Teachers were on the picket lines for the third straight day Friday after talks broke down this week between the San Ysidro School District and the union.
Teachers gathered Friday morning outside the district headquarters across from San Ysidro Middle School. Later in the morning, parents and students walked the mile and a half from San Ysidro's Willow Elementary School to the district offices to show support for the striking teachers.
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All schools have remained open with substitute teachers since the strike began Wednesday.
A substitute who is not crossing the picket line sent an email to KPBS showing that the district is offering to pay subs $250 a day to teach during the strike. Normally, substitutes make $120 a day.
Negotiations between the San Ysidro Education Association and the district broke down Tuesday night after more than a year of ongoing talks.
Teachers are asking for their first pay raise in seven years, along with better health benefits. The district counters that a projected budget deficit will not allow that to happen.
Many parents are keeping their children out of school. Because the district receives funding from the state based on its attendance, it has been losing money since Wednesday. According to U-T San Diego, attendance has dropped about 50 percent since the strike began, meaning the district is losing nearly $100,000 a day from its 2015-16 budget.
During Tuesday's all-day negotiation session between teachers and the district, the union rejected a 2 percent raise this year for teacher salaries and a 1.54 percent raise each year for the next two years, the U-T reported.
The San Ysidro School Board was supposed to vote at a special meeting Wednesday on whether to institute a 6.5 percent cut to teacher salaries, but the meeting was canceled.
The San Ysidro School District, one of San Diego County's smaller districts, has about 4,800 students served by more than 200 teachers.
"It's been seven years since we've had a pay raise," teacher Judith Crespo told 10News Tuesday. "Our benefits are the lowest in the county. We have teachers that are paying $1,200 a month out of their paychecks for their medical benefits for their family."
The district has cited declining enrollment and a $2.6 million deficit as the root of the problem.
San Ysidro School District is fifth on a list of seven schools the California Department Education has given a “Negative Certification," meaning the state does not expect the district to be able to pay its bills.
A fact-finding report released last month stated that district officials needed to reduce overall costs — including teacher salaries — by 8 percent "to get back to a sound financial footing." However, the report said that a 2 percent salary reduction would suffice.
"The key issue to this impasse is the financial ability of the district," officials noted in the report. "Complicating communications between the association and the district is the association's belief that the district misrepresents its financial position each year."
Union members countered that the district was left with more money than expected following the last academic year.
"The district clearly has the ability to pay the status quo and also has the ability to increase employee compensation," union members wrote in a dissenting opinion piece that accompanied the report. "To put it into perspective, a 1 percent increase to the salary schedule is only $181,000."
The union blames mismanagement. The former superintendent, Manuel Paul, pleaded guilty in August to extracting political contributions from a prospective contractor by threatening to withhold work on future building contracts. He was still getting paid long after he resigned. Paul is scheduled to be sentenced next month.
