Paso Robles -- Paso Robles Joint Unified School District is facing a 4-million dollar budget deficit and is asking all employees to take a salary reduction to help balance the budget.
The district says it's at an impasse with teachers over a proposed 3-percent salary reduction.
Teachers and parents addressed the school board during the public comment portion the board meeting tonight. many teachers are asking to return to the bargaining table.
President of the Paso Robles Public Educators Jim Lynett says, "The school board needs to hear the message that we want back to go back to the table, we want to solve this problem, we want to do it in a positive way."
The district is asking all employees to take a 3 percent pay cut this year, next year, and a 6-percent cut the third year.
School Superintendent Kathy McNamara says a 20-percent reduction in state funding, declining enrollment, and the district discovered an accounting error amounting to nearly 1-point 6 million dollars, are all reasons for the proposed pay-cut.
McNamara says, "We've taken such a strong stand on this problem so quickly and going out to our staff and saying we need you to take a three percent rollback, which of course is not a popular thing to do and it upsets and makes everybody very unhappy."
The salary reduction will amount to an average of 2-thousand dollars a year per teacher.
