“We are the union, a mighty, mighty union, fighting for justice, and for education!”
Amid scattered showers and rainbows, dozens of colorful signs and the honking of cars, Palo Alto Educators Association members chanted slogans on Tuesday for a new contract with better pay from the Palo Alto Unified School District. Many brandished giant inflatable pencils as they rallied along Churchill Avenue and El Camino Real.
According to PAEA president Tom Culbertson, PAEA negotiators have already pulled back on demands for a 13% raise to reach a compromise with the district, and the district has gone from offering a 2% to a 3% annual raise.
“We [PAEA] understood that a lot of those asks did have an economic component and had a cost associated with them, so even though we [PAEA] felt the bills were really important for supporting students and teachers, we pulled back on quite a few of those [demands],” Culbertson said. “Our latest ask is for 9% [raise] for the first year, and we’re looking for a serious offer from the district.”
According to Culbertson, 250 community members and 300 teachers across the district were invited to the event.
Paly science teacher Samuel Howles-Banerji, who spoke during the board meeting, said that one of the main reasons behind the rally is that the district places unreasonable expectations on teachers
“[District management] negotiation is trying to add additional unpaid adjunct duties to the teacher’s plate, specifically asking us to come outside of school hours,” Howles-Banerji said. “We were told that it was to build community, strengthen connections, and foster student mental health, which is essentially saying that we’re not doing that already.”
Culbertson questions the appropriate use of the district’s funds by suggesting that those funds should mostly be invested in teachers and students.
“The story they’ve [the district] been telling for the last few years is that they don’t have any money,” Culbertson said. “It just does not add up that the ending fund balance is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s time to invest that in actual education.”
According to Howles-Banerji, the district tried to mandate a specific workday during the school year, meaning teachers would need to be on campus at a certain time and couldn’t leave until allowed.
“Oftentimes, a teacher might have requested a morning prep because they have kids that they need to take to school,” Howles-Banerji said. “Sometimes teachers might use a prep period to run across the Trader Joe’s and do some grocery shopping, knowing that they’re not going to have time to do that later in the day.”
Culbertson said that ensuring healthcare is another key concern in their negotiations with the district.
“That’s [healthcare] a national issue that every worker really worries about, making sure that their families and themselves are taken care of for healthcare,” Culbertson said. “We [PAEA] really want to ensure that that’s going to be a district commitment for the long haul. Salary, we’ve [PAEA] come a long way…management has come a little bit.”
In a speech to fellow educators at the rally, Ariane Tuomy, a social studies teacher at Henry M. Gunn High School, said the district needs to take care of the dedicated teachers who work to create the best educational experience and home for students.
“We are there every day for our students,” Tuomy said. “We need to take care of our staff, and we can do that in a joyful, collaborative way. Joy is resistance, and so I’m seeing that here today, and I’m just so grateful that you all showed up and that you’re here with me, fighting for the home that we created for our students and for ourselves.”
Paly senior Aiden Cornel said he came to the rally because he believes that the district has enough funds to support teachers, but is not supporting them enough.
“These teachers, even though they are in Palo Alto, meaning their wages are a bit higher, it’s still not enough to live in Palo Alto,” Cornel said. “Teachers are very underappreciated.”
Vanessa Wong, 6th-grade teacher at Greene Middle School, said she stands behind the union at the rally to show that students and teachers matter, and everyone needs to work together to come to a compromise.
“We want fair pay,” Wong said. “We want good health care … we just want to be treated with dignity.”
Editor’s note: Anthro Magazine’s teacher advisor, who is a part of the PAEA, has not taken part in any way in the production of this story.