An Oakland Tribune education writer has put together an interesting spread sheet that examines what percentage of their budgets school districts in Alameda and Contra Costa counties spend on salaries for teachers and instructional aides.
By law, according to reporter Katy Murphy, unified school districts in California must spend at least 55 percent of their expenses on classroom teachers and instructional aides. For elementary school districts it’s 60 percent; for high school districts it’s just 50 percent.
Murphy was initially focused on Oakland Unified when she began collecting data, but she found other interesting numbers as well for the 2008-09 year that apply to other East Bay Districts. Here's the percentage spent by districts that serve Walnut Creek:
Walnut Creek Elementary: 67 percent
Mt. Diablo Unified: 62 percent
Acalanes Union High School District: 56 percent (by the way the lowest percentage in Contra Costa County)
Also:
Lafayette Elementary: 67 percent
San Ramon Valley Unified: 64 percent
UPDATE: You asked, I was able to find out. I was sharing an interesting tidbit of information I came across, but a reader also wanted to know what teacher salaries were in each district. Good question. And here you go. This is the average salary for a teacher in each district in 2008-09 and the data comes from the California Department of Education, School Fiscal Services Division:
Walnut Creek Elementary: $65,472
Mt. Diablo Unified: $61,095
Acalanes Union High School District: $75,477
Also:
Lafayette Elementary: $64,182
San Ramon Valley Unified: $64,717
