Sanger Unified teachers say they were blindsided when district officials reversed course and applied for an exemption to a state law that requires unified school districts to devote 55% of their budgets to classroom teacher salaries.

However, the district says that an outdated California law doesn’t reflect the services and staff needed to educate students today. That situation leaves them with no choice but to seek the waiver, which they have done for the past two years.

Meanwhile, a Madera Unified teachers union chief maintains that districts have diverted resources away from credentialed teachers and instead have invested in outside consultants. Instead of changing the law, districts and county schools superintendents should be working harder to uphold it, said David Holder, president of the Madera Unified Teachers Association.

Section 41372 of the Education Code requires unified school districts like Sanger and Madera to spend at least 55% of its budget on classroom teacher salaries.

Janelle Reetz, president of the Sanger Unified Teachers Association, said she asked in September if administrators were planning to seek the waiver and was told no.

Waiver applications are submitted to the Fresno County Office of the Superintendent of Schools for review and approval or denial. Districts can seek the exemption if they are undergoing serious financial hardship or if their teachers’ salaries are in excess of comparable districts.

The waivers apply to the preceding school year’s budget and are due by Sept. 15, according to state law.

Waivers Are Widespread in Fresno County

Sanger is among many local districts applying for a waiver. Sixteen of Fresno County’s 31 districts applied this year. Nineteen applied last year and received exemptions.

Fowler teachers raised objections this year to the waiver application after learning that the district’s had missed the 55% threshold by $1.3 million for the 2024-25 school year. That same year their pay raise of 0.5% did not cover the $1,800 hike in healthcare premiums.

Fowler teachers say their analysis of district spending shows a big increase in administrative costs in recent years.

Related Story: Fowler Teachers Say District Is Shortchanging Them and Giving $$ to Admin

Like Fowler, Sanger teachers got a 0.5% pay increase for the 2024-25 school year and are preparing to open contract talks for this school year.

Sanger’s waiver application for the 2023-24 school year put the district $5 million below the 55% threshold. This year’s waiver for the 2024-25 school year is even wider — $6.6 million.

The district’s chief business officer, Ryan Kilby, told teachers that the decision to seek a waiver came in October after the district received its year-end audit. The board did not vote on the waiver application until Oct. 28.

Seek to Amend the Law

Like Sanger, many California districts contend the law passed in the 1970s requiring districts to put a substantial amount of their resources into classroom teachers salaries came when teachers were the main point of contact for instruction and education.

But that’s not true today, Sanger Unified deputy superintendent Eduardo Martinez told GV Wire on Tuesday.

Students’ education is being supported by school psychologists, speech pathologists, counselors, nurses, and other employees. If those salaries were included, the district’s percentage would be closer to 60% instead of under 55%, he said.

Districts have been trying through their advocates for the past decade to get legislators to update the law. In the 2023-24 school year, about 45% of the state’s 900 school districts sought waivers, Kilby said.

GV Wire reached out to the office of Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, for comment without success.

Reetz, the Sanger teachers union president, said she was dismayed when she discovered the waiver item on the Oct. 28 board agenda after being told there wouldn’t be a waiver sought this year. And she was irked to learn that the administration was planning to notify her after the board vote, almost as if they were trying to hide it from her.

But she learned in time and spoke against it at the board meeting. She received an apology at a meeting Monday with district officials.

Reetz said the Sanger Unified Teachers Association doesn’t know how the district is spending money that’s supposed to be going to classroom teachers, and the union is digging into that.

More Consultants, Fewer Teachers

Holder said Madera Unified appears to be channeling funds into consultants, and not into lowering class sizes and providing compensation to keep new teachers from fleeing to Fresno and Clovis once they are credentialed. The district lost 80 teachers last year and has 40 vacant positions this year, he said

Madera Unified’s waivers reported an ever-widening gap below the 55% threshold, jumping up last year to $29 million, Holder said. That was before the union questioned the numbers and the district determined it had been filling out the forms wrong, which lowered the gap to $9 million.

But Holder said MUTA still contends that the district’s numbers are wrong and has asked the Madera County superintendent of schools to deny the waiver application.

He said it’s not clear why two of the state’s largest school districts — Fresno Unified, the third largest, and Clovis Unified, the 12th largest — have not had to seek waivers and have been able to consistently meet the 55% threshold.

“If they have the same social economic situations going on, because we’re all in the same vicinity, how are they able to continue to fund the classroom, continue to meet the law, and compensate their educators, and Madera can’t? And I don’t get an answer,” he said.

Who Sought Waivers

In Fresno County, 19 districts applied for waivers for the 2023-24 school year. Fifteen were unified school districts: Caruthers, Central, Coalinga-Huron, Firebaugh, Fowler, Golden Plains, Kerman, Kings Canyon, Laton, Mendota, Parlier, Riverdale, Sanger, Selma, and Washington. The remaining four were elementary school districts: Clay, Orange Center, Raisin City, and Washington Colony.

Elementary districts must devote 60% of their budgets for classroom teacher salaries, while high school districts have a 50% threshold.

This fall, 16 districts applied for waivers: Caruthers, Clay, Coalinga-Huron, Firebaugh, Fowler, Golden Plains, Kerman, ings Canyon, Laton, Mendota, Orange Center, Parlier, Raisin City, Riverdale, Sanger, and Selma. Laton was the only district to claim financial hardship, while the other districts claimed the waiver because their teacher salaries were in excess of comparable districts.

“State law allows districts to qualify for the exemption if their salaries are at or above comparable levels, even if those other (comparable) districts also applied for the waiver,” Jennifer Brautigan, spokeswoman for the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said in an email.