SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A large group of teachers in the Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) filled the boardroom on Thursday to voice their concerns that LTUSD is not offering a better Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). The 192 members of the South Tahoe Educators Association (STEA) asked for a 4.3 percent COLA to battle skyrocketing healthcare costs and rampant inflation.
STEA and LTUSD are now headed to the next step in the bargaining process by meeting with a mediator on October 12, 2026.
Nicole Mora, president of STEA, said in a press release that LTUSD now has access to millions of dollars in new funding approved by the State of California in the new budget.
LTUSD and STEA will begin the third year of a three-year agreement that gave teachers a COLA each year: 1.5%, 2%, and 2.5%.
STEA is seeking a 4.3% increase in the third year because a contract stipulation states that if income rises more than planned, the COLA can be renegotiated as a Super COLA.
STEA asked LTUSD to come to the bargaining table and work out a new agreement, but Mora says that while administrators initially agreed to meet, they changed their position and refused to bargain. That move resulted in the teachers filing documentation with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which ruled in the teachers’ favor and directed them to mediation, the next step in the bargaining process.
“As educators, we are shocked that administrators expect teachers to work for less and struggle to pay their bills while the district has received millions of additional dollars from the new State budget to serve the South Tahoe community,” said Mora. “Our health insurance costs have increased 31% over the last two years. It is not right to ask educators to keep doing more with less when the district has substantially more funding. Investing today’s taxpayer dollars in today’s students is both important and the right thing to do—the children in our community need and deserve nothing less. STEA understands that investing in teachers is essential to attracting and retaining the quality educators our students need. We want excellent educators to stay in the South Lake Tahoe community, and we deserve fully funded, stable schools today.”
The two sides will have mediation on October 12, 2026. At Thursday’s meeting, LTUSD Superintendent Dr. Todd Cutler said that was the earliest they could get them to Tahoe.
Cutler told South Tahoe Now that a change in the three-year COLA plan is triggered by a change in working conditions, and STEA says the new funds from the state are the change needed to increase the COLA.
“LTUSD has received nearly five million dollars in additional funding,” said Mora at the previous board meeting. “We understand that some of that money is one-time funding. But there is also a significant amount of ongoing funding available. STEA believes those ongoing funds provide LTUSD with the ability to make an investment in its educators and bring our compensation closer to the current 4.31% COLA. Instead of continuing down a path that will require additional time, outside assistance, and legal resources, we should be putting those resources where they belong—into our students and the educators who serve them. Every dollar spent on additional legal representation and the mediation process is a dollar that could instead support the people working directly with our students.”