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LUHSD teachers, staff demand higher raises Leaders offered 11%; teachers offered 1.86% By Jeff Weisinger Staff Writer
Teachers and staff from the Liberty Union High School District packed Wednesday’s school board meeting at the district to demand higher raises, arguing that their workload and dedication to students deserve more recognition. “The biggest thing is that a lot of us teachers, not only are we obviously educating our community’s kids, but we also live in the community,” said Liberty High School athletic director and former boys basketball coach Jon Heinz, who has worked at Liberty for two decades. “Our kids go to school here, and we want to see that the money brought in
from the state — our taxpayer dollars — actually goes to our kids, to our staff, to give these kids the best opportunities out there.” According to Heinz, LUHSD leadership approved a 10.86% raise over the summer while offering teachers a 1.75% raise. Many educators disagreed with the proposal. “Right now, there are kindergarten teachers in the Antioch districts making more than our high school teachers,” Heinz said. “That’s surprising to me… I’d like to say that we take care of our teachers and our classified staff first, and then management takes care of themselves last. That’s not the way it’s been. … When you come with a 1% offer with some of the money sitting there, it doesn’t make you feel very valued. When you feel valued, you just want to give that much more effort to these kids.” see Teachers page 18
Photo by Jeff Weisinger
Teachers and staff from the Liberty Union High School District packed Wednesday’s school board meeting at the district to demand higher raises, arguing that their workload and dedication to students deserve more recognition.
Oakley City Council hears ConFire, City of Brentwood, break ground on Fire Station 94 of improvements to water district, animal services By Connor Robles Correspondent
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fter much anticipation and despite resistance from the Brentwood Veterans Memorial Building and its veterans, ConFire, the City of Brentwood, and county officials broke ground Monday on what’s to become Fire Station 94. The new fire station will be on the dirt lot next to the Brentwood Veterans Memorial Building on First Street. Michael Clement, a veteran, said of the new To view a video of the fire station. “We just don’t like the location of it,”. event, visit www.thepress.net/multimedia
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The Oakley City Council received two reports, one from Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) director Connstance Holdaway and one from Contra Costa Animal Services (CCAS) director Ben Winkleblack, about the improvements, projects, and goals of their respective organizations. Holdaway reported that the water district was improving worker safety and planning to replace the Contra Costa Canal in the 2030s, while Winkleblack spoke of the expansion of animal services to deal with an increase of hundreds of animals taken in. Contra Costa Water District The Contra Costa Water District, a special district staffed by local residents who manage Contra Costa County’s water supply, is working on infrastructure projects to improve worker
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safety and reduce the infrastructure’s vulnerability to water contamination and physical damage, Holdaway said. The worker safety component consists of unspecified improvements to flow control facilities and pumping stations along the Contra Costa Canal, as well as an overhaul of the Randall-Bold Water Treatment Plant. This overhaul has seen the improvement of chemical storage facilities, heating, and ventilation, the replacement of outdated pumps, and the upgrading of the plant’s server room and IT network. In addition, the use of toxic chlorine gas and aqueous ammonia to treat water is being phased out in favor of sodium hypochlorite for the former and liquid ammonium sulfate for the latter, which are safer for the workers to be around, according to Holdaway. A much longer-term project is