Teachers at Placer Union High School District are getting a 4.9% ongoing pay raise, retroactive to July 1, under a new two-year contract the district's board approved with the Associated Teachers of Placer. The raise is expected to cost about $1.35 million in salaries and benefits during the 2026-27 school year, according to a fiscal disclosure submitted to the Placer County Office of Education.
The timing is notable. Just weeks before the raise was finalized, Fitch Ratings downgraded the district's Issuer Default Rating and general obligation bond ratings from AA to AA-, assigning a negative outlook. Fitch cited consecutive years of declining reserves and structural fiscal imbalances, and noted the district faces ongoing fiscal pressure from expenditure growth, as first reported by the Sacramento Bee.
The contract, which runs through June 30, 2028, also builds in a second ongoing salary increase for 2027-28. That future raise will equal 80% of the state-funded cost-of-living adjustment plus half of any additional funding that pushes the state's Local Control Funding Formula base grant above the cost-of-living adjustment, per the same disclosure.
A District Trying to Balance Raises Against Reserves
District leaders say they've projected they can maintain the state-required 3% general fund reserve through the current fiscal year and the two that follow. California Education Code sets that 3% floor as a legal minimum for economic uncertainties, according to Fitch's report.
To hit that target while covering the raises, district officials plan to cut nonpersonnel costs, freeze identified open positions, and reduce staffing because of declining enrollment. Even with those moves, the agreement is expected to increase deficit spending in subsequent years, the Sacramento Bee reported.
The district's own budget math shows the scale of the trade-off. Placer Union High School District adopted a preliminary general fund budget for 2026-27 featuring roughly $68.9 million in total revenues, including about $52.1 million from state Local Control Funding Formula allocations, according to Citizen Portal. That budget presentation provided context for the agreement.
Enrollment Pressures Shape Staffing Decisions
Fitch's report also provides enrollment information relevant to staffing: the district serves roughly 3,975 students across grades 9 through 12. At the district's flagship campus, Placer High School in Auburn enrolled 1,265 students for 2026-27 while maintaining a 93% graduation rate and a 22:1 student-teacher ratio, according to Public School Review.
Even while trimming elsewhere, the district is trying to attract teachers for hard-to-fill subjects. Placer Union High School District can offer signing bonuses of up to $25,000, paid out over two years, for positions identified as difficult to fill — but only if no qualified candidates apply through normal channels and the hire receives satisfactory evaluations, per the Sacramento Bee's reporting. Those hiring decisions now also fall under a 2025 state law, Assembly Bill 2534, which the Placer Union High School District notes requires certificated job applicants to disclose their complete employment history across prior educational employers, a measure meant to prevent misconduct from being concealed across districts.
What Else Is in the New Contract
Beyond pay, the 2026-2028 tentative agreement updated 12 separate contract articles covering class size, safety protocols, employee leaves, work-year schedules, evaluation rubrics, benefits, and grievance procedures, according to the district's human resources office. Health and welfare benefits saw no change under the deal: the district continues covering dental and vision benefits, and its medical contribution remains capped at $858.
Starting January 1, 2027, employees with medical documentation may receive up to 14 weeks of paid pregnancy disability leave under the new terms, per the Sacramento Bee. An evaluation committee will review the evaluation system during the 2026-27 school year, and updated evaluation rubrics — based on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing's 2024 California Standards for the Teaching Profession — will be tested in 2027-28. Those statewide standards, adopted in early 2024, focus on inclusive instruction, educational equity, social-emotional development, and reciprocal family engagement, according to the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing.
ATP vice president and bargaining chair Jacob Fefer thanked both negotiating teams following the board's approval and said he was pleased the tentative agreement passed, per the Sacramento Bee. Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Elena Dalfavero said the agreement reflected the work of both bargaining teams. The contract covers teachers and other certificated employees represented by the Associated Teachers of Placer.
The district operates Placer High School, Del Oro High School, Foresthill High School, Confluence High School, Colfax High School, Confluence West High School, Placer School for Adults, and Maidu Virtual Charter Academy. Its adult education arm has also taken on work beyond traditional high school instruction: a June 2025 request sought authorization from the Placer County Board of Supervisors for a $280,000 Memorandum of Understanding proposing that the district provide GED preparation, basic literacy, and vocational courses to county jail inmates through June 2026, according to the County of Placer, which noted the district has run inmate education programs for more than 12 years.
