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Teachers reach tentative agreement on salaries

Original post made on Oct 9, 2014

The Mountain View Whisman School District and the teachers union reached an agreement yesterday, following a two-weeks impasse over teacher compensation, it was announced today.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Thursday, October 9, 2014, 1:03 PM

Comments (4)

Posted by More Pay for Teachers
a resident of Old Mountain View
on Oct 9, 2014 at 2:39 pm

I work in the biotech industry and I have not received a pay increase over 3% for many years. That said, teachers ought to be among the highest paid professionals. We need to find ways to compensate our teachers well and attract the best talents to this important profession.


Posted by Steve
a resident of another community
on Oct 9, 2014 at 3:08 pm

I agree, we ought to pay our best teachers much higher salaries than average or below average ones. But as always, the devil is in the details. How can we accurately evaluate teaching skill? Do we use standard test score results? That idea seems pretty unpopular! Peer evaluation? Student evaluation? Too subjective! Until we can accurately categorize them according to skill level, it makes no sense to pay them as if they were all great. Using the union great-melting-pot/everyone-is-the-same standard, we're forced to assume they are all just average. Reflecting on my own Mtn View public schools education, seniority would be an inverse predictor of teaching talent. That's not a good salary benchmark either!


Posted by @ teachers
a resident of Cuesta Park
on Oct 9, 2014 at 6:38 pm

I think that a lot of teachers are worth $1M a year, but how do we pay it?

Football teams get revenue from ticket sales, food sales, etc. As the team does better, they end up with more revenue as more people want to see them.

Districts get money from the State (which continually reduces the agreed-upon amount) and from local people via property taxes, bond and parcel tax measures. Local people do not have an interest in continuing to pay more and more.

Too bad, when those kids grow up, they pay fees to their College as alumni, but they don't pay their Elementary school District or their High School district for teaching them what they needed to get into college.


Posted by SolaceM
a resident of Whisman Station
on Oct 9, 2014 at 8:04 pm

I am a parent of a brilliant special needs child and I have been observing what I have learned to be called "gentrification" .

Web Link

The horror we face is losing our teachers because they cant afford to live here.

My son, has a multitalented teacher that has sacrificed herself willingly and unknowingly.

I just shared with the principal that parents choose to live here and pay for the cost of living to have the best schools for their children. I have high expectations that our teachers are given an raise that not only helps pay the bills but to help them thrive here in this area.

Teachers are with our children more than we are most of the time. I consider a teacher as a part of a team. I respect that team and when I see teachers struggle to make it every year that its time to sign that lease renewal and it goes up 300.00 a year . Nothing you can do about it. Apparently legal.

I support my son's school and his teachers.


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