Hundreds of teachers at a local school district have been working under an expired contract

Hundreds of teachers from the Duarte Unified School District (DUSD) have been working under an expired contract for over four months. The school district, which serves approximately 3,000 K-12 students in Duarte, California, has a student-teacher ratio of around 20:1, with the majority of its students being Latino. 

Teachers are calling for a fair contract that prioritizes stable schools, resources for students, additional preparation time for elementary educators and competitive wages, as well as health benefits. 

Sheri Johnson has been a teacher for 27 years and has been teaching eighth-grade math and science at a DUSD middle school for the last four years. At age 54, Johnson works two full-time jobs to obtain her full health care benefits and cover a portion of her health insurance premiums.  

DUSD contracts with CalPERS Medical to provide basic health insurance to eligible employees, contributing $8,750 to $10,000 a year for each full-time employee to help pay for the cost of medical, dental and vision insurance.

“My premiums would be over what the district covers. I  have health benefits through my other job, where premium payments are more affordable,” Johnson said. 

Similar to Johnson, Heather Messner and Andrew Thill, both DUSD teachers, have resorted to taking on second jobs or small side jobs on the weekends to supplement their income. 

Messner said she often does pet sitting or bartends on weekends to be able to pay her bills. Messner, who teaches visual arts and yearbook, said the wages of DUSD teachers are some of the lowest compared to other surrounding districts. “This is not new; it's been that way for many years,” she said. 

According to the DUSD, teachers in the district have an estimated average base salary of $85,000 per year, with a total estimated pay range of $70,000 to $106,000, depending on factors like experience and position. The district has about 146 teachers, based on recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics. 

This is in stark contrast to Palo Alto Unified School District, where teacher salaries for the 2024-2025 school year start around $91,546 and can exceed $160,000 for experienced educators. 

“What we're seeing right now is that DUSD is a place where educators will start their careers because the salary for beginning teachers is relatively competitive, but then after a year or two, they will depart for other places and we lose what could become longstanding members of the community,” Thill said. 

Throughout his 15 years of teaching at DUSD, Thill has witnessed the departure of thousands of teachers. “Some people are like, ‘Well, if things are so bad, why do you stay?’ and we stay because we care for the kids in this district. We believe they deserve competent teachers and a district that cares for them.”  

Johnson, Messner and  Thill are part of the Duarte Unified Education Association (DUEA), which has been at the forefront of negotiations with the school board since the beginning of the school year. 

According to the association, the district has had a history of neglect when it comes to its employed educators. Besides DUSD contributing to some of the lowest salaries within the L.A. County districts, educators have also gone without an on-schedule salary increase for the past three years. 

The district, relatively small, containing only one elementary (K-6) school, three middle schools,  one comprehensive high school and one continuation high school, has adopted a $52,798,049 budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, but according to recent documents, the district has almost a $4 million deficit.  

 “With over $20 million in reserves, it’s time for DUSD to stop making excuses and start investing in what is best for students to thrive. This has gone on for far too long, and we are ready to settle a fair contract that prioritizes stability for our students,” Messner, who also serves as the DUEA president, said. 

Thill said that through his research and work as the negotiations lead and the bargaining chair with DUEA, one of the most shocking discoveries was the fast educator turnover normalized in the district. 

 “We've had over 20% turnover of educators for the last two years. We're a small district, so that's a significant percentage of teachers who decide to go to other places,” he said. “The times when teachers stayed here for 20 years for their entire career are going to go by the wayside because the truth is they can't afford to raise a family or provide healthcare for their family with the way that teachers' situation is currently structured with the district.”

Johnson said that in the school where she works, she has seen unfilled positions for months in special education and ESL classes. “Those kids are falling below the standard,” she said. “Apart from that, kids don't have the stability of staff. The turnover rate is definitely affecting the kids.”

Thill said the loss of teachers is not only felt within the school but also in the communities and neighborhoods. 

Within the district, approximately 90% of students are classified as minority enrollments, with 37.9% of students identified as economically disadvantaged. 

“We hope that the new contracts and the proposals that we are putting forward also help build stronger communities,” he said.

Johnson, who has been organizing the DUEA marches and rallies outside of the district headquarters in the last few weeks, said that in late September, the association declared an impasse, formally stating that negotiations had reached a halt. 

“We were nowhere near coming to a compromise on our agreements,” she said. “That led us to where we are now.” 

Today, the association is in mediation with the district, and although they have been cooperative, Johnson said it has been long and exhausting work. 

 “We've been working since June 30th without a stable contract, not knowing what our next contract will look like, not knowing how much out of pocket we're going to be paying for things like healthcare premiums or anything,” she said. 

The association is still expecting to meet with the school board for mediation before finalizing a contract. 

“I ask the district, ‘Where do their priorities lie?’ Is it in consultants, lawyers' fees, or lawsuits, where we have seen a large amount of the budget go, or in health and welfare benefits for their employees, instructional services and a livable wage for their teachers?” Thill said. “We will continue this fight because when you really love something, it's worth fighting for and we believe our kids and communities are that.”