I have been told that incoming families to El Marino Language Immersion Program are “asked to donate” $500 a year for each year their child is in the program. With more than 800 students at El Marino, that could be over $400,000 raised. Add that to the $100,000 annually raised by the school’s Booster Club and it totals more than $500,000 raised above what the state gives our School District in school ADA funding.
El Marino adjuncts make $9 an hour, working one or two hours a day. Had they received the same 2 percent and 2.5 percent increases that District bargaining units did in these last two years, it would have brought their hourly wage up to $9.41, growing their pay by 82 cents a day, less than $5 a week.
I ask School Board members, shouldn't these classroom adjuncts be getting the same raises as everyone else in the District, including you? Or do you think adjuncts are immune to inflationary pressures?
Raises Not Given
It makes me wonder: If these classroom adjuncts are said to play such an important role in the classroom, why would they not be given these raises by the seemingly cash-rich Advocates for Language Learning – El Marino?
Without Representation
One would expect that if everyone else in the District were receiving a raise, El Marino classroom adjuncts would, too. But wait! The El Marino adjuncts, hired by ALLEM, are not in a District bargaining unit. Hmm.
No Adjunct Left Behind
It’s not right that these dedicated classroom adjuncts, who have a direct and significant impact in our children’s classroom, should be excluded in the last two wage settlements.
El Marino Language School is run under the auspices of the CCUSD. The CCUSD is the Lead Education Agency (LEA) and should firmly remind ALLEM not to forget their adjuncts when other employees in the District are awarded raises.
The School Board needs to rectify this so it doesn't continue to happen in the future.
Mr. Laase may be contacted at GMLaase@aol.com
