Salinas City Elementary raises salaries for teachers and everyone else

Trustees with the Salinas City Elementary Union School District approved late Monday a five percent salary increase for teachers (starting Aug. 1), classified employees (starting July 1 for those employed for at least a year with the district), and effective July 1 for supervisors, superintendent and assistant superintendents.

Yes, Superintendent Juvenal Luza gets a five percent raise, like everyone else. Jerry Stratton, associate superintendent of business services, likes to remind people that Luza is one of the superintendents in the area who makes the least amount of money: $168,000 per year -- plus $11,223 in health benefits and an annual vehicle stipend of $900.

Most employees in districts throughout Monterey County got raises after new moneys came in with the Local Control Funding Formula. One of the stories I'll get around writing one of these days.