It’s a deal — and it came with an apology.

The Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve a new contract with the Santa Barbara Teachers Association.

The vote marked the official end to a yearlong, highly public dispute over pay, and a conflict that teetered on the possibility of a teacher strike.

Unlike the dozens of previous meetings dating back to the fall, the board room on Tuesday was mostly empty for the momentous vote. The teachers who waved signs and protested during board meetings had mostly disappeared, some of them on summer vacation.

In the past year, teachers rallied and marched in the streets, students performed walkouts, and board meetings were full of charged accusations. Teachers felt unheard, board members felt disrespected, and the situation fell so far off track that mediation failed and a third-party, state-appointed hearing officer had to intervene and force a settlement that leaned in the school district’s favor.

Board president Wendy Sims-Moten on Tuesday took responsibility for the board’s role in the breakdown in communication.

“I offer this apology as a board that we had to go through that, that we weren’t communicating, that it felt like we didn’t care, if it felt that way in any way,” Sims-Moten said.

The settlement includes a 10% salary increase for 2024-25 and a total of 5% in increases for
the 2025-26 school year. That potentially could be more if the district’s property tax revenue increase is more than 5%.

The union wanted a 15% salary increase next year and 8% the following year. The two sides were unable to initially reach a deal until the state-appointed fact-finder held a hearing that lasted about 12 hours.

The district previously had offered 9% next year and 4% the following year.

The agreement also will increase paid workdays for special educators and early childhood educators. Earlier agreements increased the contribution for educators’ health benefits and guaranteed reduced class sizes for students.

Board member Gabe Escobedo also chimed in on the agreement. He noted that even though the board had at times been demonized as not wanting to increase salaries, he has always believed in the teachers.

“This concluded what has been the toughest nine months that I have had in public service,” Escobedo said.

He said that from the outset the board was quite serious about producing a fair compensation package, both salaries and health benefits. He noted that the final deal was close to what the district offered in the first place.

“There are people up here, there are people in this room, who sincerely care,” Escobedo said. “There was a narrative about it being otherwise. I am here to say absolutely we care, and we heard you.”

Teachers will receive their first increases in their September paychecks.

The vote came on the same day that the board approved a contract extension for Superintendent Hilda Maldonado, through June 2027, at $250,000 annually.

Maldonado was hired in 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. She has been a focal point of criticism ever since, highlighted by a mass exodus of several top executives. During the contract negotiations, teachers raised questions about Maldonado’s commitment to the district as well as her willingness to understand principals and teachers on-site.

“I have been othered because I am from Los Angeles, but I am from many places,” Maldonado said. “I have made a choice to be here with all of you.”

She said she left her parents and her adult children to move to Santa Barbara to lead the district.

She also recalled her story, an immigrant from Mexico who grew up in poverty and who ascended to the level of superintendent.

“There have been a lot of things said about me that have been hurtful,” Maldonado said.

Through it all, she said, it remains her goal “to provide equity for all the students in the district.”

“I recommit once again to this board,” Maldonado said. “I believe in the power of public education. I believe it changes lives.”

A few members of the public asked the board not to extend Maldonado’s contract.

Kelly Savio, an English teacher at Dos Pueblos High School, weighed in Tuesday.

“By continuing to do performance reviews on administrators and making decisions about their employment without our feedback is yet another way you continue to foster an ever-widening divide between the staff of this district and yourselves,” Savio said. “It seems our school board is sitting in an ivory tower writing its own narrative about how things are going in the district supported by evidence that has been cherry-picked.”

Katie Garibay, a teacher at San Marcos High School and parent in the district, said she was there on behalf of many teachers who wanted to speak out against Maldonado’s contract extension.

“Since she has been hired, a vast majority of district office staff have quit, numerous administrators and principals have and continue to quit,” Garibay said. “When these passionate, long-term district employees left, they gave exit interviews, but the information shared in these interviews has never been made public.”

Garibay said that holding the contract extension during the summer was an attempt to have the issue “fly under the radar.”

“I am confident that if this agenda item was during the school year, and if teachers had received more than 24 hours’ notice, this board room would be overflowing,” Garibay said.

However, the board members, who voted 5-0 to extend the contract, stood by Maldonado and stressed that relationships take work and that it was time for a reset.

Board member Sunita Beall said that in any relationship people can make the choice to learn and move forward.

“We need to set goals and we need to follow them, and we need to try to rebuild this relationship,” Beall said. “I feel we need to move forward on that.”

Sims-Moten said it was time for healing.

“We need to give the leadership a chance to reset,” Sims-Moten said. “We cannot get there unless it is us working together. It is not us and them; it is all of us together.”