RAISE YOUR HAND-Royal High School psychology teacher Dean Borth gives instruction Tuesday during his second period class. The school board decided to give all school district employees a 5.5 percent pay increase, the first of significance in five years. Simi Valley Unified School District's Board of Education approved a pay increase for district employees in a 3-1 vote last week.

Certified, classified and management personnel, both represented and unrepresented, will have their pay increased by 5.5 percent. There was no change to the employees' benefits package.

The approved pay increase, which will cost the district $3,560,790, is the first significant raise in five years for Simi personnel. Simi employees had a 1 percent pay increase in the 2002-03 school year and a 2 percent pay increase in the 2005-06 school year, according to district administrators.

"I'm more than delighted to give Simi employees this deserving raise," said Debbie Sandland, president of the school board.

Not all of the board members were happy with the size of the pay increase though. Greg Stratton, the only dissenting board member, felt that the raise was too great.

"I understand that we've had some bad years and that employees haven't always gotten what they deserve, but this raise leaves us with no money to work on any other projects," Stratton said.

Stratton is worried that money won't be available for other programs-such as supplies and janitorial services-that have been cut in the past due to a lack of state funds.

"Teachers were running out of paper and having to purchase their own because we cut our supply budget, and when we cut janitorial services, they started to complain that they couldn't get everything done," Stratton said. "We're not going to be able to get the things done that keep this district moving along."

Stratton said he would have been happy giving employees a 5 percent raise, which would have left the district with an additional $500,000 for other programs. Every percentage point in the pay raise represented $1 million.

"It's going to be difficult to ever catch up and address these other issues facing the district. We had three elementary schools that didn't make adequately yearly progress on test scores and we're going to need to spend some additional money to provide support. Unfortunately, we don't have that money," Stratton said.

The other three school board members present at the meeting felt that the 5.5 percent raise was justified and well deserved. Debbie Sandland, Janice DiFatta and Rob Collins all voted to approve it.

"What is our highest priority? Letting our employees know that we value them," Collins said.

DiFatta felt the employee pay raise would benefit the district by attracting and retaining well-qualified employees. The Simi Valley Unified School District tries to ensure that the district has a competitive salary structure compared to other districts, according to Dan Guidoso, assistant superintendent of personnel services.

"I have a difficult time separating out what happens in our district from our employees. They are the people responsible for keeping this district moving," DiFatta said.