Castro Valley teachers get raise

Recently, Prop. 30 passed in California with a 54 to 46 percent vote to approve it. Prop. 30 helps students specifically by targeting schools to help fund them. In a nutshell, Prop. 30 prevents school cutbacks, which means smaller class sizes and, after much negotiation, Castro Valley teachers have been approved to get a pay raise.

At CVHS, all teachers received a one percent pay raise. It’s retroactive, which means teachers get the one percent pay raise from July 1, 2012. It’s almost a “payback” because they will get the money all at once for all the previous months leading up to July with the one percent raise.
“The bonuses were unexpected, so the teachers are happy about it,” said Castro Valley Teachers Association (CVTA) treasurer Ian Rodriquez. “There hasn’t been a pay raise since 2007.”

All of this could not have been achieved without the persistence from the teachers union, whose goal was to help get Proposition 30 passed so it could help fund schools. The teachers of Castro Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) voted with a 10:1 vote in favor of the raise. Two hundred and ninety teachers voted yes while 30 teachers were against the raise.

“Now that California passed Prop. 30, school districts can be more confident in investing in their students without the fear of mid-year cutbacks,” said CVTA President John Green.

Salaries for CVUSD teachers range from $47,570 to $87,049. Teachers with advanced degrees get added bonuses; for example those with a masters degree get an extra $1,791, and those with a doctorate receive an extra $2,678. The more units and education teachers have from college, the higher their salaries.