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The tense contract negotiations between Dublin teachers and the school district have reached a climax, with the union announcing Thursday night its members’ intent to walk out of their classrooms and go on strike next week if no satisfactory deal is achieved first.
The vow to strike was trumpeted in a press release issued by the California Teachers Association nearly four hours after the Dublin Unified School District publicly supported the settlement proposal presented by the third-party panel overseeing the fact-finding stage of the statutory impasse process.
“It’s time for Dublin Unified to reprioritize the budget, support Dublin kids and start putting our students at the center of every financial decision they make,” Brad Dobrzenski, president of the Dublin Teachers Association, said in the CTA press release.
“If Superintendent (Chris) Funk and the school board won’t commit to the best for Dublin students, DTA will go on strike Monday, March 9, until Dublin Unified provides the resources all Dublin students deserve,” Dobrzenski added. “We look forward to the School Board President directing DUSD management to reach out to DTA leaders and propose a settlement that honors our students.”
Funk, who is in his final months with DUSD ahead of his planned retirement this summer, lamented the union’s threat to disrupt student learning to further an unsustainable financial cause, according to a statement provided to the Pleasanton Weekly on Thursday night.
“Across the state, we have repeatedly seen teacher unions strike in districts facing significant budget challenges, and the results have been the same: increased debt, followed by substantial staff and program cuts,” Funk told the Weekly.
“We are disappointed that our teachers — some of the highest paid in the region, working in some of the most modern facilities — would choose to take an action likely to have a lasting and detrimental impact on our students and programs,” the superintendent said. “We remain open and optimistic about continuing negotiations with the Dublin Teachers Association. Our goal is to reach a resolution that supports our educators while maintaining the fiscal responsibility needed to sustain the strong academic programs our students rely on.”
Hours earlier, DUSD’s superintendent-in-waiting Matt Campbell updated the community on the status of the closed-door negotiations, which have been in the fact-finding stage after a mediation effort in the early weeks of impasse failed to yield a deal.
District management has decided to fully support the independent fact-finding panel’s proposed settlement, according to Campbell, the assistant superintendent of educational services who took over the lead in negotiations last month after the school board selected him as Funk’s successor.
The deal would include an ongoing 2.1% salary increase for DTA members’ retroactive to July 1, a 1% bonus and increased district contributions toward teachers’ health care premium, Campbell said.
It would also follow the district’s recommendation for work calendars for the next two school years, set the stage for a committee to analyze class sizes and limit the number of reopener topics each side can introduce during the two-year contract.
“By accepting the Fact-Finding Chair’s recommendations, the District demonstrates its commitment to resolving negotiations in a way that prioritizes students while also recognizing and supporting the important work of our educators. Our teachers are vital to student achievement, and supporting them is an investment in our children’s success,” Campbell said in a statement Thursday afternoon.
The public reaction from DTA was to announce that its 700-plus members would strike beginning at 6:45 a.m. Monday (March 9) “if Dublin Unified School District continues to refuse to make Dublin students their top priority”.
“Dublin School Board President Kristin Speck has the ability to avert this strike by directing DUSD management back to the table to collaborate in good faith on funding DTA’s student-centered proposals, which include preventing overcrowded classrooms, retaining and recruiting the best educators, and keeping a full-time counselor at every elementary site,” the union stated.
Given the union’s public declaration, the two sides were scheduled to return to the table on Friday afternoon – and continue talks into the weekend, if needed – in the hopes of reaching an agreement before Monday.
