The Carpinteria Unified School District and the Carpinteria Association of Unified School Employees have been in negotiations for salary raises for 19 months.

The parties reached an impasse six months ago; meanwhile, employees say they’re struggling to keep up with the cost of living.

Jay Hotchner, CAUSE president, said both parties haven’t been at the negotiation table since June.

“They’re not coming with an intent to make sure that employees have high-quality health care that leaves them stable, which then translates to stability in the classroom and in the workplace and for the students and their families,” Hotchner said. “They’re not coming with anything in compensation that is realistic in regard to what the cost of living increase has been, which has been extraordinary in the last two years.” 

Per California law, school districts have to spend 55% of their budget on teacher salaries. However in 2023-24, the Carpinteria district spent only 46.6% of its expenses on teacher salaries, leaving out more than $3 million, acccording to the district’s 2023-24 audit. 

CUSD Superintendent Diana Rigby said the school board approved a 3% to 5% raise for nonunion employees in July 2023 and a 2% increase for nonunion employees in June 2024. 

“We greatly value the hard work and dedication of our teachers and staff, and we remain committed to reaching fair and sustainable agreements for both groups,” Rigby said. “Negotiations with the union have been ongoing since July 2023, and some important issues, including leaves, safety, compensation and benefits, remain unresolved.”

Rigby added that the district is working through the mediation process with help from the Public Employment Relations Board.

“We understand that this delay is difficult for everyone, and we remain hopeful that with the support of PERB, we will be able to reach mutual agreement,” Rigby said.

Carpinteria school board member Andy Sheaffer did not respond to Noozhawk’s request to comment on this story.

Hotchner said the district has lost 70 employees since January 2024, a majority of whom were in the special education department. 

“People not making enough to have a living wage, to come to work and do a good job for the community, the impact of that is actually harming our most vulnerable students and families in the community,” Hotchner said. 

Sarah Rochlitzer, the art teacher at Carpinteria High School, said the district is unable to attract new teachers because of the low salaries, and she can see the impact in test scores. 

“We can’t keep people. It’s just a revolving door of new teachers, and it’s reflective in our low test scores,” Rochlitzer said. “You would think if we have small class sizes that we would have great test scores, but part of not being able to retain new teachers is that we don’t have any continuity in a lot of our programs.”

Teachers are planning a march for salary raises, starting from each school site toward the corner of Carpinteria and Linden avenues at 3:30 p.m. Friday.

The situation is similar to what the Santa Barbara Teachers Association recently faced when it spent nearly a year advocating for a new contract with salary increases. After months of negotiations, teachers got a 10% salary increase for 2024-25 and a total of 5% in increases for the 2025-26 school year. 

Staff Share Safety Concerns at Carpinteria Schools

Beth Germanetti, an instructional assistant at Canalino Elementary School with 20 years of experience in CUSD, said her special-education class didn’t have a teacher for three months at the start of the school year. 

“We had people come in there that worked as the teacher, but they didn’t know the kids. They were basically thrown in there to be a body,” Germanetti said. “That’s why kids were not working on any IEP goals. They basically were watching movies, eating and running around.”

Multiple employees described the district culture as tense, with employees afraid to speak up about issues they are facing out of fear of retaliation.

They also cited the issue of Hotchner’s dismissal, after working as a teacher at Carpinteria Middle School for more than 20 years, over alleged “unprofessional” conduct toward students. 

The California Commission on Professional Competence ordered that he be reinstated last year, but the district sued the state commission in February to stop the reinstatement, which is an ongoing case. 

“What they’ve done to Jay has created such a culture of intimidation that people are scared, especially new teachers, especially untenured teachers,” said Rochlitzer, the high school art teacher. “They are scared to get involved with the union because of how badly he’s been treated.”