Split votes pass raises for nearly all in Modesto City Schools

Chad Brown took his seat on the Modesto City Schools board Monday, his first vote serving as tiebreaker. In other votes through the evening, the board split 5-2 to pass all so-called me-too raises sought by employees after teachers were granted a higher hike than other groups.

Appointed to the board in February, Brown joined the panel after a 30-day waiting period Monday.

His first official act was to join trustees John Walker, Sue Zwahlen and Steve Grenbeaux in supporting a $200,000 proposal to recycle an aging portable classroom as a break room at the district’s transportation facility. The addition settles a union grievance against the district on the matter.

Trustees Amy Neumann, David Allan and Cindy Marks voted against the proposal, questioning the expense after a recent $500,000 remodeling at the facility.

“What did we miss the first time around?” asked Neumann.

The remodeling carved office space out of the old break room, making it too small for the district’s 46 school bus drivers to use, union President Aaron Castro told the board. Castro leads the Modesto chapter of the California School Employees Association.

Marks and Neumann also split from the majority on each raise voted on by the board Monday. Both cited concerns about the sustainability of the 6 percent granted teachers, and now passed along by tradition to almost everyone else.

Notably absent were raises for preschool teachers, who are paid according to state and federal reimbursements. Mickey Boelter, director of child development programs, and Kimbra Draper, coordinator of preschool curriculum, declined their own raises as a gesture of support.

Enochs High teacher Bryan Rogers spoke against granting the other groups the same bump as teachers received, questioning the cost and the fairness of raising pay for others.

“How does that help our students?” Rogers asked. “If the other groups needed that, why didn’t they stand with us?”

“That’s a $13.2 million cost, $41 million over the next three years – that’s a lot,” Marks said before 5-2 votes to approve 2 percent raises, effective as of January, granted CSEA and district middle management, including principals.

Six percent raises for cabinet members were given with separate votes, each passing with the same 5-2 divide.

Neumann protested giving the top-tier leaders raises before their performance evaluations were complete, saying the reversal made the review meaningless. She also questioned the longstanding practice of having the district’s lead negotiators in essence settling their own compensation hikes.

“We need to erase the link between the superintendent and what is granted the bargaining units,” Neumann said.

Fourth-grade teacher Rick Wilcox also raised the issue regarding Deputy Superintendent Craig Rydquist, head of human resources, who received a 7.3 percent raise earlier in the year with his promotion to deputy status.

“How is it the union is negotiating for the management?” Wilcox asked the board. “Rydquist is the face of management for negotiations. We worked extremely, extremely hard for what the managers got.”

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Split votes pass raises for nearly all in Modesto City Schools."