After Near-Strike and Historic Teachers’ Raise, Santa Barbara Unified Grapples with Teacher Turnover, a $10M Budget Shortfall, and ‘Residual Frustration’

Last year’s teacher contract negotiations with the Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) teetered precariously on the edge of becoming a strike. Those 12 months of rancor took a toll on everyone involved, and today, many are still struggling to overcome the emotional residue. 

On campuses, things appear to be business as usual. Teachers are back in the classroom, and the school board’s meetings are relatively peaceful. 

Now, talking with teachers and administrators, it’s clear they are reflecting on some of the bitterness of the past yet looking forward to a future of healing.

“I think this past year highlighted some of the larger issues between the district and the teachers in the classrooms,” said Maddie Bordofsky, a 5th-grade teacher at Harding University Partnership School. “At the end of the day, we all want what is best for our students.”

Solving Shortages and Shortfalls 

On October 22, school board members began the struggle of how to address a projected $10 million shortfall in next year’s budget — a shortfall partly caused by the $23 million contract settlement that gave teachers a historic raise of 15 percent over 2024 to 2026. 

Assistant Superintendent Kim Hernandez told the board that the district was expecting to soften the shortfall by using money left over from last year’s budget, such as unspent special education funds, as well as some cutting of line items, including nonessential travel expenses and some potential overstaffing in secondary schools (elementary schools are still experiencing staff shortages).

This is expected to save around $7.5 million, leaving $2.5 million to deal with, according to the report shared last Tuesday. 

“We are trying so, so hard to maintain the staffing that we have to support our schools,” Hernandez said. “That’s the goal. That’s why we’re looking so closely at our budgets and really tightening up.”

Right now, the district has 110 vacancies, including 64 special ed paraeducators — a place where there are “a lot of resignations and a lot of hiring,” said Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources John Becchio. 

Last year, more than 100 new teachers had to be hired to fill vacancies. And again, this year, 55 teachers left the district, which highlights previous concerns about staffing shortages, particularly in special education, expressed by Hozby Galindo, president of the Santa Barbara Teachers Association (SBTA).

“Educators and paraeducators are being stretched thin,” Galindo said.

To combat turnover, the district has resorted to job fairs and emergency certifications for teachers to fill positions outside of their subject areas (a “common procedure” for school districts, according to district staff). 

Despite the recent salary increase, which brings starting teachers’ base pay to a bit more than $64,000, the high cost of living in Santa Barbara remains a barrier for many educators. 

Bordofsky mentioned losing two colleagues who “simply could not afford to stay in town any longer” and all of the six UC Santa Barbara teachers she’s worked with have left the area.

“I am always thrilled to work with student teachers … but I do wish it was more appealing for them to stay in our district,” Bordofsky added.

“While the raise is a step forward,” she continued, “a lot of work still needs to be done to make SBUSD a district where teachers can afford to live in the community where they work.”

In Case You Missed It 

Wage disagreements led teachers to hold protests, rallies, and picket lines, pouring out their hearts about living costs. Students walked out of class in solidarity. Signs supporting the SBTA still linger in many yards and shop windows around the city even now that the contract negotiations are over.

“There’s residual frustration about how we got here, ” said Jose Caballero, a veteran teacher at Santa Barbara High School. “I don’t think anyone was like, ‘Wow, that was smooth.’” 

Some teachers ditched the district with a chip on their shoulder, including 5th-grade teacher Jen Griffith, who taught for 13 years in the district. She blamed the district’s “treatment of teachers,” saying it has “reached an all-time low,” especially with the controversial renewal of Superintendent Hilda Maldonado’s contract in July. Some educators opposed the move, criticizing Maldonado’s priorities, leadership, and communication and feeling their struggles in the classroom were overlooked.

Throughout the lengthy contract negotiations, district relationships eroded. Teachers felt unvalued and their feedback neglected. At times, district leadership felt disrespected during late-night board meetings flooded with public comments.

“The board and cabinet have made multiple statements about needing to repair relationships, but we have yet to see what that means,” said York Shingle, a teacher on special assignment at McKinley Elementary School. “It’s a lot of talk, and a lot of teachers are waiting to see what actions our leaders actually take.”

Mixed Feelings

Now that negotiations are over, teachers are reporting a mixture of relief and resentment, but many are happy to be back in the classroom and focusing on students. Nobody wanted a strike.

“That was something we, SBTA, said from the start that we wanted to avoid,” said Bordofsky. “We are the ones in the classrooms face to face with students; the less we have to stress about paying our rent, worry about affording medical treatments, and spending time in our cars commuting, the more we can focus on supporting our students.”

Despite any lingering frustration, the increase in compensation was historic. And Santa Barbara’s high living costs do not discriminate.

“I earn better than a lot of the families I teach,” Caballero admitted. “This was never about how I deserve a house but someone else does not; we were never implying that we were more important.”

Caballero is nearing the top of the teachers’ salary schedule. Those at the top were already making more than $100,000 a year and, with the addition of a new salary step, received an extra 4 percent on top of the general increase. 

Caballero called the increase in salary and improved health benefit contributions — up to 75 percent from the previous 40-60 percent — “really meaningful” in his case.

The union also walked away with additional paid work days for special educators and early childhood educators, as well as guaranteed reduced class sizes for students.

Not all are particularly enthusiastic about the raise — it was 8 percent lower than what the union was pushing for — but “obviously, we’re grateful,” Caballero said. “Like, my dog has a right to be fed at 10. If he gets fed at midnight, he’s still grateful he got fed, but he’s allowed to be pissed.”

Kate Lambert, special education teacher and co-teacher for physics at Santa Barbara High, said she thinks the biggest attitude change was reflected in teachers’ desire to be involved in the bargaining process, “whether or not everyone’s happy with what we took away.”

A Thankful District 

Meanwhile, compensation changes are taking hold. Assistant Superintendent John Becchio said that around 1,200 employees had individual meetings to enroll in the district’s new benefits.

It’s estimated that employees are saving around $1.3 million in tax payments, and, individually, $2,700 to $6,800 a year in insurance costs. 

“I’ve been at the bargaining table for a lot of years,” said Becchio, who has more than 20 years of experience working in the district. “I’ve never seen anything like this. There has been no investment in health benefits in the last 20 years” — due to a focus instead on salary and employee retirement benefits — “and raises have mostly hovered around 2, 3, 4 percent.” 

In terms of a strike, last year was “as close as we’ve ever come,” he said, noting that there was an impasse in negotiations in 2016 but it did not progress further. “The big difference is that this had to go all the way to fact-finding” — the step right before a strike can be called.

As the district’s chief negotiator, Becchio spent as much time at the bargaining table as the SBTA and the California School Employees Association — representing other staff such as family liaisons and custodians — whose contract and salary increases were also adopted by the board last month. 

“Thankfully, we’re seeing the impact of all this work,” he said. “I’m really grateful to both teams. It took a lot of time, and there were a lot of emotions involved, but we don’t get to something really great unless we go through that type of challenge. It was worth it — it’s not easy, but that’s our job.”

Now, the district is focusing its sights on securing employee housing for the teachers who still struggle to afford Santa Barbara’s living costs amid rising inflation. During the October 8 board meeting, the board took a crucial step in securing 106 affordable housing units for staff.

“There are still things that the SBTA is going to fight for,” said Lambert, including in the upcoming election. “We have a lot of people and a lot of talent, and we are looking forward to giving back the support we saw from the community over the past year.”