Oak Grove teachers rally for better wages and benefits

Teachers are requesting a 7.17% increase in salary and better health benefits

Oak Grove district teachers rallying outside the board meeting. (Photo by Albert Levine)

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, teachers from the Oak Grove Union School District (OGUSD) rallied outside the school district offices, advocating for livable wages and a fair contract. The protest started around 5 pm and ran until the OGUSD board meeting later that evening. (The Oak Grove district includes the town of Graton and rural areas west and east of it. It has two schools, Oak Grove Elementary and Willowside Middle School.)

Outside, teachers and members of the Oak Grove Union Elementary Educators Association (OGUEEA) gathered and did a series of brief chants outside the district hall, before returning later to give public comment at the board meeting.

Hey Hey Ho Ho! Teacher pay is way too low!
2 Percent? Won’t pay the rent! 2 Percent? Won’t pay the rent!

“The district is not offering us fair compensation, even though they have plenty of money sitting in the unassigned category, like $3 million worth,” said Cari Cardle, co-president of OGUEEA.

The union is asking for a 7.17% pay increase. “The district is offering us 2%, with no increase in health benefits,” she said.

Cari Cardle is the co-president of OGUEEA and a middle school teacher. (Photo by Albert Levine)

Cardle also said that last year, when the district and union started negotiating, the average pay for the union was 7.42% below the state average.

“Now we are 9.1% below,” said Cardle, who has been teaching middle school for over 30 years. “We are asking for an increase in health benefits—many of our unit members pay toward their benefits, and those in the HSA plan have no vision coverage.”

“We’re below the state law for classroom compensation percentage. Educators get less in benefits than the current administration, to the tune of $7,000 a year; it used to be ten. That’s only because we did fact-finding two years ago,” she said.

“We had to find out we were getting paid less—or getting less health care dollars— and when we presented that to the fact finder, she was super upset and demanded the district concede some health care dollars. I mean, we’re with the kids. We’re the ones getting sick, right?”

Cardle said she was grateful for the support of other local unions.

“We have other unions, even locally, behind us. West County is supporting us,” Cardle said. “We’re all kind of in the same boat; trying to raise salaries to a living wage in this county.”

The Sebastopol Times also reached out to OGUSD Board President Erin Lagourgue for an interview.

“We are pleased to have been able to reach tentative agreements on all topics other than salary and benefits,” said Lagourgue.

“While our teachers already receive guaranteed increases to their individual salaries year over year as they advance on the salary schedule, ranging anywhere from 1.2% to 2.5% per year, the district has offered to further improve teacher salaries by an additional combined total of 5% for this year and next year,” she said.

Lagourgue added that the district covers the full cost of comprehensive medical and dental benefits for its teachers.

“The district is committed to providing its employees with competitive compensation and over the past 10 years has raised its teacher salary schedule by over 42%. Unfortunately, the district simply does not have enough ongoing revenues to sustain the union’s higher demand for a raise of over 7% this year, but we remain hopeful that we can resolve the issue of teacher compensation without the disruption of a strike on our staff, students, and community,” Lagourgue said.

One teacher from Oak Grove Elementary, who requested to remain anonymous, said that they’d like to see the school district negotiate contracts that are equitable across the different groups of people who work for the district.

“The classified staff, the administration and the teachers, I think should all get equitable pay increases,” they said. “I feel frustrated that I’m in a profession where I have to stand out on a corner and ask for fair pay. I wish that the passion that I put into my work every day was recognized and valued and fairly compensated.”

“I just feel like there’s an equity piece missing,” they said, “We’re all buying our own textbook subscriptions. We’re all paying for our own health care. I think that there’d be a lot of advantages if we could come together and form bigger districts, and I think then it would also move the negotiations a little.”

During public comment, teachers came up one by one to describe their concerns and experiences to the board members.

“I’m required to do the following without extra compensation,” said Carole Flores, a teacher at Oak Grove Union Elementary.

“Pass yearly training on blood-borne pathogens and sexual harassment, the safe use of pesticides and my responsibilities as a mandated reporter, serve on the school committee, do a week of yard duty each month, and act as a safety officer in case of emergencies such as earthquakes, fires and active shooters,” said Flores.

“My workload has easily doubled in the last 25 years,” said Flores. “When I started at Willowside in 2008, the district office administration had five and a half positions…and the student population averaged 840. Today, our enrollment is declining. But our district office administration has more than doubled.”

According to Flores, the district now has a superintendent, two principals (one per school), a CEO, an assistant to the superintendent, a technology and data specialist, an accounts payroll specialist, a dean of students at Willowside, a director of learning support, a human resources specialist, a before- and after-school director, and a fiscal services specialist.

“They have argued that their workload has increased and have added employees in response to their needs, yet, teachers have been continually asked to do more and more,” Flores said.

Eighth grade teacher Julia Castro read a letter to the board written by Lisa Le Donne, a Willowside Middle School 8th grade teacher.

This is my 25th year teaching social science at the secondary level. I love my career, but here's how my workload has changed since 2000 when I started.

95% of my time was spent preparing and delivering lessons, grading papers and attending a weekly study afternoon. I received maybe five emails a week. There were no computers in my classroom. My high tech devices were an overhead projector and a 19-inch TV with the VCR. An average of two students a year needed accommodations to assist with their learning. Students did not have smartphones.

Today, I receive an average of 30 emails a day. 65 of my 140 students are English language learners, have learning disabilities, medical diagnoses that interfere with their learning and or are chronically absent. 46% of my students! 29 have been suspended by the administration for violence, hate speech or destruction of property.

See Le Donne’s full letter here.

A post on the union’s Facebook page from this January reads, “Educators in the Oak Grove Union School District have been working all school year without a contract. The OGUSD School Board has failed to provide a fair proposal to OGUEEA leading us towards an impasse and a potential strike.”

Cardle explained the timeline:

“So in November of 2023, we started negotiating for 24-25, which is the school year we’re in right now. And we haven’t settled for this school year—and we’re now two-thirds of the way done with it.”

She said the path ahead will be something like this:

“At fact-finding, both sides will present their arguments, and then the fact-finder will attempt mediation again. And then if we do not come to a settlement, the fact-finder writes a report and releases it, and then we try settling again.”

The union has been assigned a neutral fact-finder and is expecting their fact-finding date this week.

At a recent union meeting, 90% of the teachers present said they would support a strike.