Ramona Unified School District trustees unanimously approved a 2% pay raise for teachers and staff at their April 22 meeting.
The salary increases are retroactive to July 1, 2024 and are scheduled to remain in effect until June 30, 2027. The raises are estimated to cost the school district an additional $1.05 million in the 2024-25 school year, $1.09 million in 2025-26, and $1.11 million in 2026-27, according to a staff report.
The agreements between Ramona Unified and both the California School Employees Association (CSEA) Ramona Chapter and the Ramona Teachers Association (RTA) were reached on March 18.
Superintendent Brian Thurman said that while some other school districts may be experiencing financial difficulties, Ramona Unified’s ability to provide raises is due to “strategic and purposeful financial planning on the part of the school board and district staff.”
Thurman said he has deep appreciation for all the work of the teams involved in the negotiations.
“It was definitely a process of mutual efforts between both of the associations and the district’s negotiating team,” he said. “Combined kudos go to our school board for their of our employees and both negotiating teams. It is not an easy process, but it is a crucial process for the Ramona Unified School District.”
Classified and certificated staff can expect to receive a check that pays them funds retroactively that they did not receive starting with the first paycheck of this school year, Thurman said.
The pay raises affect 321 certificated staff , including teachers and librarians, and 410 classified staff, including custodians, maintenance crews and cafeteria workers for a total of 731 employees.
RTA President Cori McDonald said she believes Ramona teachers “got a fair deal.”
“The average around the county has been right around that same number of 2% so I think it is reasonable for our staff and also reasonable for the district,” McDonald said in an email.
McDonald said because Ramona Unified is a rural school district, it is difficult to attract a large pool of teacher candidates to work in the community.
“We are in the bottom third for teacher salaries in all of San Diego County, so in order to be more competitive for qualified teaching candidates, we need to have slightly larger increases than the county to get to a competitive salary,” she said.
McDonald added that the district is challenged by failed school bonds and has other financial obligations to pay for classroom renovations and facility upgrades.
“Hopefully, we can find ways to get our teacher salaries in Ramona to a more competitive place to be in a better position to recruit more highly qualified teachers for the students in our community,” she said.
CSEA Chapter 733 President Danielle “Dani” Breshears said the CSEA chapter worked through delays and scheduling issues to reach the agreement.
“Many of our will continue to experience financial difficulties even with our agreement, which will have an impact on the ability for RUSD to retain classified staff and have adequate coverage,” Breshears said in an email.
Breshears, the lead custodian at James Dukes Elementary School, said CSEA will continue to advocate for and strive for improvements, and are preparing for the next negotiations session.
The last time trustees approved pay raises for Ramona Unified teachers and staff was in May 2023. That’s when they unanimously approved 6% pay raises for teachers and management staff plus additional raises for staff that were retroactive to July 1, 2022.
During the April 22 meeting, Trustee Maya Phillips raised concerns over whether the district can meet its minimum reserve levels over the next two school years while the wage agreements increase spending.
Thurman said the school district is required to maintain a reserves level of at least 5%. With current projections that include the pay raises, Thurman said the reserves are expected to be 5.69% for the next few years.
“The cabinet is always looking at ways to save and conserve funds,” Thurman told Phillips. “We are careful to be good stewards of the funds.”
In an April 15 letter that Brent Watson, executive director of district financial services, sent to Thurman, Watson said the unrestricted reserves level in the general fund is expected to decrease from 17.19% in 2024-25 to 5.69% by the end of the projected period.
“We encourage the district to monitor and minimize deficit spending to remain fiscally solvent in future years,” Watson wrote.
The reserves funds are essential for a school district to ensure financial stability, maintain operations during unexpected circumstances, and plan for long-term needs, Tory Long, assistant superintendent of istrative services, has said.
In addition to pay raises, RTA representatives agreed to classroom sizes that limit the ratio of teachers to students.
In kindergarten through third grades the limit is one teacher per 25 students maximum. In fourth through sixth grades the limit is one teacher to 28 students. For seventh through 12th grades the limit is one teacher per 30 students.
McDonald said Ramona teachers consider class sizes to be important “to ensure all students get the instruction and attention needed to be successful with their learning.”
“We will continue to fight for reasonable class sizes and to make student learning the priority,” McDonald said, adding that the RTA team presented its initial proposal to the district team in May 2024. “With bargaining, there is always the complete wishlist to start the discussion and then both sides have to move and adjust and prioritize to come to an agreement.”
Phillips also asked during the meeting if the school district is anticipating any employee layoffs.
“We’re not proposing layoffs in the coming year,” Thurman said. “We have a three-year budget (projection) that meets the minimum 5 percent reserves. We monitor the budget to save money. No layoffs are planned in the coming year, but we don’t know if there will be layoffs in three years.”
