Trustees pause immediate incentive vote; agree to form ad hoc committee on employee compensation

Trustee Macias introduced an agenda item asking the board to consider a retention incentive for the district's academic trainers after multiple employees and trustees described perceived pay inequities following state teacher pay adjustments. Macias proposed a narrowly scoped incentive for academic trainers and suggested a figure that administration later summarized as "up to $16.50" per trainer for the August-December period; Macias said that amount multiplied by 43 trainers would total $70,950. Trustees debated whether to approve a targeted incentive now or to include a broader set of employee groups (counselors, librarians, nurses, assistant principals) in a larger plan tied to projected local funding. Several trustees voiced concern that approving a single-group incentive would create divisiveness, and others said the district's current deficit made any additional, open-ended compensation risky. Trustee Macias said the proposal was intended as a temporary retention measure while the board pursues longer-term remedies; several trustees asked that any remedy be contingent on the passage of the district's upcoming local funding measure (referred to in discussion as the "VADER"). Rather than take a binding vote on a payment, the board agreed to assemble an ad hoc committee to develop a comprehensive compensation proposal that would consider multiple employee categories and funding contingencies. Trustees who volunteered to serve said they would bring a proposal back to the full board in September. The board did not adopt the suggested incentive amount during the meeting.