Cascade Union Elementary School District without functional board after resignations by three trustees
Last week the district superintendent allegedly strayed from the specifics of a board-approved raise while bargaining with a teachers’ union over pay increases. In response, three of the five trustees — including the board president — have resigned, leaving Cascade Union without a functional board.
Last Friday the Cascade Union Elementary School District held an emergency meeting. In closed session, the board discussed a labor negotiation between the Anderson Cascade Teachers Association — the union that represents 51 teachers within CUESD — and the district’s superintendent Jason Provence. Teachers at CUESD have not received a pay raise in two years.
Since October, the two parties have been trying to reach an agreement over teacher raises, two former board members and a union representative told Shasta Scout. The district serves about 1,100 K-8 students at Anderson Heights Elementary School, Anderson Middle School, Meadow Lane Elementary School, and North State Aspire Academy.
Through the bargaining process, the district’s five-member board of trustees had approved a 5% raise for teachers to be offered to the union. Then last week, without the board’s knowledge, Provence allegedly offered a different deal — a 3% salary increase with a 2% one-time pay raise — far less than what the board had previously authorized.
Details about the ongoing labor negotiations were provided by Kristina Taylor, the president of the Anderson Cascade Teachers Association as well as former board president Rod Hayes and former board member Tye Burgess, who both resigned in the wake of the emergency meeting.
Shasta Scout confirmed some of the key details for this story using CUESD Board meeting minutes provided by a parent group known as the Cascade Watchmen. The District does not post board meeting minutes on its site and has not yet fulfilled a request to provide them. The district’s superintendent, Provence, declined to answer questions or provide a comment for this story.
Minutes are not yet available for last week’s emergency meeting, but Hayes and Burgess said trustees reported to the public after the closed session that they had voted 5-0 to restore the district’s offer to teachers back to the originally proposed 5%, formally rescinding Provence’s earlier “regressive bargaining” action.
Hayes and his fellow trustee Burgess resigned shortly thereafter. A third trustee, Sydney Figone, resigned last night. The resignation leaves the district without a functioning board. Under California’s Brown Act, public boards cannot meet or make decisions without a quorum, or majority, of board members present.
The upheaval on the board comes as trustees and administrative staff have been working to restructure the district’s “qualified” budget, former Board President Hayes said, a designation given by the state that means the district’s financial reports indicate it may soon be unable to meet its financial obligations.
In an attempt to save money, Hayes said he prompted a discussion at the board’s last regular meeting about eliminating the healthcare package CUESD offers to its trustees, which amounts to an annual $13,200 per board member for those who opt in. That discussion was tabled, to be brought up at the next monthly meeting, he and Burgess both said.
Then on March 24, Hayes and Burgess said, Provence made the lower offer to the teachers’ union. Hayes emphasized that Provence didn’t consult with the board before making the unauthorized bid. “[CUESD] is already bleeding teachers,” Hayes added, expressing his dismay at the lower offer Provence extended to credentialed staff. “They already have a huge issue with retention.”
Speaking from the perspective of the union, labor representative Taylor said that there are many nearby school districts that offer teachers better benefits — emphasizing the importance of adequate pay raises.
“This was not what I wanted going into this year,” Taylor said about the bargaining process and subsequent board resignations. “My agenda this year was to work together … and honestly, before the bad faith offer from Superintendent Provence, I felt like we were making progress.”
Tuesday, March 24 was when Provence made the lower offer, Taylor said. According to Hayes, multiple board members were “inundated with angry confused messages” from teachers within an hour of the bargaining session, prompting him to call the special meeting.
As district superintendent, Provence works for the school district board which manages the district’s budget. While Provence could possibly face consequences for his recent action, Hayes said, the district doesn’t necessarily have the finances to place him on paid administrative leave while next steps are determined. Additionally, California law prohibits school boards from taking action to terminate superintendents at special or emergency meetings.
So instead of pursuing that path, he explained, he decided to resign as a way to draw attention to Provence’s action. He emphasized that he did not see the purpose of serving on a board in which the will of elected trustees — and therefore the public — is disregarded.
