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Pleasanton Unified School District teachers will officially get the increases in their salary and health benefit compensation, among other things, they have been seeking for months following a unanimous vote by the Board of Trustees last week.
While the approval of the new contract was celebrated as a win for teachers throughout the district, board members agreed they need to hold some sort of governance workshop in the future to discuss this past negotiation process that almost led the Association of Pleasanton Teachers to strike and figure out how to rebuild the trust within the community.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen, in the 50 years I’ve been in the district, this type of disagreement. This type of heartache,” Trustee Steve Maher said during the April 11 board meeting. “We need to dig in, get together, include our teachers … our parents, and find out ways to move forward without going through this type of process because it doesn’t benefit anyone — especially students, they are the ones that pay the price.”
Negotiations between the district and APT were going on for well over a year.
According to assistant superintendent of business services Ahmad Sheikholeslami, the two sides first sat at the negotiating table in February 2023, but what followed was a long year of trying to find common ground.
The district had been offering APT a salary increase of about 6% for most of last year while the APT was looking for a 15% increase, which is why in late October, the teachers union declared it was at an impasse in negotiations.
Since then, both sides went through the many stages of the negotiations process, including mediation and a fact finding session. After a 14-hour-long final meeting on March 11, the two sides finally came to an agreement.
“It was truly a marathon,” Sheikholeslami said.
The agreement that the board approved last week included a 10% salary increase that will have an effective implementation throughout this year with the goal of getting to that full 10% by May 1. Teachers will also now get full Kaiser single health coverage by increasing the district’s contribution from $5,000 to $12,256.
“I reflected on the salary schedule. We are now one of the top tier districts in Alameda County as it relates to our teacher salaries,” Sheikholeslami said. “That should definitely help with both retention and attraction and that will make a difference in the years to come.”
The new contract also includes a payment increase from $2 per day to $20 per day for teachers who have classes that exceed the class size cap — which means the number of students typically allowed per classroom — effective July 1.
Other compensation changes in the agreement include an increase in masters, doctorate and national board certification stipends from $750 to $1,000; $5,555 for dual language immersion teachers who have a bilingual cross-cultural language and academic development authorization; special education stipend increases from $1,500 to $5,000; and $225 per night payouts to fifth grade teachers who provide overnight supervision for elementary school outdoor education.
The last major compensation change in the contract will be for years of service credit.
Service credit refers to the number of years a teacher has been teaching which — in addition to their education — can be factored into a new district in order to land on a higher level on the salary scale. In Pleasanton, a teacher’s salary schedule, which determines how much they get paid, goes up to year 15. With every step up, teachers get a boost in their pay.
“We came to an agreement on the staff members that were hired prior to July 2022 to receive credit for years of service up to the (15th year) that will be effective in July 2024 for those individuals,” Sheikholeslami said.
But while the rest of the board celebrated what they said were much deserved raises, increased stipends and overall improvements to the teachers’ contract, one big part of the discussion last week was how to make sure PUSD does better in bargaining with the union in the future and it doesn’t get to the point where teachers, parents and students have to beg for the two sides to reach an agreement.
“Tonight we mark the culmination of countless, countless hours of negotiations,” APT President Cheryl Atkins said during the meeting. “Our educators are looking forward to receiving their compensation and more importantly, to continue work that will bring us together as a district rather than on opposite sides. This needs to be the goal continuing forward in all aspects from district and school sites.”
Trustee Kelly Mokashi said that work has to start at the top with the board and the district. “We need to work together,” she said.
Mokashi pointed out that much like in 2021, the teachers union authorized a strike if necessary this year as well, adding that this year the district needs to actively work on making change so they don’t have to face these challenges in the future.
“It’s not just going back to the sites and talking to the teachers in the schools and figuring out how we’re going to work together moving forward,” Mokashi said. “I would like a governance workshop, where we’re going to work together talking collectively as a board, which includes the superintendent and the trustees, as well as our cabinet, and we’re going to talk together about how we’re going to move forward so we are not in this position again next year.”
The rest of the board agreed with Mokashi’s idea as she said it will be important to include not just PUSD and the teachers but the parents and the rest of the community as well.
“This has been really a truly difficult experience and I want to talk about the process that we got to reach this agreement because I think we can improve things,” Board President Mary Jo Carreon said. “We have to rebuild trust and I think we need better communication.”
“What I’d like to see is when we have negotiations, if we could have joint communications instead of this is what one side says this is what the other side says,” she added. “It’s kind of like a battle, and it became divisive. I know that there are some districts that work together on messaging together and saying this is what we decided. I know it’s hard to do, but I think we can do that.”
However, another major part of the discussion as the board approved the agreement was the financial strain it is going to put on the district’s budget.
According to Sheikholeslami, the district will have to make about $8.6 million of reductions in how much it spends on salaries and benefits. The board had already approved some resolutions back in February that identified a handful of positions across the district — from teachers and staff to administrators and managers — to be cut.
Sheikholeslami said that with the phased implementation of the various raises included in the district, along with plans to pull additional funds from things like the after school and summer programs, should help the district maintain its required 3% budget reserves.
However, as the board later voted on committing to fiscal solvency, Sheikholeslami also pointed out that due to other factors like state funding, the district would have to look at reducing its overall workforce by at least 30 positions.
“The right sizing means that as our enrollment has been decreasing, we need to adjust our staffing accordingly,” he said. “That will be through every level of the organization.”
“All of those staffing reductions will either be captured through the reduction of forces that the board has approved, and through the temporary contracts that we are not bringing back,” he added. “There are not going to be any layoffs of permanent staff, it’s going to be within those kinds of boundaries that we have that may look like less (class) sections at the secondary schools.”
In other business
Teachers weren’t the only ones who got raises last week as the board approved a 3.1% salary increase for management, which includes principals, vice principals, coordinators and other administrative staff.
Part of the agreement also included raising the district’s health coverage contribution from $10,284 to $12,256. These compensation increases do not include the district’s executive cabinet.
“We did look at comparables (and) we’d still remain competitive with the salary schedule with our local school districts in the Tri-Valley area,” Sheikholeslami said.
However, part of the discussion for this item revolved around how management has in the past received increases when either the teachers or classified staff unions received raises. Classified staff will receive what’s known as a “me too” clause raise, which is included in their contract with the district, but management doesn’t have that sort of clause in their agreements, even though they have received similar compensation raises in the past.
Because of this, the board agreed to approve the 3.1% increase with the stipulation that the district will look at its budget over these next couple of months and return in October to see if they can give management a higher raise.
“I’ve heard a lot of celebrations tonight but my guess is that the management team is not celebrating,” said Maher, who initially brought up the idea to bring this item back in October. “I know this is a cost move money wise but I’m concerned that our management may be feeling disrespected when you have me too clauses, other people are giving nice raises, then we say 3.1% (for them).”
