office of Education compared and ranked the salaries of select administrative job positions against the same positions at 47 unified school districts within the County. Among the District’s comparable benchmark districts, Culver City ranks at or near the bottom in most classifications, including counselor, where Culver City pays $13,738 less than the top- paying district; assistant superintendent-business services, where Culver City pays $29,191 less than the top-paying district; and superintendent, where Culver City pays $58,331 less than the top-paying district. On April 25, the School Board reviewed this salary survey. If implemented, like the District’s offer to teachers, the changes would bring each administrative position to the middle of the range on the survey of comparable districts.
A principal at a Culver City elementary school, for example, could currently make $92,059 at the top step. Under the proposal presented to the School Board, that salary could increase to $96,330, still far less than the $104,803 that would be earned by the highest-paid Culver City teacher under the District’s latest proposal. Because teachers work ten months of each year and administrative staff work twelve months a year, the monthly disparity is even higher.