“If the choice is between being on a board whose voice can be straight out ignored or putting the district in even worse financial condition — I chose to walk away,” Hayes said, noting that if he stayed on the board he would have had to either put up with the superintendent’s action or spend more precious district money on a process to address the situation.
A similar feeling of distrust also caused Burgess to resign.
“I cannot work with an individual who breaks the trust of the teachers or the board,” he said.
Figone declined to comment. Shasta Scout was unable to reach CUESD’s remaining two trustees.
4.31.2026 1:16 p.m.: We have updated wording in the story to increase clarity about which individuals have resigned.
Do you have a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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Prop 13 was enacted so that the elderly did not lose their homes due to delinquent taxes to the County in which they live. Many had bought homes in their 30`s and the home was nothing extravagant & just a basic trac house. At the time it was purchased, it was most likely some of the most affordable homes available at the time. As their children moved out, they aged and retired. They were on fixed incomes and had no ability to go out and resume full time work at wages relevant to the current cost of housing. Imagine buying a house for $60,000.00 in your 30`s. Then at the age of 72 the County has appraised the home to be valued at $650,000 and your property tax bill based on that appraisal. How is a 72 year old going to pay the taxes on their home? Many communities have had government funds used to gentrify old and worn out communites that will in turn boost the value of the surrounding properties immensly. Prop 13 was a means to protect the elderly and the disabled from losing their life savings and their home because a municipality saw dollar signs on their backs. The municipality could invest in beautification and improvements to force increased property taxes that a majority of the homeowners could not absorb. They place a lien on the property, sell it, get the property tax and in additon, because it was sold at auction, obtain additional taxes relating to the sale/purchase of a home. Look a bit deeper into the history and why it was important. Santa Monica was a slum town in the 60’s and 70″s. The streets were lined with homes in disrepair and were valued far below the surrounding communities. Then the City of Santa Monica and the County of Los Angeles invested in improving the area, they gentrified the neighborhoods and as a result it went from a slum town to the heart of up an coming yippies and yuppies willing to pay unheard of prices for homes. The elderly residents who lived there could not pay the property taxes on homes now valued over a million dollars. In fact they were struggling to maintain the mortgage they took out 20 years prior to purchase the home for $30,000 -$40,000. But yeah, kick em out so the government can charge more money- It was as sleazy as it sounds
As a former employee of Cascade within the business services department and who still has ties to them, this is not the full picture. The Board was advised by several members from Shasta County office of educations fiscal services, and two CBOs that this offer would put the district in a negative financial impact. They have also been advised by FCMAT, a state financial oversite department, that the district financial responsibilities could not be met if this raise was approved. Do teachers deserve raises? Of course they do but at the detriment of the district? If the district financial situation gets worse the state will come in and people will lose their jobs including teachers
Thanks for that perspective. I’m not convinced it justifies the district superintendent flying solo behind the school board’s back on a decision that was the board’s to make, but you’ve provided a case for the superintendent’s sense of urgency.
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Some of this problem is due to school funding being tied to local tax revenues, plus the legacy of Prop 13, both of which leave more rural areas scraping for adequate funding. The Anderson area evidently lacks the kind of local tax revenues that keep schools well-funded. Prop 13 guarantees that as the local property owners age and retain their properties, property tax revenues decline relative to inflation.
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Boomers are often castigated by younger generations for being greedy, selfish pigs. Normally I dismiss that as ageism being the last socially accepted form of bigotry, even among liberals. But Prop 13 really is a greedy, selfish burden on younger generations.
Prop 13 was a Boomer/Silent Gen alliance to get it passed. A bunch of them now are lobbying to pay NO property taxes at all, and some have even sent letters to their local school boards requesting the “school portion of their property taxes be removed” because they no longer have kids. Unfortunately they are indeed a pretty big problem for our schools. 🤷
I’m well aware of the prevailing “me first” mindset here in conservative Shasta County, and it’s not limited to Boomers. I’ve heard local landowners of various ages state that they shouldn’t have to pay school parcel property taxes because they don’t have kids. That’s about as compelling as arguing that you shouldn’t have to pay state income taxes if you don’t have a state salary or pension.
