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Substitute teachers and food-service staff ask Torrance Unified for pay increases and longevity recognition
Summary
Two public commenters — a substitute teacher and a food-service worker — urged the board to raise substitute daily pay (currently quoted at $175 in the transcript), allow substitutes to join the union, and add a 25-year longevity pay increment for classified food-service workers.
Two district employees addressed the board during oral communications with requests on pay and recognition.
Wendy Riley, who identified herself as a Torrance Unified substitute teacher, said substitutes "have gone without a raise" since October 2021 and described rising costs of living. She told the board that substitutes often enter unfamiliar classrooms with little guidance and that the work is essential: "We are not substituting effort. We are not substituting care. We bring our whole hearts into these classrooms every single day." Riley urged the board to "raise our pay and let us in the union," and she provided a comparison of daily rates the transcript records as: LAUSD $261 per day; Long Beach Unified $217; Hawthorne Unified $225; Compton Unified $200; Torrance substitutes $175 per day.
Anne Milbeck (Local 99), a food-service satellite operator with decades of district service, asked the board to add a longevity pay increment for employees who reach 25 years of service and to provide stronger recognition for long-serving classified staff. She described supervising meal service at elementary schools and said longevity pay is a common recognition in other bargaining units.
Board members thanked both speakers; no district action or vote was recorded at the meeting in direct response to the public comments.
