Live Oak elementary teachers to join statewide rally Wednesday for better education funding

Live Oak School District teachers are rallying on Wednesday afternoon to advocate for increased state education funding to help districts provide better wages and benefits and increase staffing levels. 

Lauren Pomrantz, the president of the district’s teachers union, told Lookout that teachers from LOSD are joining a statewide rally because they understand the challenges of living on a teacher’s salary in the most expensive rental market in the country. 

“Different school districts might have a different viewpoint, but for Live Oak, our view is that our state needs to recognize that teachers that live in and work in Santa Cruz have to have more,” she said. “We can’t survive anymore on the status quo.”

The union, called the Live Oak Elementary Teachers Association, is part of the California Teachers Association (CTA), which has 310,000 members across the state. The statewide teachers association launched a campaign earlier this year, which Live Oak teachers joined, to raise awareness about education funding by launching contract negotiations at the same time. 

A total of 32 school districts are participating in the campaign with shared demands and coordinated negotiations. The demands include ensuring schools are fully staffed, providing stability and no layoffs, budget cuts or school closures and providing competitive wages and benefits. 

Pomrantz said the district’s school board approved the teachers’ new contract last month and it doesn’t expire until 2028, but they have provisions to reopen certain parts each year for negotiations. This new round of bargaining will open up several areas, including compensation and benefits, and class size.

She said negotiations over those items begin this month, but they won’t start bargaining on compensation until the fall. Pomrantz added that the teachers union has an amicable relationship with district staff and this rally isn’t happening in light of any event or dispute. 

“We’re not really looking to cause any undue stress or discomfort in our bargaining with them,” she said. 

The average salary for a teacher who has been in the district for 10 years or more is $88,000 in LOSD, according to Pomrantz, and the statewide average is about $20,000 more. Santa Cruz City Schools ranks at the top in the county, with its average salary at $91,630, according to data submitted to the state Department of Education.

Last year and this year, Live Oak’s governing board approved layoffs to stabilize its budget. The district had accumulated a deficit from using one-time funds from the federal government to pay for staff salaries. Those funds have been used up. The district’s declining enrollment also contributed to a drop in state funding. The layoffs have been devastating for the district’s staff. 

“We’re still in recovery mode from last year’s disaster, and so this school year we’re still in a very tenuous budget situation with little cash,” Pomrantz said. 

Last year the district laid off 17.94 full-time-equivalent certificated staff positions, and this year the district approved layoffs of 5.6 full-time-equivalent certificated staff. Pomrantz added that the teachers union is still uncertain if it will advocate to bring back the positions that were reduced by the district recently, or if teachers should advocate for a salary increase. 

“Because we’re not really in a position in Live Oak to do both,” she said. 

FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated to correct the salary figure for Santa Cruz City Schools.