Palo Alto Unified School District teachers are fighting for salary increases amid ongoing negotiations between the Palo Alto Educators Association and the district.
Before Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. board meeting, PAUSD teachers marched down Churchill Avenue through the rain to advocate for higher teacher salaries.
Palo Verde Elementary School teacher Hannah Hoagland said the teachers gathered to demonstrate their wants to the board.
“We are here to rally for the teachers, as we are bargaining for a better contract; a livable wage,” Hoagland said. “We’re here to rally for that, and show the board and the district’s office that we actually are serious about this.”
Palo Alto Educators Association President Tom Culbertson said that teachers planned to show their unity during the board meeting.
“We’re going to be visible, we’re going to be respectful and we’re going to be clear,” Culbertson said. “When we go into that boardroom this evening, let’s show them [the school board] that we are united, we are joyful and we are ready to reach an agreement that honors the work we do every single day.”
According to PAEA negotiations chair and math teacher Daniel Nguyen, management has not been aligning with the negotiations team.
“No matter how well researched, no matter how logical PAEA’s arguments are, management often will find a way to shut them down,” Nguyen said. “When we [the negotiations team] tried to get more services and support for our most vulnerable students, they [management] deleted everything. When we asked them why they have over $100 million of taxpayer funds sitting in their bank accounts and not being invested in our students and our schools, they continued to hide how much they really had.”
PAUSD has said that their financial reserves are in the best interest of students and teachers. In a negotiations update posted by the district last month, it said that PAUSD’s strong financial position puts it above other nearby districts.
“While many neighboring TK-12 unified districts are currently making multi-million dollar budget cuts, issuing layoff notices, eliminating programs, and closing schools, Palo Alto Unified is not,” the district wrote. “Our financial stability allows us to protect our staff’s jobs and maintain the high standards our parents and students expect.”
According to Gunn social studies teacher Ariane Tuomy, teachers want to be further supported so they can better support their students’ learning.
“There’s all of these economic decisions that teachers make every day,” Tuomy said. “That stress distracts from the things that we really want to do, which is to try to be the best teachers that we can, because we want to be the best teachers ever. … [When we are] feeling like we have to make a choice between something that we’re passionate about or the survival of our family, that’s a lot of stress that then can’t go into creativity and joy.”
Tuomy said the rain during the rally did not dampen the teachers’ spirits.
“It does say a lot that we [teachers] are here — joyful in the rain, to be together, to stand together — for what we believe, which is that if we are treated fairly and paid fairly, then good things happen,” Tuomy said. “And I don’t think it needs to be adversarial — it should be ‘we’re all building this home together’, so in the rain or in the sun, the work continues regardless.”
