Teachers say ‘DJUSD needs to invest in its educators’

PHOTO: Superintendent Matt Best walks through a crowd of teachers protesting for better pay.

By Mattias RowenBale

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff––

More than 200 teachers and district employees gathered outside the Davis Joint Unified School Board meeting on Oct. 20 to protest teacher pay. 

Chanting “Davis students deserve the best” and holding signs with similar slogans, the DJUSD employees made sure that the school board members understood just who they were fighting for. 

“I really think that all (students) deserve to have the best education that they can have access to,” DJUSD psychologist Rowan Foley said. “And I think the fastest and best way to do that is to make sure that all of our staff are appropriately paid.”

The demonstraters called for higher pay for teachers, noting significantly lower wages than surrounding districts.

“Surrounding districts make significantly more than us, specifically in Rocklin, where they have about the same budget that we do with money coming from the state,” teacher Tim McCormick said. 

“A teacher (in Rocklin) who’s (been teaching for) 19 years like me makes 21.3% more than I do,” McCormick said. 

When teachers aren’t offered competitive pay, they are often forced to transfer to surrounding districts. These resignations within DJUSD leave administrations scrambling to fill positions or even cutting programs and classes. 

“We’re not being recognized financially and our teachers are leaving because of it,” McCormick said.

Frustration over Davis’ lack of competitive pay has increased over recent years as the disparity between districts has become increasingly stark. 

“(Four) years ago we ended up getting a 3.5% raise… but you know, other districts in the surrounding (area), they’re getting a raise every year,” McCormick said. “(We’re) trying to fill a huge gap in pay that’s been created by a divergence of this compound interest that’s been growing.”

While the Davis Teachers Association and Davis chapter of the California School Employees Association have been pushing for higher pay for years, the demonstration on Oct. 20 was fuled specifically by a recent increase in California school budgets.

“The state has approved a large influx of money (to combat state-wide teacher shortages), and we want to make sure that that goes where the state intended it to and where it’s going to benefit students the most,” DTA president Victor Lagunes said. 

Negotiations with the Davis school board are ongoing, but Lagunes isn’t optimistic about the fate of this additional money. 

“Promises that were made to the public when it comes down to Measure G (passed in 2020 to provide $3 million annually to DJUSD) and investing and attracting and retaining, we’re not keeping up with those,” Lagunes said. 

With negotiations underway, the massive turnout at the board meeting wasn’t so much a protest as it was a demonstration of the widespread faculty support for increased pay. However, McCormick is frustrated that it’s even had to come to this at all.

“Other districts have just, without any organizing whatsoever, given raises to their teachers, like 10% raises. Like look at San Juan Unified: 10% raise here in the past couple of weeks, and they didn’t have to organize, they didn’t have to ask for it. The district came to them and said, we’re gonna give you a 10% raise. Whereas we have to do all of this,” McCormick said. 

Rumors of an upcoming teacher strike have begun spreading through the Davis High student body, but Lagunes says the DTA hasn’t reached that point yet. 

“What we want is to be able to settle and to be able to make sure that what that settlement does is provide the best for students by being able to keep our teachers here and our educators here,” Lagunes said.

However, the fight is far from over. 

“We’re gonna keep organizing and this is not going away,” McCormick said.