New raises will boost Ocean View district teachers’ salaries 2.5% this school year
Teachers in the Ocean View School District will get pay increases amounting to 2.5% in the current school year under a contract approved by the school board Tuesday night.
By a 4-1 vote, with trustee Norm Westwell dissenting, teachers in the Huntington Beach-based district will get a 2% increase retroactive to last July and an additional 1% increase retroactive to Jan. 1. The total increase rounds to 2.5% for the 2016-17 school year, said board President Gina Clayton-Tarvin.
A teacher’s salary depends on time employed by the school district, degrees earned and any additional units completed beyond a bachelor’s degree.
With the salary increases under the new contract, teachers in their first year of employment with Ocean View who have a bachelor’s degree and 30 additional units will typically earn $46,980 this school year and $48,399 by the 2017-18 school year, according to Assistant Supt. Felix Avila.
A teacher with bachelor’s and master’s degrees, 60 additional units and 11 years with the district will typically earn $84,157 this school year and $86,698 by 2017-18, Avila said.
Westwell said teachers already received a 6% salary increase last year and that another raise isn’t needed.
“We’ve done spending as far as the eyes can see,” Westwell said. “I’m fiduciarily responsible for the district. This isn’t improving our district’s condition at all, and it’s making it worse.”
But Clayton-Tarvin said that, historically, Ocean View’s teachers are the lowest-paid among the five school districts that serve Huntington Beach students. She attributed that to frugal management and “very conservative budgeting.”
Special-education teacher Bryan Leipper, lead negotiator for Ocean View teachers, said he is content with the new pact, though he said district teachers will remain the lowest-compensated in Orange County.
“We are all celebrating our much-needed progress, and we acknowledge that we have more work to do to ensure we are attracting and retaining the highest-quality staff our students deserve,” Leipper said.
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