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Teachers and union leaders press Marysville Joint Unified board over pay, staffing and contracting
Summary
Union president Angela Stegall and teachers urged the board to protect classroom resources, said teachers remain without a settled contract as mediation resumes and flagged increases in district management positions and legal fees.
Angela Stegall, president of the Marysville Unified Teachers Association, told the board the district’s teachers are working under an expired contract and said labor and district negotiators will meet in mediation on Friday. "We will be at mediation on Friday, and we hope that that is going to have a good result," she said.
Stegall argued that any budget reductions should come from district-office spending rather than classrooms. She cited figures she said show teacher salaries rose by roughly $2.2 million between school years while management salaries rose by about $1.4 million, and that management headcount grew from 69 to 95 since a prior superintendent was hired. She also said district office staffing increased "anywhere between 27–28%" in the same period and noted annual legal counsel costs she said exceed $790,000. Those figures were presented as the union’s evidence for prioritizing classroom spending during upcoming budget decisions; the board did not provide an immediate detailed rebuttal at the meeting.
Several classroom teachers followed with related public comments. Michelle Tindle Sharma, a third-grade teacher at Covilod Elementary, asked the board directly, "So where did the COLA go?" — referring to an 8.22% cost-of-living allocation from the state that teachers say has not been settled into their contract. Alicia Bridal, also speaking as a teacher, urged the board to reconsider expensive programs she described as benefiting relatively few students and questioned a Marysville High School track contract, saying a local company bid $400,000 less than the contractor selected and asking whether personal relationships influenced the selection. The board said it would look into the bid information.
The union emphasized an overarching demand: do not make cuts that reduce classroom support. Stegall said the union had completed mediator-assigned homework and expected the district to be prepared for the upcoming mediation session.
Status and next steps: Mediation between district negotiators and the teachers’ association is scheduled for Friday; the board indicated at least some members would serve on a committee to advise on budget reductions and the superintendent said he would follow up about volunteer assignments and next steps.
