Arcata and McKinleyville High School students will hold joint protests today in support of their teachers, who are currently locked in a budgetary standoff with Northern Humboldt Union High School District administrators.

Teachers at Arcata, McKinleyville, Pacific Coast, Six Rivers Charter and Mad River High Schools have been working without a contract since June 30, due to the administration’s refusal to provide the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, that the teacher’s union says is owed to them.

A special board meeting was held at McKinleyville High School on Monday evening, where Director of Fiscal Services Cindy Vickers and Superintendent Roger MacDonald outlined their reasons for denying the teachers raises, which included deficit spending, cash flow shortages and changes implemented by newly elected Governor Gavin Newsom.

“The district is doing the best it can in a difficult budget year,” MacDonald told the Outpost. “I’m really hoping that we can put our heads together and find a way to resolve this over the next couple of weeks.”

According to administrators, the district faces a current deficit of more than $1.3 million if they factor in planned teacher raises and health insurance costs.

The district has also been relying on unsustainable, one-time funding provided during Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration to cover the insurance costs of full-time employees — funding that is no longer available under Gov. Newsom’s budget.

“However, some positive changes to the budget are expected,” Director of Fiscal Services Cindy Vickers told the Outpost via email.  “For example, the State Adopted Budget reduced the increase to the State Teachers Retirement System/Public Employees Retirement System pension contributions slightly.  There are some other positive changes that have not been incorporated in the budget, but we still expect to have a significant deficit, which will require us to spend down some of our available ending balances.”

Arcata High English teacher and Union Negotiations Chair JoAnn Moore told the Outpost that administrators can twist the budget to get the results they want on paper, but the teachers still want what they’re owed.

From 2007 to about 2013, Moore said, districts all over the state suffered from severe cash flow issues due to the Great Recession.

“The state wasn’t paying [school districts] the full amount they were supposed to,” she said. “That kept building up for several years.”

During this time, the district asked the teacher’s union to temporarily give up raises. In exchange, Moore said teachers were promised fully-paid health insurance plans and wages that matched the cost of living once the district’s funding returned to normal.

“They have been chipping away at that very, very slowly over the last five years,” she said. “Now this year, they’re saying ‘no, we’re not giving you anything.’”

So far, district administrators have offered full-time teachers a no-out-of-pocket expense health care plan at the cost of no ongoing salary schedule increases.

The teachers, meanwhile, are demanding a 2 percent cost-of-living increase in addition to the fully-paid insurance plans, as they were promised.

“We understand that our demand is pushing the district in a place that they are not particularly comfortable because we want them to change the way they do business,” Moore said. “We want them to make the teachers’ wages and benefits a priority, instead of what they’ve been doing last year and this year — creating a budget and then saying ‘Oh, we don’t have this money for you.’”

As a result, the teacher’s union and district administrators find themselves in the early stages of an impasse, which administrators say could result in the cutting of school programs and layoffs if the teachers get what they want.

“One of the things that has really bothered teachers so much is that [administrators] continue to try to balance this on our backs instead of cutting the cost of [their] salaries, the number of administrators, redundant work, travel, not giving themselves raises every year — which is how it used to be,” Moore said. “There are pieces that they fundamentally need to change without threatening to cut programs.”

While negotiations between teachers and administrators remain stagnant, students throughout the district are collaborating on social media to show support for their teachers.

Arcata High students plan to wear black today and hold a walkout at noon, followed by a march to the Arcata Plaza. McKinleyville High students also plan to wear black today and wield protest signs in front of the district office at lunchtime.

“Students love their teachers,” Superintendent MacDonald said. “If I was a student I would probably walk out as well.”

Teachers plan to protest and voice their concerns at the next regularly scheduled board meeting on October 8, at 6 p.m. in the McKinleyville High School Multipurpose Room.