Bilingual educators ask La Mesa-Spring Valley for 5% pay differential

Several bilingual teachers and service providers urged the La Mesa-Spring Valley School Board to adopt a 5% differential to recognize additional duties tied to bilingual instruction and family engagement.

Katherine Laa, a teacher at Kempton Literacy Academy, said bilingual teachers manage double the planning, run dual-language family events, translate paperwork, and conduct conferences in two languages. "Having two or more languages is a superpower," Laa said, and asked the district to fairly compensate bilingual staff for the extra time and responsibilities.

Udell Lopez, a bilingual speech-language pathologist at Kempton, said bilingual providers carry specialized caseloads and extra work: she said her school alone required 12 IEP meetings in Spanish that she managed and that, across SEI teachers cited in the presentation, staff handled a total she described as 42 IEP meetings this year. Lopez asked the board to extend the same 5% differential the district already provides to some bilingual roles to bilingual SLPs, school psychologists and mental-health staff.

Alma San Miguel, a bilingual special-education teacher and Kempton parent, said she chose the dual-language program for her children and described the work and pride involved in educating biliterate students; she urged the district to recognize and compensate bilingual educators.

District staff listened and acknowledged the request. Trustees did not vote on a policy change at the meeting; staff noted contract bargaining, compensation structures and comparable-district practices will factor into any change and that some bilingual differentials already exist for certain duties. The request remains under consideration and was not resolved at this meeting.