I’m a Live Oak resident and my fourth grader has attended Live Oak District schools since kindergarten. I wasn’t at Wednesday night’s board meeting, in which “Furious parents, teachers confront Live Oak School District as board fails to vote on layoffs.” But I have since heard a lot about it from other parents, and all are angry.

Why is it that we are just now finding out about the severity of this situation, which we’re told requires 37 teacher and staff layoffs? 

For the past two years, I’ve received a glossy brochure in the mail from Live Oak School District, telling me how my property tax dollars are being put to good use. The brochures made no mention of budget challenges or much-needed funding for school repairs (see Measure H).

Perhaps most disturbingly, something that came to light at Wednesday’s meeting is the gross salary inequity between Live Oak district administrators and the teachers and classified staff they propose to cut. 

Nothing better illustrates this inequity than the minutes from the Feb. 7 Live Oak School District board meeting, which approves — in the same three-bullet paragraph — 5% pay increases for cabinet members; a 5% pay increase for the superintendent, who earns more than $240,000 a year; and a pay increase to minimum wage rates ($16 – $18 per hour) for classified substitutes, tutors and aftercare providers.  

Yes, Superintendent Daisy Morales decided to rescind her approved pay raise at the Wednesday meeting (and called on her cabinet members to do the same). But for me, that gesture came too late. And to the other Live Oak district employees making $150,000-plus salaries (which we, your local taxpayers, provide), I ask — how can you sleep at night, knowing as you do about this tremendous income inequality?

The unfortunate thing is that it’s our kids who bear the brunt of this inequality — in the form of underpaid, over-stressed teachers, class sizes that are too large, and not enough counselors, classroom aides and aftercare providers. As a parent, I don’t want to fund the district’s overpaid administrators — I want to fund my child’s education.

Claudia Graziano Burgin

Santa Cruz