Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

FUESD wages range from $14 per hour to $338,956 per year

Rick Monroe

Special to the Village News

The Fallbrook Union Elementary District is the largest employer in the community with 430 classified workers, 302 teachers and 57 other certificated employees. The district may also have the widest range of pay – from $14 per hour to at least 10 administrators earning $150,000 or more a year.

Playground supervisors and safety monitors are currently at minimum wage and that will be increased to $15 per hour in January. These are mostly part-time employees.

“Each specific administrator position has their own salary schedule,” explained Brian Morris, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. “For example, we have different salary schedules for assistant principal and principal.”

Most of the administrators have a contract of up to four years. The highest paid is Superintendent Candace Singh at $338,958 in 2020, according to TransparentCalifornia.com. The listing also said her total pay and benefits amounted to $455,526.

The district didn’t provide salaries for 2021 despite multiple requests by the Village News.

The top 10 contracts in the district in 2020 – only according to TransparentCalifornia.com are:

1. $338,956 for Superintendent Singh.

2. $223,887 for Raymond Proctor, Associate Superintendent of Business Services. ($314,558 total pay and benefits.) He has recently retired, but the school board voted on Aug. 16 to remove the “interim” title for Cindi Martin and approve her as the new Associate Superintendent of Business Services. She was earning $170,645 in 2020, according to TransparentCalifornia.com.

3. $215,676 for Bill Billingsley, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources. ($289,579 total pay and benefits.) He retired a couple months ago, and Morris was hired to take his place.

4. $195,805 for Julie Norby, Associate Superintendent of Educational Services. ($267,135 total pay and benefits.)

5. $187,554 for Leonard Rodriquez, Executive Director of Pupil Personnel. ($242,970 total pay and benefits.)

6. $170,377 for Lea Curcio, Director of Curriculum and Instruction. ($222,316 total pay and benefits.)

7. $153,499 for Bryson Bickler, Director of Facilities. ($215,766 total pay and benefits.)

8. $158,604 for Lillian Perez, Principal of San Onofre School. ($208,085 total pay and benefits.)

9. $153,258 for Edith Powers, Principal of Potter Jr. High School. ($201,544 total pay and benefits.)

10. $150,572 for Brian Frost, Principal at Mary Fay Pendleton School. ($198,345 total pay and benefits.)

Teacher salaries in the district have been under contract from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2021 with salaries starting at $52,631 the first year on a 183-day contract or $55,082 on a 195-day contract. The pay increases to $109,662 or $116,854 after 26 years, depending on the number of days.

“The district is always in constant discussion with both FETA and CSEA to provide the best and most equitable compensation to the FUESD team members,” Morris said. “The district will sunshine its current proposal at the Oct. 10 board meeting.”

FETA and CSEA are the unions representing teachers and classified employees, respectively.

The “sunshine” clause of the Rodda Act requires that each party's initial bargaining proposal be presented for public comment at a publicized school board meeting. Negotiations eventually result in a signed contract that is binding on both the board and the union.

Morris said it wasn’t unusual or a sign of trouble that new contracts to replace expired contracts are not further along.

 

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