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Paso Robles teachers protest for higher pay

October 14, 2021

Paso Robles Unified School District Board

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

Despite receiving pay of more than $70,000 a year on average, Paso Robles teachers say they are in dire need of a wage increase. [Tribune]

More than 100 teachers, parents and community members demonstrated Tuesday evening outside of the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District administration building. The teachers and their supporters called for district officials to grant the educators a pay increase.

The Paso Robles Educators, the local chapter of the California Teachers Association, is currently in salary negotiations with the school district.

In the 2019-2020 school year, Paso Robles teachers received the fourth highest average pay among educators working for nine different school districts in SLO County, according to the California Department of Education. San Miguel Joint Union School District did not send teacher pay data to the state.

That year, Paso Robles teachers collected an average salary of $71,640. By comparison, Lucia Mar teachers received an average salary of $70,945, and Templeton teachers received $72,841 in average pay.

Most SLO County districts have given teachers raises in the past couple years. Paso Robles teachers say they have not received a salary increase in three years.

Kate Luster, a first grade teacher at Kermit King Elementary School, said teachers are just asking for a cost-of-living increase. Kristin Usilton, who teaches at Glen Speck Elementary School, said every district colleague she knows is working multiple jobs outside of teaching.

During Tuesday’s school board meeting, district officials said they are worried about declining enrollment impacting the budget in the future. Like most districts in SLO County and in California, Paso Robles Joint Unified has for several years had fewer students enroll and attend class. The district is down 221 students from the previous school year, and officials are expecting to lose another 59 students next year, followed by 114 students the year after that.

The Paso Robles district had a reserve fund of $14.3 million, or 15 percent, as of June. State regulations only allow the district to carry a 10 percent budget reserve.

As with all districts statewide, this year, Paso Robles received a 5.07 percent cost of living adjustment from the state of California. The slightly more than 5 percent increase to the district budget is intended to compensate for rising costs schools in California are enduring.


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The Teachers put up with and teach your Children!!!! Holy crap! No one bitches about administrator pay! The administration doesn’t ever, and I mean ever, come in contact with your children! You know what the administration does? They make the teachers lives a living hell!! They call stupid meetings, forcing teachers to sit through these meetings to learn a new “program” that they bought for thousands of dollars, because the last one was 2 years old! Not only that, these meetings are run by consultants who have spent less time in the classroom than the teachers! Teachers have to have credentials to even apply for the job, yet the administration treats them like they need a constant re-education. If you want to bitch about the school district budget, cut all of the fat off the top. It doesn’t have to be this hard. Reading, writing, arithmetic and history!


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A starting certificated teacher teaching inmates at CMC makes 10k more than a top step Paso teacher and have a much better retirement and free health insurance for life. Several quality Paso teachers have left to work at the prisons. You tell me that teaching inmates is of more value to society than teaching our kids. This is embarrassing school board get your act together.


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