So Far, No Pay Cuts for CUSD Trustees

trustees voted in June to dock their own pay by the same amount teachers’ salaries were being cut – however, that hasn’t happened yet.

Now the trustee who introduced the idea wants to strip the stipend completely. The matter will be on the agenda at Monday's meeting.

As trustees were at the June 27 meeting, Trustee John Alpay amended the budget to include a decrease in board stipends.

“I don’t think anyone should go untouched by this,” he said at the time.

Alpay’s idea was to figure out the percentage of cuts teachers face, adding together the hits they will take in salary (1.2 percent), a six-month freeze in automatic pay increases and furlough days (eight unpaid days).

If Gov. Brown’s Prop. 30 doesn’t pass, the teachers may face an additional 1.5 percent paycut and 10 more unpaid furlough days. Alpay said trustee compensation should be similarly impacted if those cuts come to pass.

District personnel, however, have had a hard time figuring out how to calculate the new trustee stipend.

“I think the delay is due in part to the fact that I have repeatedly told staff that their calculated reductions were not high enough and were in fact inconsistent with the direction provided by the board,” Alpay told Patch.

Capo spokesman Marcus Walton said the decrease will be reflected in the October checks and will be retroactive to the start of the fiscal year in July.

But it may all be for naught because now, Alpay wants to cut trustee compensation altogether.

“Since we are calculating a percentage cut from a measly $375 per month, I'm thinking we should have followed the example set recently by the City Council in Orange in eliminating all board member compensation,” he said.

Board pay is set at $750 a month. However, in February 2008, trustees voted during a budget discussion to halve the amount, and subsequent boards have kept the reduced allotments.

Not long after Alpay was first sworn in nearly two years ago, he asked fellow trustees in an email that they consider restoring trustee compensation. He said that the 2008 action violated the state’s open-meeting laws. No action was ever taken on the request.

The June 27 amendment to decrease stipends will actually restore them completely at the end of this year.  

“At the end of the fiscal year, compensation shall be restored to levels set forth in board policy 9250A [the $750], and I ask the board to schedule and revisit the idea of compensation to determine what, if any, additional cuts would be appropriate for the next year,” he said in June.

Alpay said he asked President Gary Pritchard to put the topic of trustee compensation on Monday's agenda “so staff does not waste any further time with these numbers.” 

The board meets at 7 p.m. Monday at the district headquarters, 33122 Valle Road in San Juan Capistrano.