LUCERNE VALLEY, Calif., July 6 (High Desert News Online) — Lucerne Valley Unified School District has approved a series of employee pay changes that put more money into staff paychecks, while district budget materials project that attendance-based funding will stay mostly flat through 2028.
What did the district approve?
In a district news post, the Lucerne Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees said it approved a tentative agreement by a 4-0 vote that included a 2% salary increase. The district also said the package changed the classified contract, which covers the district’s non-teaching employees.
Those changes included raising starting salaries by eliminating step 1, creating a new step 11, increasing hourly wages for all classified staff, and increasing benefit caps for full-time classified staff.
The district said unrepresented career and technical education, or CTE, teachers also received a 2% increase on the pay schedule. Substitute teachers’ daily rate went from $140 to $150, and long-term substitute teachers’ daily rate went from $150 to $160.
The board later took another compensation step on July 1, 2022, when it unanimously approved a $2 per hour increase for each range and step on the Classified Salary Schedule. The district said that increase took effect immediately.
How does attendance affect district money?
School districts in California are funded in part by Average Daily Attendance, often called ADA. ADA is a count of how many students attend on an average day, and it helps determine how much state money a district receives.
Lucerne Valley USD’s 2025-26 budget materials say projected enrollment of 1,190 and estimated P-2 ADA of 1,090 mean income from those sources will be “essentially be steady and unchanged” over the next three school years ending in June 2028.
The same materials say the district’s ADA is projected to stay at 1,090 through 2028, but there is also the potential for much higher ADA.
What does that mean for employees and families?
For employees, the district’s approved contract terms mean higher wages across several groups: classified staff, CTE teachers who are not represented by a bargaining unit, and substitute teachers.
For families, the practical effect is indirect. District staffing and pay decisions can affect whether schools can recruit and keep workers in support jobs, classrooms, and substitute roles. The budget materials also suggest the district is planning around fairly steady attendance-based revenue in the next few years, which can limit how much extra money is available for future changes.
What is not clear from the district materials?
The district’s news posts and budget materials do not spell out a direct link between the pay increases and higher ADA revenue. The budget documents discuss future attendance projections, but they do not say the contract was funded by an attendance gain or describe a formula tying the raises to ADA.
The materials also do not include meeting minutes or a full contract packet in the excerpts provided, so the exact language of the agreement is not visible in the district news posts alone.
