Quick Take
Pacific Collegiate School’s board of directors and the teachers’ union are in the middle of mediator-led bargaining sessions after the union declared an impasse in December.
Pacific Collegiate School’s board of directors and the teachers’ union are in the middle of mediator-led bargaining sessions after the union declared an impasse in December.
Following months of negotiations and disagreements over pay increases, teachers at the charter high school, which is widely considered the best in the county, say they’re unable to afford living here on their current salaries. They say lower pay and burnout has led to turnover rates as high as 34% in the last year.
The teachers’ union, United PCS, started bargaining March 10 last year for their new contract. On Dec. 13, they declared an impasse after failing to reach an agreement on the salary scale.
On Friday, union negotiators had their second mediated bargaining session with the school’s board directors and management. A third session is scheduled for Feb. 10. While they met, a group of union members and supporters rallied outside of the school and called on the board to meet the teachers’ demands.
Assemblymember for District 28, Gail Pellerin, stood alongside the teachers in support.
“We have had enough. We cannot sustain on the salaries teachers make at PCS,” she said. “This is the number two, or number one, school in the nation? You guys have the best programs.”
Pacific Collegiate School, founded in 1999, is an independent public charter school serving 533 students in grades 7-12. The school is located on Mission Street near the Westside Farmers’ Market in Santa Cruz, but students come from all over the county.
United PCS is an affiliate of the California Teachers Association and the National Education Association. The union formed in 2018 and reached its first contract in 2020. This round of negotiations is for their second contract ever.
At the end of last year, the school saw a 34% turnover among its faculty, largely due to financial hardship and burnout, according to United PCS President Mary Gardner. Gardner said it’s essential that teachers are paid higher, more competitive salaries.
While the board agreed to a base salary increase of 5%, it’s the step increase that the union and the board can’t come to an agreement on. The union is asking for a 3% step increase but the board is offering a 2.5% increase, according to United PCS.
As the mediation process is confidential, both the union and Head of School Maria Reitano declined to discuss progress on negotiations.
When asked about the mediation process and who the state-appointed mediator was, Reitano declined to comment beyond saying she hopes for a successful outcome.
Previously Gardner said the new contract will likely be a three-year contract.
Prior to starting mediation, Gardner told Lookout that teachers who are in their 10th to 15th year of teaching are the most impacted by the salary schedule as that’s the time some start having bigger expenses like buying a house or starting a family. That has led turnover to be higher among more experienced, or mid-career teachers.
“That’s often where people are leaving, and so to us, while we’re glad that [the board and management] were willing to look at changing the step increase, this doesn’t mitigate the problem in a real way,” she said.
For a first-year teacher earning the salary offered by the board, they would earn $55,107 and in their second year they would earn $56,485 after the 2.5%. In year 10, they would earn $68,821 and in year 15, they would earn $77,865, according to the union.
The union is asking for step increases that are just $85 higher than what the board is offering to second-year teachers. But the gap between the union and board proposals rises to $3,081 for teachers in year 10 and $5,489 for teachers in year 15.
Gardner, who teaches history and Latin, started teaching at PCS in January of 2019. Gardner said she and many of her colleagues love teaching at the school but it comes at a cost – she’s heard some are going into debt to be able to keep teaching.
“They want to stay so badly because they love the school,” she said. “I have yet to meet a teacher who’s in this for the money. But, they have to be able to meet their family’s needs and pay for childcare.”
