Solana Beach School District teachers get bump in salary

At the board’s June 24 meeting, the Solana Beach School District board approved its collective bargaining agreement with both of its employee groups, the Solana Beach Association of Support Professionals and Solana Beach Teachers Association.

The new three-year contract increases salaries by 2% retroactively to July 1, 2020.

Contract negotiations began last year and SBSD Superintendent Jodee Brentlinger said they accomplished quite a lot, also including articles on health and welfare benefits, class size, leaves and use of teacher time during the work day.

In addition, following the ratification of the agreement, the board approved 2% raises for unrepresented groups which includes administration, management, confidential and supervisory employees.

At the June 24 meeting, the board approved its budget for the 2021-22 school year, projecting to deficit spend by $1.98 million, with a reserve level of 14%.

During public comment, Amanda Goodman, Skyline School teacher and co-president of the Solana Beach Teachers Association, said there are many things to consider with the coming post-pandemic school year.

“This next year will be a huge transition as many of our students and staff will return to an in-person model for the first time after an entire year online. Students will need to re-adjust to spending time with many people again, navigating relationships along with academics and managing all of the energy those things require,” Goodman said. “Those of us who taught in-person know how challenging and fraught with intense emotions that transition can be and we definitely saw an increase in our students social- emotional needs.”

With $1.75 million in state funding from the Expanded Learning Opportunities Grant, the district is planning to use those funds to help close learning gaps, provide teacher training and to address students’ social-emotional health and academic needs.

The district is offering expanded summer programming both this year and next and will strengthen its social and emotional learning (SEL) approach with the addition of one full-time licensed clinical social worker and increasing school counselors to allow continuity and consistency at each school site.