There’s a cost of living increase and then there’s the decision to award the Los Angeles Board of Education a 174 percent pay hike.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the city’s commission on Monday voted to raise the salaries of the school board from $45,637 per annum to $125,000.
Apparently that wasn’t sufficient for a former member of the now affluent board who thought the municipal employees should be getting $191,000 a year — or what at an L.A. city council member makes.
School board members are now paid more money than most teachers in the city. Teachers just beginning their careers in the West Coast metropolis earn between $50,368 and $80,116 a year.
The LAUSD Board of Education Compensatino Review Committee is the organization responsible for assessing the school board salary every five years. The last time this arms-length committee evaluated the compensation received by board members, they recommended a zero wage hike because the economy was sluggish.
“It’s very obvious how much hard work the school board members put in day in and day out,” Efren Martinez, a commission member, told the L.A. Times. Martinez suggested that because the median school board district exceeds the size of a city council district, the new salary ceiling is only “a good starting point.”
There are seven members sitting on the review committee and all voted in favor of the mammoth raise.
According to the L.A. Times report, school board members are heavily burdened with work.
The school board was only recently elected and faces a number of pressing issues including looming labor negotiations with school employees who are also looking for a boost in their salaries.