Class sizes and compensation are on the table in negotiations for MPUSD and teachers union.

Holding signs with messages like “I can’t have a family and be an MPUSD teacher” and “I love my job but I can’t afford my rent,” teachers in Monterey Peninsula Unified School District showed up to an Oct. 24 board meeting. They shared stories of personal struggles to make ends meet, and professional struggles to cover classes they haven’t been trained to teach.

During the meeting, teachers cited a recent story from the San Francisco Chronicle comparing compensation in school districts across the state, showing MPUSD’s mid-career teachers earn an average salary of $74,000, and the district places 258th despite a 44-percent salary increase over the past 10 years.

Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh says a district like MPUSD, with declining enrollment, has to be strategic: “[The district is] getting less and less money every year.”

The MBTA and MPUSD have been in contract negotiations since February, with talks set to continue Nov. 30. In early negotiations, the union was seeking a 15-percent salary increase; MPUSD counter-offered with 5 percent. During a second round of negotiations, MPUSD offered a higher increase and larger class sizes by a couple of students.

Increasing class sizes is non-negotiable for MBTA. A recent union survey showed most teachers find current elementary class sizes unmanageable; current ratios are 25:1 for first through third grade and 28:1 for fourth and fifth.

MPUSD and MBTA have agreed on a maintaining class sizes.

Future negotiation topics include reducing class periods in high school from eight to seven. Negotiations include a salary adjustment, with the latest counter-offer at 8.22 percent.