Half Moon Bay teachers preparing to strike for better wages, health benefits
Half Moon Bay teachers preparing to strike for better wages, health benefits
The Cabrillo Unified School District has offered teachers a 6% raise, but the Cabrillo Unified Teacher's Association is asking for higher pay and medical benefits which include educators' families. KTVU's Tori Gaines reports from Half Moon Bay.
More than 100 teachers in San Mateo County's Cabrillo School District will be on strike starting Thursday morning. The educators are demanding higher wages and expanded medical benefits.
The signs are made, and many members of the tight-knit coastal communities near Half Moon Bay are ready. Starting Thursday, 130 teachers working in CUSD will be on strike after negotiations with the district stalled, leaving most of the district's 3000+ students without educators.
The last, best and final offer from CUSD is a 6% wage increase for teachers, but the Cabrillo Unified Teachers Association is pushing for more. They also want to see increased medical benefits for families.
Currently, medical benefits offered to teachers in the district's contract don't cover family members, which leaves their spouses and children without access to healthcare.
"You can't raise a family if you don't have healthcare for them," Martina Mooney, a CUSD parent tells KTVU.
Mooney and her sister Molly Banks have four kids at CUSD schools. Their kids will stay home from school during the strike, the sisters say it is in support of their teachers.
Mooney's daughter Adele hasn't met her teacher for this year yet, she's had a temporary sub instead.
"We have noticed there've been a lot of teachers who have left. So many more at my son's school, the elementary school, but there are some teachers who still haven't arrived for the middle school," Banks said.
Though Adele will be home with her family during the strike, Mooney and Banks say they know many families don’t have that option. Students who do head to schools during the strike will not be receiving instruction, instead their schedule includes large group study hall periods and physical activities.
The strike is coming at a cost for the district. The subs heading to Cabrillo Unified schools will be paid $500 per day to cross the picket lines and look over children during the strike.
A seasoned educator we spoke to says he doesn't make $500 a day, though he has been in the district for more than two decades.
Starting pay for a new teacher in the district is now $313 per day, which educators tell me is simply not enough.
"Our school district has become a revolving door, to use the cliche, teachers come in and out and then they go. They are here one, two maybe three years, and then they leave," Patrick Games, a teacher at Half Moon Bay High School, tells KTVU.
Emily Baker has 15 years of experience in teaching, but she bartends every weekend to make ends meet.
"That means I don't have as much free time to dedicate to planning lessons outside of school hours," Baker said. "If my needs are not being met, how can I meet the needs of our students and their families in our community?"
CUSD Superintendent Amber Lee-Alva shared a detailed statement on the CUSD website on Tuesday:
"The District believes that adoption of this counter-proposal will significantly erode already difficult budget conditions facing the District, endangering our ability to provide quality programs and services to our students and families."
The CUSD is expected to vote on the current 6% increase at a board meeting on Thursday night.