Fighting the SLUSD Proposed Parcel Tax

I've read quite a bit about the proposed parcel tax being solicited about by the San Leandro Unified School District, and I have to say it's just more of the same rhetoric re-packaged to look like a solution to our budget woes.

Our schools are underfunded; as someone who worked at San Leandro High for seven years, I can tell you firsthand that is no exaggeration. I think there are few who would suggest that the schools in this district and across the state couldn't stand to see more money funneled in their direction.

However, the SLUSD and Superintendent Cindy Cathey would have us believe that the only solution is for San Leandrans, who have already funded two other initiatives on top of paying for mortgages, healthcare, and the myriad of other necessary bills and expenses, need to fork over yet more cash to right this sinking ship.

This parcel tax is a shortsighted quick-fix that does nothing to address the inherent problems within the district's spending model.

The SLUSD says that if we don't get behind this tax we can look forward to more layoffs and eliminated programs at our schools. Yet, if you go to the district's webpage and look at their pay schedules and salaries, there is a plethora of positions that garner wages of over $75K per year.

Between the Superintendant, Assistant Superintendant, and Human Resources Senior Director, their combined salaries are over $460K. A teacher's salary, from what I see on the site, maxes around $90K after a couple dozen step increases.

According to the district and their proposal, "the prospect does not look any better for the near and distant future" for our budget and what the state will be willing to provide. Yet, salaries continue to be set as though the district were experiencing times of great prosperity and funding.

Sure, if anyone in the world deserves to be paid $200K a year it should be someone working for our schools. The problem is, there isn't enough money for us to work with to meet that sort of expectation. Some argue that you have to offer this sort of pay to get good workers, but why are we allowing the expectation of these workers going into cash-strapped school districts to be to earn $100K every year?

I propose not another tax, but an overhaul of salaries across the board within the district before we start asking San Leandro property owners to pay more than they already do.

If we can make our city workers, police, and firemen sacrifice whole chunks of their pensions to balance our anemic budgets, why can't the district do likewise? The principal is the same; with the money we have now, there is no realistic way to pay what is being asked. Thus, if the district's continually having its funding slashed, why are salaries, particularly those of certified admin and some classified management, continuing to be portioned out with little regard to reality?

I mean this not as a slight aimed at our administrators, but rather a wake up call to everyone that our school district just isn't being realistic. The SLUSD can't keep coming to us every year and asking for bonds, parcel taxes, lab fees, and sports fees in conjunction with the funding they get from the state (which is also our money) and then turn around and pay themselves so haphazardly.

Will slashing admin salaries solve all our problems? No, but it will certainly help, and should be done before having people vote to force property owners in this city to pay another tax. However small our budget might be, the bulk of it needs to be going to the classroom and the teachers before anyone else. If that means the superintendent has to answer her own phone calls, so be it.

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