No pay raise for Atascadero teachers prompts outcry at school board meeting
A crowd of parents and teachers gathered at a school board meeting in Atascadero on Tuesday night, urging the school board to rethink its decision not to offer teachers a cost-of-living pay raise this year.
Teachers at the meeting said not receiving a raise would essentially act as a pay cut due to the rising cost of living.
The school district — like other public districts around California — received a 2.3% cost-of-living increase, known as COLA, through Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2025-26 budget. The COLA funding isn’t required to be passed through to staff salaries, but teachers argued Tuesday that it should be.
“Shouldn’t that be used to cover the increased cost of living for us, the teachers?” asked Katie Martin, a district parent who spoke on behalf of an Atascadero teacher.
Martin continued, this time speaking as herself: “On a personal note, as a parent, I want to make sure that my child gets the best teachers they can. How, as a district, do you expect to retain teachers when you’re not giving them an acceptable cost of living increase?”
Other districts in San Luis Obispo County are dealing with similar concerns. Teachers in Paso Robles were originally offered a 0% COLA, which the district then raised to 1% to the dismay of teachers who showed up at a meeting last week to demand at least the state-allocated percentage.
Lucia Mar teachers were also going back and forth with their administrators to push for a larger raise, according to the district’s teachers association website.
Atascadero teachers, parents demand pay raise
San Luis Obispo County already has a high cost of living. With inflation driving prices up even more, teachers told the school board Tuesday night that being offered no pay raise effectively would serve as a pay cut.
Community member Robin Dery told the school board that the district has become a “revolving door of temporary teachers and disaffected long-haulers who feel they have been jilted and let down by their district.”
Dery said passing the COLA to staff wouldn’t be a raise — it would be a lift to match inflation and help teachers maintain their current take-home pay.
A 0% raise would be a “pay cut in terms of purchasing power,” Dery said.
“Teachers would actually have less than they currently do,” she added.
Shauna Schimmelpfenning, a third-grade teacher at Santa Rosa Academic Academy, told the board she’s taught for 31 years — 29 of those being in Atascadero.
Despite that longevity, her paycheck is over $100 less this year compared to previous years, due to the lack of COLA, she said.
“I do not know of any other profession where experience, wisdom and our seniority is met with reductions in pay, where salary advancements simply stop at 25 years and where compensation fails or refuses to keep up with the pace of inflation,” she said. “It just starts going backwards until you retire.”
After hearing from other speakers, district superintendent Tom Bennett addressed the room, thanking the audience for showing up at the meeting.
Bennett said the district is attempting to correct a structural budget deficit, but hoped administration and staff could move forward with collaboration.
“We hear you, we understand, we see the work that’s being done,” he said. “ ... We want to find ways to substantively, be able to move our district forward, together as a family and as a team, in a way that cares for one another and cares for the people that we serve.”
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