Schools

RUSD Teachers Asked to Sacrifice Salary for District Loan Payments

The Voice of San Diego reported that teachers are being asked to cut their pay by nearly 10 percent to help create more district funds.

After the failure of Proposition R, a $66 million school bond, Ramona Unified School District is asking teachers to take a pay cut of nearly 10 percent to help pay back loans used to build two schools, the Voice of San Diego reported.

The school district previously borrowed money in 2004 to build Ramona Community and Hanson Elementary, Graeff had stated in a public forum on Oct. 17.

"We had a couple of schools that were almost uninhabitable a few years ago," Graeff had said. "The district, after four failed school bonds... borrowed money to build the two new schools."

Find out what's happening in Ramonawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Voice of San Diego said that though the loans are coming due and there is no bond to help pay them, RUSD Superintendent Robert Graeff said the loan payments account for just $500,000 of an estimated $3.5 million deficit.

"The bulk of that would have been there whether we had taken a loan out or not," Graeff said.

Find out what's happening in Ramonawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Along with loan payments and salary cuts, there's been a protracted labor dispute between the district and its teachers union for more than a year, the Voice reported.

The district declared an impasse with the union in March and the two sides have been in mediation ever since.

Read more about the district's loans and what the Ramona Teachers Association has to say about the proposal at the Voice of San Diego.


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