Teachers' negotiator and public commenters press EUHSD over 'reserves' and pay compression

Joe Gelermani, the Escondido Secondary Teachers Association negotiations chair, used the public‑comment period to criticize the district's budgeting practices and reserve levels and to press for contract progress. Gelermani said the district maintains roughly $48,000,000 in reserves and accused administrators of inflating proposed spending while shifting unspent funds into reserves. He urged the board to use one‑time reserve funds to address teacher salary compression and described a carefully calculated, modest request that he said could be covered by district reserves.

"Based on the district numbers, the projected cost of the salary schedule compression for this year would be a little over $1,000,000... That would leave $491,000 which is less than the EUHSD calculation of 1% and could be paid for by the bloated $48,000,000 reserves," Gelermani said. He said ESTA's current ask included 3.5% ongoing funding (2.3% COLA and 1.2% for benefits) and recommended using one‑time reserve money for targeted compression relief.

Several other public commenters addressed governance and decorum, asked for clear meeting norms, and expressed views on topics ranging from books and curriculum to civility at board meetings. Board members listened but did not announce immediate policy changes as a direct result of those public comments; negotiating positions and formal bargaining remain the responsibility of labor and district negotiators.

The record of public comment and the numerical reserve amounts cited will likely inform upcoming bargaining sessions; the ESTA negotiator said ESSA (sic) and ESTA have been negotiating for years and noted specific historical patterns in budget projections and ending balances.