Members of the Fresno County Board of Education voted 3-2 on Thursday to give Superintendent of Schools Michele Cantwell-Copher a 2% pay raise starting Jan. 1.

The vote came after trustees debated and rejected the recommendation of a subcommittee to give Cantwell-Copher a 3% raise or to give her the same amount that her office has offered teachers and clerical staff in their contract negotiations — 0%.

Cantwell-Copher’s current salary is $343,356 following a previous 5% raise. The approved 2% hike will increase Cantwell-Copher’s annual salary by $6,867 to $350,223.

Like the board members, Cantwell-Copher is elected to her position, but the board has the authority to give her pay raises. She was elected Superintendent of Schools in 2022 but is an employee of the county Office of Education and receives a salary and benefits.

Luann Ramirez, secretary of the Fresno County Chapter 573 of the California School Employees Association, said at Thursday’s meeting that the board started Cantwell-Copher at the same salary as outgoing Superintendent Jim Yovino, who held the post for 15 years.

Cantwell-Copher received an 80% raise from her former position as assistant superintendent in her first year and a 5% pay raise in the second year of her two-year contract, Ramirez said.

“Her starting salary was the ending salary of the superintendent, who preceded her and served for 15 years,” Ramirez said. “The superintendent before her had to serve in the role of superintendent of schools for over four years before reaching the ending salary of the superintendent that preceded him. I repeat, that the superintendent before her had to serve in the role of superintendent of schools for over four years before reaching the ending salary of the superintendent before him.”

Proposing to raise Cantwell-Copher’s salary again midway through her four-year term is particularly galling to union members when the superintendent’s office has offered them a 0% increase in their new contracts, Ramirez said.

A Series of Votes

A compensation subcommittee of then-board vice president Allen Clyde and Trustee Marcy Masumoto reviewed the pay of 10 other county schools superintendents before coming up with a proposed 3% increase for 2025. If there is a raise in the second year it will be determined later by the board and will depend in part on finances and economic conditions, Clyde said.

Masumoto noted that the Legislative Analyst’s Office had set the cost-of-living increase for schools and community colleges at 2.46%.

A 3% raise would have boosted Cantwell-Copher’s annual salary to $353,966.

Newly elected Trustee Itzi Robles said that given the fact the School Board had previously negotiated a generous contract for Cantwell-Copher, she would prefer to see that $10,000-plus be devoted to educational programming instead. She and Trustees Bryan Burton and Kimberly Tapscott-Munson voted to reject the 3% proposal.

Robles then made a motion to keep Cantwell-Copher’s salary as-is, but that was rejected on a 2-3 vote, with Clyde, Matsumoto, and Burton voting against and her and Tapscott-Munson voting in favor.

Trustees Agree on 2%

Burton then proposed a 2% raise the first year followed by 0% the second, arguing that there was uncertainty about the area’s economy and the county would be negotiating contracts for rank-and-file employees. He said he wanted to nail down the contract amounts for the next two years now “because next December, I don’t want to have another terribly uncomfortable board meeting conversation again for all of us. Let’s just have it now.”

Clyde countered by asking Burton if he would consider matching the 2.45% COLA in the first year and then having a COLA match in year two, up to a certain ceiling. When Burton’s motion died for lack of a second, Clyde then moved his COLA proposal, but that was also rejected by the same 2-3 vote that had rejected the initial 3% raise proposal.

Burton then reintroduced his proposal of a 2% raise in year one with a raise to be determined for year 2. The divided board then voted 3-2 to accept it, with Burton, Clyde, and Masumoto voting for and Robles and Tapscott-Munson voting against.