Fowler Unified teachers are up in arms over the district’s failure for two years in a row to allocate 55% of its budget for classroom teachers, as is required by state law.

Longtime teachers tell GV Wire that the district has been putting dollars into beefing up the administration, adding staffers, and giving hefty raises.

They contend that the teacher salary comparisons that Fowler Unified officials drew up in their application for a waiver to the 55% rule were “fudged” and don’t reflect the true picture of their compensation.

Their objections come as the Fowler Unified teachers union is embarking on negotiating the 2025-26 school year contract.

Fowler Unified, in response to queries by GV Wire, said the district “will always endeavor to pay (its employees) fairly” and denied that it has shifted funds from school sites to district administration.

California law requires unified school districts to spend 55% of their annual budgets on classroom teachers. For elementary school districts, the threshold is 60%; for high school districts, it’s 50%.

But the state also allows allow districts to seek exemptions to the minimum spending law, citing financial hardship or claiming that their teachers are already earning more than those at comparable school districts.

Common Practice Among Fresno County Districts

Fowler Unified isn’t the only district in Fresno County to claim an exemption from the state law that is supposed to set a threshold for how much districts spend on classroom teachers.

Over the past two years, more than half of Fresno County’s 31 school districts have sought such exemptions. For the 2023-24 school year, 19 districts were granted waivers to the state mandate. For the 2024-25 year, 16 districts submitted exemption requests, of which only one — Laton Unified — cited a financial hardship. The other 15 were 12 unified school districts — Caruthers, Coalinga-Huron, Firebaugh, Fowler, Golden Plains, Kerman, Kings Canyon, Mendota, Parlier, Riverdale, Sanger, and Selma — and three elementary districts, Clay, Orange Center, and Raisin City. Those waiver requests are under review by the business services division of the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools.

Several of those 15 school districts seeking the waiver used as comparisons other school districts that are also seeking the waiver based on the same claim.

Even though it might seem illogical that districts could cite each other in claims that their teachers are highly compensated, “State law allows districts to qualify for the exemption if their salaries are at or above comparable levels, even if those other districts also applied for the waiver,” Jennifer Brautigan, spokeswoman for the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said in an email. “In short, the analysis done by our office is about salary comparability, not whether the other districts met the spending threshold.”

For the 2023-24 school, Fowler Unified spent 53.02% of its budget on classroom teachers, $900,373 less than the 55% mandated by state law. In the 2024-25 school year the district spent 52.28% of its budget on classroom teachers, about $1.3 million less than the 55% threshold.

Fowler Unified’s request for an exemption for the 2024-25 school year that was approved by the School Board in September includes a comparison of the district’s teacher salaries against Clovis, Kerman, Parlier, and Sanger unifieds and Kingsburg Elementary Charter District.

But Fowler teachers say that the district left out longevity data that shows Fowler teachers start out more highly paid but aren’t being as well compensated the longer they work for the district. Teacher Chris Ghilarducci provided this chart to GV Wire.

The teachers also question why Fowler Unified would compare itself against Clovis Unified, the state’s 12th largest school district and the state’s largest without a teachers union, as well as an elementary charter school.

Big Salary Increases for Administrators

Ghilarducci, who has taught for 11 years at the Fowler Academy, said increases to teachers’ compensation has not matched what the district has been paying administrators. Over the past five years, he said, the district’s administrative budget soared from $791,000 to $2.23 million, and the size of the staff expanded from seven full-timers to 14. That’s occurred even as the district’s enrollment has remained relatively flat.

The original seven administrators got a collective pay increase of 73% over that period, according to data in the Transparent California website, he said. Transparent California is a database of government pay and pensions.

Teacher pay over that period has risen 22%, he said.

In the past, Ghilarducci said, “our admin always got the same raises as our teachers, but what they’ve done … is they keep retitling their jobs. They go from HR manager to HR director and then they get a $50,000 raise with their new title. They’ve done a whole lot of that.”

Last year, Fowler teachers got a 0.5% pay increase but were hit with having to pay an extra $1,800 in annual health insurance costs.

“Anybody who’s already reached their final step, they’re actually making less money this year,” said Lynde Amarante, who also teaches at Fowler Academy. “Their checks are smaller because we now have to start paying more into our health insurance. With that raise people’s checks were literally smaller, and I just remember telling my husband, ‘We got a pay cut instead of a pay raise.’ ”

Other cuts this year included not replacing classroom aides, who are particularly useful to assist the teaching staff at Fowler Academy, Amarante said.

“They’re not willing to replace an aide making so little money realistically, but they’re willing to give themselves a secretary — they’re willing to create positions down at the district office where they’re making, oh my gosh, we could pay probably six or seven aides for what some of those people are working for,” she said.

Response from Fowler Unified

GV Wire sought an interview with May Yang, assistant superintendent of business services, but she was not able to schedule the time. The district provided answers to a series of questions in this email:

“Fowler Unified School District compensates all bargaining units in accordance with the negotiated salary schedules established through collective bargaining agreements. Employee compensation is subject to a formal negotiating process. It is always Fowler Unified’s goal to pay our employees fairly.

“Fowler Unified also has an obligation to maintain fiscal stability and to be responsible, ethical stewards of the public dollar.

“The District’s application for a waiver to the 55% classroom expenditure requirement is routine in nature and not unique to Fowler Unified. 17 other Districts in the county have requested the same waiver.

“The District is not shifting funds from sites to District administration.

“As we exited the COVID-19 pandemic, many one-time funds were spent on services for students. Those funds are no longer available and as a result, it appears that districts across the state are reducing services, but in reality, are no longer receiving enhanced funding to respond to a pandemic and we are returning to revenue levels similar to pre-pandemic.

“Furthermore, the District’s financial management is subject to regular oversight by the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, ensuring transparency and accountability in the use of public funds. Fowler Unified remains committed to responsibly balancing the needs of its educators, staff, and students while managing district resources prudently. We value all of our employees and will always endeavor to pay them fairly.

“Our teachers deserve higher pay for the invaluable work they do. The district is committed to finding responsible solutions that honor our educators and keep the District on solid financial ground.”

It’s ‘Us and Them’

Debbie Flores, a 37-year Fowler Unified veteran who teaches at Fremont Elementary, said teachers used to have a sense they were on the same team as the administration. Prior administrators made sure that teacher pay was high enough to attract the best and also understood the importance of compensation for building teacher morale, she said.

“But now it very much feels like it’s divided,” Flores said. “It’s an us and them. And that’s a sad feeling, really.”

Marshall Elementary teacher Jennifer Kubar said her concerns go beyond her own paycheck. The city of Fowler’s future depends on whether its students are getting a good education, but Kubar said she fears that the district will continue to lose its most talented staffers to better paying districts.

According to the teachers, 77 of the district’s 127-member teaching staff have left since the 2019-2020 school year.

“I know people come to Fowler to put their kids in our school district. And if they knew that our district was not necessarily putting the kids first … I mean, because your walk talks louder than your talk talks,” she said. “And if all your money is going to top-heavy administration and you’re filing an exemption so you do not have to pay your teachers the bare minimum, that speaks volumes of where your values are.”