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California already has three property tax relief options, but the only one that strikes me as hugely generous is the one that allows you to take your Prop 13 tax rate with you when you move within the state—I think you are allowed to do this up to 3 times. In general, the states offering the most generous property tax exemptions to seniors are red states.
Hi Esteban
Mari is leaving out crucial details the former board members have confirmed. What made the rogue actions illegal instead of just regressive was the timeline and deceit. The board directed him in November, but he never mentioned or asked permission to go against it. They had approved an administrative layoff that would have basically covered the cost of the raise but Jason pulled it at the last minute and didn’t tell them he was paying for it by stiffing the teachers.
As a parent and para in the district I find former employees lying in the comments of articles despicable.
Please read Mr Hayes’ full press release or Mr Burgess’ resignation letter before jumping to conclusions.
I thought I made it pretty clear that I don’t regard Provence’s unilateral actions as kosher. I don’t know why you imply that I was jumping to conclusions. I offered no conclusions.
Where can I find the press release from Mr. Hayes and resignation letter from Mr. Burgess?
This is NOT about prop 13. It is about spending, salaries and payroll which have escalated beyond affordability. I am amazed how many school teachers (and I have four in my family) cannot do basic calculations.
INCOME-
EXPENSES
WHAT YOU HAVE LEFT! And typically districts like Cascaded come to the voters, begging for enough money to keep their schools legal and in proper operating condition. Income goes up with inflation. Property taxes allow that. Prop 13 allows that. So please stop blaming a landmark measure that allowed people to keep their houses rather than having them confiscated by the state for constantly burgeoning tax demands. The school system spends more money than it has. Covid trained them to do this. If you don’t have the money, you can’t spend it. This is true for the deserving teachers, and the district which needs to trim staff and other expenses and more wisely allocate theriu precious resources, to make the books balance.
According to Ed Data, Cascade in the most recent available year had $24,454 per student to spend. That is well above the state average for a K-8 district and substantially better than its peers around the county.
Every district has its own problems, but revenue is not obviously one of them at Cascade.
https://www.ed-data.org/district/Shasta/Cascade-Union-Elementary
How long have they been in Qualified Status? To my knowledge, the State does not swoop in and take over until the budget has been in the red for three cycles minimum.
We’ve been in an out for years because of declining enrollment. This is only ever a conversation when it comes to teachers… all other units got a raise last year and almost all units have settled with a raise this year. There’s a reason the original offer was made while other avenues to save the budget were still open but NOW there is a desperate urgent plea to save money when only the teachers have to settle.
It continues a trend of us treating our teachers as second class employees. It’s despicable and I say this as an employee who got a raise both years.
So, I can appreciate your perspective as a former CUESD employee, however, being a classified payroll clerk does not really qualify you to fully comprehend the complexities of school district finances and budget issues, along with all of the legal implications related to bargaining and employee contracts. Also, to be blunt, this really is no longer your business. You don’t even reside in our county.
The bottom line is that Mr. Provence did not have the authority to modify the negotiated offer that his bosses (the school board) had agreed to put forth. The school board had the full picture as they were privy to all of the budget and staffing information, as well as all of the communications among the CDE, SCOE, and the district. You and I, along with the rest of the general public, did not and still do not have the full picture.
This is my school district, where my children went to school through the 8th grade, where my share of taxes go, and where a close family member of mine served on the school board for many years. So, I have a vested interest.
I am alarmed that three of five board members resigned over the apparent unethical and untrustworthy behavior of the current Superintendent. I am concerned for the current staff and the students and families they serve. I am concerned for the future of this school district. This current issue is likely just the tip of the iceberg and I sincerely hope rational and decent people will be able to get to the bottom of it and correct the future course of the district.
Yes I may not live in the county anymore but as someone who does still have several friends and former colleagues in this district I can express my concern over what is happening on their behalf. Also you clearly don’t understand the roll I filled at cascade. Thank you for the demeaning comment of simply a payroll clerk who cannot comprehend the complexities and legalities. While I may have offered information that wasn’t reported I was not demeaning or dismissive of the situation and I certainly didn’t personally attack and demean someone’s involvement and knowledge. I also have the confidence to share who I am publicly and not hide behind a user name.